Zankou Chicken Rice Bowl with Garlic Sauce (Copycat)

6
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour
Total Time 1 hour 10 minutes

Zankou Chicken Copycat Bowl with their Chicken with Brown Rice Pilaf, Armenian Garlic Sauce & Lemon Scented Carrots. Serve with hot peppers and pickled turnips for a totally authentic experience.

Zankou Chicken’s legendary Garlic Sauce is served with this Brown Rice Pilaf Bowl. Crispy chicken thighs and lemony roasted carrots make this chicken bowl an amazing meal you’ll eat for dinner and then won’t be able to wait for lunch the next day for leftovers!

The sauce used in this meal is the Copycat Zankou Garlic Sauce that was one of the first recipes I ever posted (that is how much I love it, I couldn’t wait to make it!). I keep a jar in my fridge at all times, but if you make it for this meal, please make sure the sauce is made at least 8 hours before you plan to use it.

A note about the garlic sauce that just about everyone in LA is obsessed with (including Zagat). It is raw garlic and it is STRONG. So if you LOVE garlic, you will love this sauce. If garlic is just sort of “eh it’s ok I guess” I don’t recommend this sauce.

The fun thing about this meal is the rice goes in for an hour and halfway through cooking you put in a tray of chicken and carrots. When the timer goes off everything is ready to be eaten at the exact same time.

If you want to use white meat chicken for the recipe, use bone in skin on and roast for the same amount of time.

Zankou Chicken Copycat Bowl with their Chicken with Brown Rice Pilaf, Armenian Garlic Sauce & Lemon Scented Carrots. Serve with hot peppers and pickled turnips for a totally authentic experience.

 

 

 

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Zankou Chicken Rice Bowl with Garlic Sauce (Copycat)

Zankou Chicken Copycat Bowl with their Chicken with Brown Rice Pilaf, Armenian Garlic Sauce & Lemon Scented Carrots. Serve with hot peppers and pickled turnips for a totally authentic experience.
Yield 6
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour
Total Time 1 hour 10 minutes
Course Main Course
Cuisine Armenian
Author Sabrina Snyder

Ingredients
 

  • 1 cup Garlic Paste (Zankou Copycat)
  • 6 chicken thighs
  • 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
  • 1 tablespoon lemon zest
  • 2 pounds carrots , peeled and sliced into 1 inch diagonal coins
  • 2 tablespoons canola oil
  • 1 1/2 cups brown rice
  • 3 cups chicken broth*
  • 1 tablespoon unsalted butter (optional)

Instructions

  • Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
  • In a baking dish add chicken broth, rice, butter, salt and pepper (I use ¼ teaspoon of each for the rice)
  • Bake rice in the oven for 60 minutes.
  • About thirty minutes into the rice cooking time, start the chicken and carrots.
  • In a large bowl, mix the chicken, carrots, salt, pepper, 2 tablespoons canola oil and lemon zest.
  • Spread onto a pan and roast in the oven along side the rice, for about 25-30 minutes.
  • Everything should be done and ready to come out of the oven at the same time.
  • Serve the pilaf with chicken and carrots. Top with garlic sauce.

Notes

*NOTE* This recipe is best when the garlic sauce is made the day before your meal (at LEAST a couple hours though). There will be lots of garlic sauce left over. You?ll thank me for that when you use it on everything!

Nutrition

Calories: 604kcal | Carbohydrates: 64g | Protein: 26g | Fat: 27g | Saturated Fat: 6g | Cholesterol: 115mg | Sodium: 824mg | Potassium: 1094mg | Fiber: 6g | Sugar: 7g | Vitamin A: 25405IU | Vitamin C: 30.8mg | Calcium: 153mg | Iron: 3mg
Keyword: chicken rice bowl, Zankou Chicken Rice Bowl with Garlic Sauce (Copycat)

Zankou Chicken Copycat Bowl with their Chicken with Brown Rice Pilaf, Armenian Garlic Sauce & Lemon Scented Carrots. Serve with hot peppers and pickled turnips for a totally authentic experience.

Zankou Chicken Copycat Bowl with their Chicken with Brown Rice Pilaf, Armenian Garlic Sauce & Lemon Scented Carrots.
Zankou Chicken Copycat Bowl with their Chicken with Brown Rice Pilaf, Armenian Garlic Sauce & Lemon Scented Carrots.
Zankou Chicken Copycat Bowl with their Chicken with Brown Rice Pilaf, Armenian Garlic Sauce & Lemon Scented Carrots.

About the Author: Sabrina Snyder

Sabrina is a professionally trained Private Chef of over 10 years with ServSafe Manager certification in food safety. She creates all the recipes here on Dinner, then Dessert, fueled in no small part by her love for bacon.

Sabrina Snyder is a professionally trained personal and private chef of over 10 years who is the creator and developer of all the recipes on Dinner, then Dessert.

She is also the author of the cookbook Dinner, then Dessert – Satisfying Meals Using Only 3, 5 or 7 Ingredients, published by Harper Collins.

She started Dinner, then Dessert as a business in her office as a lunch service for her coworkers who admired her lunches before going to culinary school and becoming a full time personal chef and private chef.

As a personal chef Sabrina would cook for families one day a week and cook their entire week of dinners. All grocery shopping, cooking and cleaning was done along with instructions on reheating. As a private chef she cooked for private parties and cooked in family homes in the evenings for families on a nightly basis after working as a personal chef during the day.

Sabrina has been certified as a ServSafe Manager since 2007 and was a longstanding member of the USPCA Personal Chef Association including being on the board of the Washington DC Chapter of Chefs in the US Personal Chef Association when they won Chapter of the year.

As a member of the community of food website creators Sabrina Snyder has spoken at many conferences regarding her experiences as a food writer including the Indulge Food Conference, Everything Food Conference, Haven Food Conference and IACP Annual Food Professionals Conference.

Sabrina lives with her family in sunny California.

Dinner, then Dessert, Inc. owns the copyright on all images and text and does not allow for its original recipes and pictures to be reproduced anywhere other than at this site unless authorization is given. If you enjoyed the recipe and would like to publish it on your own site, please re-write it in your own words, and link back to my site and recipe page. Read my disclosure and copyright policy. This post may contain affiliate links.

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Comments

  1. Sabrina, I just want to clarify, you bake the rice uncovered, correct? and it’s long grain brown rice? I love brown rice, but’s it’s always hit or miss for me when cooking it, whether on the stove or baked in the oven. Alton Brown’s recipe is the only one that consistently works for me. I’ve read so much about this Zankou Chicken and it’s garlicky sauce. I’m so making this! Thank you.

  2. Sabrina – Thank you so much!
    I moved from LA 9 years ago and it looks like we all miss the same food. I’ve been roasting a whole chicken (Kanji’s spatchcocked recipe) almost every Sunday night and enjoying it through the week, tacos, chicken salad sandwiches, more tacos… Stumbled across this recipe when I Googled “Pollo Loco copycat.” That led to the Pioneer Chicken recipe, and I thought if she has those she must have a Zankou recipe. Oh Baby, I am so excited.
    Not sure what to do first.
    If you need me I’ll be in the kitchen.

  3. This recipe is so delicious. I’ve never had the original because I live in New York, but this recipe makes me think I’d love it. The garlic sauce is fantastic. The chicken comes out perfectly, and the carrots are so great. I’ve struggled with the baked brown rice, but now that I have an instant pot, I might try it in there using your seasonings or serve with basmati. The sauce, chicken, and carrots are so craveable.

  4. Is that an error in step # 2- put 1/4 tsp broth etc into the dish with the rice and bake for 60 mins?

    Thanks. Will try once I have this clarified.

    Helen

  5. yummyyy! you photos are mouth watering. i love garlic sauce and this just looks like it takes this dish to another level.

  6. Your chicken dish looks so good. That garlic paste sauce looks particularly amazing. I love garlic and I plan to make your recipe soon.

  7. Thanks for the tip to make it the day before. I love when the flavors have time to really come to life!

  8. This looks like a really delicious meal, I would totally eat it right up! I must make it, specifically because GARLIC!

  9. This sounds amazing. I love copycat recipes. THank you for sharing because I will copycat this. My husband won’t eat this so I’ll have to make it for my friends.

    1. I searched for years for a good copycat recipe for that sauce! After letting the flavors marinate for a day, this one is spot-on!

  10. Oh my goodness, this looks and sounds amazing. Something that my whole family would love. Thanks so much for sharing with us.

  11. Oh wow, this looks like the perfect meal! We’re making some chicken thighs right now, but I’m wishing I’d made the dish this way – next time!

  12. I think that I’m going to have to give this sauce a whirl. I am a garlic lover. I bet this makes your kitchen smell delicious.

    1. Not going to lie, I slather that sauce on almost everything! Try it on deli meat sandwiches too instead of mayonnaise! I even sometimes toss it in pasta and add some crushed red pepper to it with a bit of melted butter. I am telling you if you love strong garlic flavor you’re going to be in heaven.

  13. That looks delicious! I’ve never tried a copy cat recipe before, but this looks like it would be a yummy place to start. It’s also a whole meal my family would enjoy. Thanks for the tip on doing the garlic sauce the day before.

  14. This recipe sounds like something my family and I would enjoy. I’d really like to try the lemon scented carrots!

  15. Wow this is so different than anything I’ve ever had before. It looks SO good, I will have to try this with my hubby.

  16. This looks so good! I love to make copy cat recipes with how many family members we have it can add up for us to eat out.

    1. Copycat recipes are so much fun – really nailing a flavor like the ones you remember from your favorite restaurants is a great feeling!

  17. Really like how you timed the dishes together. A complete dinner done at the same time is a winner in my book!

    1. Sabrina, I just want to clarify, you bake the rice uncovered, correct? and it’s long grain brown rice? I love brown rice, but’s it’s always hit or miss for me when cooking it, whether on the stove or baked in the oven. Alton Brown’s recipe is the only one that consistently works for me. I’ve read so much about this Zankou Chicken and it’s garlicky sauce. I’m so making this! Thank you.