This One Pan Spanish Chicken and Rice is one of our favorite easy dinner recipes! It combines chicken, rice, tomatoes, onions and peppers into a delicious Mexican inspired skillet meal that is ready in just 30 minutes!
Who doesn’t love quick and easy dinner recipes that are ready in 30 minutes? They’re kind of every mom’s top pick, right? I know they definitely are mine!
You already know about my Speedy Spanish Rice and Ground Beef Skillet, Creamy Sausage and Potatoes and Easy Vegetable Beef Soup– all simple 30 minute dinner recipes that I make all the time. And then, of course, there’s this delicious Skillet Lasagna too!
And today I’m sharing yet another one of our favorite quick and easy dinners with you!
This One Pan Spanish Chicken and Rice is a regular on frugal menus and I really don’t know why it’s taken me so long to share the recipe here!
I tend to fall back on this Spanish chicken with rice recipe a lot partly because it’s delicious, partly because it’s budget-friendly, partly because it’s so simple to make and partly because it cooks in one pan, making cleanup very minimal!
Oh and the kids all gobble it down without complaint too. So in my mind, it’s a win all around!
One of my most loved meal prep hacks is to cook up a big batch of chicken and then freeze it in 1 to 2 cup portions. This saves me so much time and makes recipes like this Mexican inspired rice and chicken, super simple!
Obviously, when you make this One Pan Spanish Chicken and Rice you can wait to cook up your chicken until you are ready to make the recipe. But it’s going to take more than 30 minutes total to make.
And on busy days, I much prefer the convenience of just pulling a Ziploc bag of already cooked chicken out of the freezer!
In fact, there have even been days where I’ve actually forgotten to get the meat out of the freezer ahead of time (am I the only one that has a hard time remembering that?!) and just added it frozen.
Hopefully, you are more organized and have a better memory than I do! But if you happen to be like me and want to make dinner but realize that you’re chicken is still frozen, I’ve got you covered!
Simply add the chicken as the directions state, then turn the heat to low. You’ll also need to stir the pan frequently and if it starts looking a bit dry, add in a little water or chicken broth to keep it from sticking to the pan. Once the chicken is heated through, you’re good to go!
One Pan Spanish Chicken and Rice
30 Minute Spanish Chicken and Rice
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp butter
- 2 cans (14.5 oz. each) diced tomatoes, drained or 4 c. diced fresh tomatoes
- 1/2 cup onion, finely chopped
- 1 green pepper, chopped (optional)
- 1/2 tsp. salt
- 1/4 tsp. garlic powder
- 1 cup dry long-grain rice
- 2 cups chicken broth
- 1 1/2 cups cooked chicken, cubed
- 1 tbsp chopped olives (optional)
Instructions
- In skillet, melt butter, then add tomatoes, onion, pepper, salt and garlic powder. Cook for about 5 minutes.
- Add rice and broth. Cook on low heat until rice is done and broth absorbed.
- Add chicken and and olives, if adding, and heat through.
Notes
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Sandra
What a great dinner recipe! I always think about rice as a side dish so my family will love something new.
Bean
Looking forward to trying the Chicken Spanish rice recipe! We are expats in Asia, and though we can get just about all ingredients for any sort of meal, this seems so much easier than the mexican rice I grew up with in California.
Lydia Beiler
I hope you all enjoy it as much as we do! It really is such an easy recipe!
Shelley
I need help, do I cover this as the rice is cooking? I’m making this now and need help asap 😟
Lydia Beiler
Sorry, Shelley, I just now saw your question. Yes, I typically do cover it. Thanks for pointing out that I missed that in the instructions! For what it’s worth, when my husband makes it, he never covers it and just adds a bit of water if it starts to dry out before the rice is done. So I suppose you can do it either way, as long as you are willing to keep an eye on it if you go the uncovered route.
Gina
Can you use minute rice?
Lydia Beiler
Hmmm…you probably could substitute that, although I’ve never tried it before. My best guess is that you could do it but you’d need to reduce the amount of liquid (broth) and also obviously won’t need to cook it nearly as long. You could try adding 1 c. broth and just keep an eye on it and add more liquid as needed. If you try it, I’d love to know how it worked!
Raquel
Such a simple recipe that the whole family will love!
Lydia Beiler
Yes! Simple recipes are my favorite!
Elena
This recipe is so easy! Thanks!
Lydia Beiler
Sure thing! Glad you liked it, Elena!