Low FODMAP Lemon Chicken and Rice, With Garlic Flavour and No Garlic
The hardest part of eating low FODMAP is that onion and garlic start almost every savoury dish on earth. Infused oil solves it, because the troublesome part does not dissolve in fat.
Wednesday, August 12, 2026/3 min read
Anyone who has tried a low FODMAP diet hits the same wall within about two days. Onion and garlic are the base of nearly every savoury dish in nearly every cuisine, and both are high in fructans.
There is a genuine piece of kitchen chemistry that gets around it. Fructans are water-soluble and not fat-soluble. Steep garlic in oil, then remove the solids, and the flavour compounds transfer into the fat while the fructans stay behind in the garlic you discard.
Garlic-infused oil is therefore low FODMAP while garlic is not. That single fact makes the diet liveable.
Ingredients
Serves four.
- 8 boneless chicken thighs
- 3 tablespoons garlic-infused olive oil
- 300 g basmati or long grain white rice
- 700 ml low FODMAP chicken stock (see the note)
- Green tops of 2 leeks or 4 spring onions, sliced
- 1 large carrot, diced small
- Zest and juice of 1 lemon
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- Half a teaspoon ground turmeric
- Salt and black pepper
- Flat-leaf parsley and a handful of chives, chopped
The two ingredients that need care
The oil. Buy commercial garlic-infused oil, or make it by warming peeled cloves gently in oil for ten minutes without browning, then straining every solid out. Do not leave the garlic in the bottle: besides reintroducing fructans over time, garlic stored in oil at room temperature is a genuine botulism risk. Make it in small amounts and keep it refrigerated for no more than a week.
The stock. Almost every stock cube contains onion or garlic powder. Read the label or make your own from chicken bones, carrot, the green parts of leeks, celery and herbs. This is the single most common way people accidentally break the diet.
Method
1. Season and sear
Pat the thighs dry, season well, and rub with the oregano, cumin and turmeric.
Heat two tablespoons of the infused oil in a wide, heavy pan over a medium-high heat and brown the chicken skin side down for six to seven minutes without moving it, then two minutes on the other side. Lift out and set aside.
Dry chicken and a hot pan are the whole trick. Wet chicken steams and stays pale, and there is no onion here to cover for a lack of browning.
2. Build the base
Lower the heat. Add the last tablespoon of oil, the carrot and the green leek or spring onion tops, and cook for five minutes until softened.
Only the green parts. The white bulbs of both leek and spring onion carry the fructans; the green tops do not, and they give you the allium note that would otherwise be missing.
3. Rice and stock
Stir the rice through the vegetables for a minute, then add the stock, the lemon zest and a good pinch of salt.
Sit the chicken back on top, skin upwards, along with any juices. Bring to a simmer, cover tightly, and cook on the lowest heat for 18 minutes.
4. Rest, then finish
Take it off the heat and leave it covered for ten minutes. Do not lift the lid before that; the rice finishes in its own steam.
Fork through, add the lemon juice, parsley and chives, and check the seasoning.
Notes on portions, which matter more here than in most recipes
FODMAP content is dose-dependent, so serving size is part of the recipe rather than a detail.
Basmati and long grain white rice are low FODMAP in normal servings. Brown rice is higher and gets there faster. Carrot is safe in generous amounts. Green leek tops are safe at around a cup.
If you want to add more vegetables, courgette, green beans, red pepper and spinach are all comfortable in standard portions. Avoid cauliflower, mushrooms and asparagus in this dish.
The important caveat
This recipe is for someone already following a low FODMAP protocol, and that protocol is a diagnostic tool rather than a way of eating. It has three phases and the second one, systematic reintroduction, is the phase that produces the useful information and the one people skip. Staying in restriction indefinitely narrows the diet and starves the gut bacteria that ferment these carbohydrates: we set the whole thing out here.
It is also worth ruling out coeliac disease before starting, because a low FODMAP diet cuts wheat and coeliac testing only works while you are still eating gluten.
This article is reporting and cooking, not medical advice. Elimination diets belong with a clinician or registered dietitian who knows your history.
Published in The Outspoken Digest
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