Greek chicken bowl

• 1.5 lbboneless skinless chicken thighs · about 8 thighs
• 1/4 cupextra-virgin olive oil · for the marinade
• 2lemons · one juiced and zested for the marinade, one for the rice and to serve
• 4 clovesgarlic · grated, divided between marinade and tzatziki
• 1 tbspdried oregano · Greek if you have it
• 1 tspkosher salt · for the marinade, plus more to taste
• 1.5 cupslong-grain white rice · rinsed until the water runs clear
• 2.25 cupschicken stock · low-sodium
• 3 tbspfresh dill · chopped, divided
• 1 cupplain full-fat Greek yogurt · for the tzatziki
• 1English cucumber · half grated for tzatziki, half diced for the salad
• 1 tspred wine vinegar
• 2vine tomatoes · cut into wedges
• 1/4red onion · sliced paper-thin
• 1/2 cupKalamata olives · pitted
• 4 ozfeta in brine · crumbled or in slabs
• 1/2 tspblack pepper

Method

1. 1

   Thighs, not breasts, and give the marinade thirty real minutes

   Thighs carry enough fat to survive a hard sear and stay juicy, which is what you want when the bowl gets eaten cold the next day. Olive oil, the juice and zest of a lemon, two cloves of grated garlic, a tablespoon of dried oregano, and a teaspoon of salt. Thirty minutes on the counter is the minimum and four hours in the fridge is better. Under twenty minutes and the lemon has not gone anywhere.

2. 2

   Do not marinate overnight in this much lemon

   Acid this strong will start to cure the surface of the meat and turn it chalky and slightly mealy past about eight hours. Four hours is the sweet spot. If you want to prep further ahead, mix the marinade without the lemon juice, let the chicken sit in the oil, garlic and oregano overnight, and add the juice half an hour before it cooks.

3. 3

   Rinse the rice, then cook it in stock with lemon zest

   Rinse until the water runs clear, which takes about a minute and is what keeps the grains separate rather than sticky. Cook it in chicken stock instead of water with a strip of lemon zest thrown in, then fork through the juice of half a lemon and two tablespoons of dill once it has rested off the heat. Rice cooked in water and then sauced is never the same thing as rice cooked in stock.

4. 4

   Salt and wring the cucumber or the tzatziki will be soup

   Grate half the cucumber on the coarse side of a box grater, toss it with a half teaspoon of salt, and let it sit in a sieve for ten minutes. Then squeeze it hard in a clean towel; a startling amount of water comes out. Fold it into full-fat Greek yogurt with a grated clove of garlic, a teaspoon of red wine vinegar, a tablespoon of dill and a spoon of olive oil. Skip the wringing and you get a thin white puddle.

5. 5

   Get the pan properly hot and leave the chicken alone

   Cast iron or heavy stainless over medium-high, thighs laid out with space between them, five to six minutes on the first side without moving them, then three or four on the second, to 165F. Char is the point, so let the marinade sugars catch. Cook in two batches if the pan is crowded, since crowding is how you get boiled chicken with grey edges.

6. 6

   Rest the chicken, then slice against the grain

   Five minutes on a board before it is cut, or the juice ends up on the cutting board rather than in the bowl. Thighs have a visible grain; slicing across it in half-inch strips makes the meat noticeably more tender to chew. Pour any board juices back over the sliced meat, that is concentrated marinade and it belongs in the bowl.

7. 7

   Build the salad separately, dress it at the last second

   Tomato wedges, the diced half cucumber, paper-thin red onion, olives, and feta, dressed with olive oil, red wine vinegar, oregano, salt and pepper right before serving. Salt draws water out of tomatoes within minutes, so a salad dressed early is a salad sitting in pink liquid. Slice the onion as thin as you can manage, thick onion dominates everything.

8. 8

   Assemble bottom up, and pack the sauce separately for lunch

   Lemon rice, sliced chicken, salad, then tzatziki spooned over and the last of the dill. For meal prep, the rice, chicken and salad hold four days in a container and the tzatziki goes in a small jar; combine them and the yogurt thins out and the salad goes limp by day two. It is good cold, which is not true of most chicken bowls.