Spiced Chicken In Apricot Sauce
with Almond Rice, Cucumber Salad & Lemon Yogurt Dressing
- Milk
- Tree Nuts
We like to think the sixth Spice Girl is Shawarma Spice and she spins slowly for hours. Sorry, is that weird? We’re just so stoked for our Shawarma Spice Blend that we let our imagination run wild. This mixture of warming spices gives chicken the flavors that we crave from shawarma... but without a rotating spit. An easy sweet spiced pan sauce made with apricot jam gives the chicken even more flavor. Shawarma spices also perk up the accompanying almond rice while a creamy yogurt dressing over the cucumber and tomato salad gives the dish a cool tang. This kaleidoscope of flavors is what we want, what we really, really want from our dinner!
Ingredients
1 unit
Apricot Jam
2 unit
Chicken Stock Concentrate
1 unit
Lemon
2 tablespoon
Yogurt
(Contains: Milk)
1 unit
Mini Cucumber
4 ounce
Grape Tomatoes
1 tablespoon
Shawarma Spice Blend
10 ounce
Chicken Cutlets
1 teaspoon
Hot Sauce
½ cup
Basmati Rice
½ ounce
Sliced Almonds
(Contains: Tree Nuts)
Not included in your delivery
teaspoon (tsp)
Salt
teaspoon (tsp)
Black Pepper
Nutrition Values
Utensils
Cooking Steps
• Heat a drizzle of oil in a small pot over medium-high heat. Add almonds and half the Shawarma Spice (you’ll use the rest in the next step). Cook, stirring, until fragrant, 30 seconds. • Stir in rice, half the stock concentrates, ¾ cup water (1½ cups for 4 servings), and a big pinch of salt. Bring to a boil, then cover and reduce heat to low. Cook until rice is tender, 15-18 minutes. • Keep covered off heat until ready to use in step 5.
• Pat chicken* dry with paper towels. Season with salt and pepper, then rub all over with remaining Shawarma Spice. • Heat a drizzle of oil in a large pan over medium-high heat. Add chicken and cook until browned and cooked through, 3-5 minutes per side. Transfer to a cutting board and set aside to rest.
• While chicken cooks, wash and dry produce. • Quarter cucumber lengthwise; slice into ¼-inch-thick pieces. Quarter tomatoes. Quarter lemon. • In a medium bowl, combine cucumber, tomato, yogurt, a drizzle of olive oil, and a big squeeze of lemon juice. Season generously with salt and pepper. Taste and add more lemon juice if desired.
• Return pan used for chicken over medium-high heat. Add jam, remaining stock concentrates, and ¼ cup water (1⁄3 cup for 4 servings). Bring to a simmer and cook until just thickened, 3-4 minutes. • Turn off heat; stir in 1 TBSP butter (2 TBSP for 4) until melted. Stir in a squeeze of lemon juice and hot sauce to taste. Season with salt and pepper.
• Fluff rice with a fork; stir in ½ TBSP butter (1 TBSP for 4 servings). Season generously with salt and pepper.
• Thinly slice chicken crosswise. • Divide chicken, rice, and salad between plates. Drizzle sauce over chicken. Serve with any remaining lemon wedges on the side.
Customer reviews
Review summary
Updated on Dec 2025- Flavor: Many loved the apricot sauce and shawarma spice blend, finding them flavorful and unique 🍲.
- Ease of prep: Customers appreciated the quick and simple preparation, with most finding it easy to follow.
- Suggestions: Some recommended adding dill or feta to the salad, and cooking rice separately from spices for better texture.
- Portions: Several noted small cucumber portions; a few wanted more sauce or veggies relative to rice.
- Texture: The almond rice added nice crunch, though some found it too dry or undercooked.
Reviews from our home cooks
Loved the unique flavors. The almond rice and cucumber tomato salad were delicious. The chicken with pan sauce was quick and easy.
Outstanding flavor. We will be ordering this one again. Cucumber and tomato salad such a nice complement to the extra flavor in rice and sauce for chicken.
Great combination of flavors. The rub is very tasty and the rice flavor is excellent. The produce was very fresh and the dressing for the salad was a perfect compliment to the dish. The chicken was tender and very moist.
I especially wanted to try this because of the apricot sauce. It was very good. And the almonds in the rice was especially good. The salad which was basically only 2 ingredients was so good.
Very good. We finished it a little early and put the rice and chicken and sauce in a Pyrex dish covered in the oven on keep warm. It actually tasted better when we let it warm for 30 minutes than when we tasted it right after it was done. All the flavors merged together more like magic! Yummy. I would have loved balsamic instead of sour cream for salad.
This meal was fantastic. Would have loved an orange slice to squeeze over everything, but that's all it lacks. The cucumber salad was really good and a refreshing bridge for the chicken and the rice!
We REALLY liked the flavor combination of this one. The apricot went surprisingly well with the yogurt dressing of the salad!
The salad was so good with the tangy yogurt. Chicken got a nice crust on it with the seasoning and hot skillet.
Enjoyed very much. Rice was fine. Next time, I would perhaps add butter (or cook almonds with butter, not with olive oil) and lemon zest. It was ok, but a bit plain. Chicken was fine as well, but the sauce wasn't that unique. Perhaps I will just top with mozzarella cheese next time. Also, I would add lemon zest to the salad as well. It was rather plain, so extra lemon would help. Maybe I would add cilantro too next time. Would have appreciated just a tiny bit more of flavor... I do like the concept. HelloFresh's ethnic-theme recipes are typically interesting, and some are pretty good, some are fine. This one was fine, and yet gave me enough inspiration for next time I cook my own, thank you.
I really liked the cucumber salad and the apricot sauce on the chicken, but the almond rice was not as good as I expected. The rice was just OK.
