Spanish Chicken and Rice Skillet
This One-Pot Spanish Chicken and Rice Skillet is full of flavor and perfect for an easy weeknight meal. I love recipes that only use one pan! The olives, paprika and lemon give this dish tons of flavor and a serving is hearty and satisfying for just 400 calories or 7 WW Points. To view your current WW Points for this recipe and track it in the WW app or site, click here! My husband loves rice, so I’m always looking for new and different ways to serve it. I found the original recipe for this dish on Ahead of Thyme and made a few tweaks and it was a big hit. Plus, it comes together really quickly and once you set it to simmer you have time to clean up after yourself, set the table, make a side salad and pour yourself a drink!
Looking for more lightened up one-pot meals like this Spanish Chicken and Rice Skillet? Check out my Chicken Pot Pasta, Turkey Sloppy Joe Pasta, Beef Enchilada Pasta Skillet, White Chicken Chili, Mexican Chicken Cauliflower Rice Skillet, Thai Turkey with Carrot Noodles, Lemon Chicken Orzo with Tomatoes and Asparagus, Rustic Sausage and Potato Skillet, Beefy American Goulash, Beef Stroganoff, One Pot Cincinnati Chili Spaghetti Bake, Pumpkin Alfredo Tortellini Skillet, Cheesy Chicken Veggie Pasta Skillet, The Best Turkey Chili, Sausage Tortellini Skillet and more in the One-Pot Meal section of my recipe index!
Spanish Chicken and Rice Skillet
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 lb boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite-sized pieces
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
- ½ cup chopped onion
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 cup uncooked long grain white rice, use brown rice if following the myWW Purple plan
- 1 ½ teaspoons paprika
- 1 ½ cups low sodium fat free chicken broth
- 1 cup canned tomato sauce
- 1 tablespoon lemon zest
- 12 Manzanilla olives, cut in half (the green ones stuffed with pimentos)
- 1 tablespoon chopped cilantro
- *optional add-in* 1 tablespoon capers, I like these and had them on hand so I tossed them in at the end, but they’re not necessary
Instructions
- Place the oil in a large saute pan or walled skillet and bring over medium heat. Add the chicken and sprinkle with the salt and pepper. Stir to coat the chicken and cook, stirring occasionally, for about 5 minutes.
- Add the onion and garlic, stir, and cook for another 2-4 minutes until the chicken pieces are cooked and the onion is softened a bit. Add the rice and stir together. Cook for another 1-2 minutes and then stir in the paprika until everything is well combined.
- Add the broth and tomato sauce and stir together. Bring the mixture to a boil and then reduce the heat to low and cover the pan. Simmer for 20-25 minutes until the rice is cooked (mine was done at 20 minutes, but I think my burners run slightly hot – you may want to check at 20 and stir it around to see if you need more time).
- Add the lemon zest (you can add some juice to taste as well if you love lemon), olives and cilantro and stir together.
Notes
10 per (1 ¼ cup) serving (PP calculated using a Weight Watchers brand PointsPlus calculator and the nutrition information below) Lightly adapted from Ahead of Thyme
I’m not an olive fan… I wonder if it would lose too much flavor if I omitted them?
I made it without olives and loved it. I used capers because I like them. We added some hot sauce to make it spicier.
This looks amazing, Emily! Can’t wait to try! Thanks for all you do, especially now that you’re a busy mommy!
so excited to make this. thank you for sharing all your great recipes
I’ve been missing my mom’s go-to chicken & rice dish from my childhood. THIS will bring back the memories. Easy, tasty, and you even found a minute for me to pour a drink! Thanks for another great recipe.
Follow-up: I’ve made this twice now, and it’s wonderful!
This is very close to my arroz con pollo recipe. But I use chicken thighs and Goya sofrito and Sazon and add a can of gandules (pigeon peas). Family favorite.
How much of the Sofrito and Sazon?
Any idea how long you would set the timer for if you did this in an Instant Pot?
This looks great. Going to try it this weekend.
Made this recipe last night. Very easy and delicious! Added a half cup of green peas the last 5 minuets !
I guess I could look myself but has anyone tried ground turkey breast as this is a zero point food and how many less points would it be?
The boneless skinless chicken breast used in this recipe is also a zero point food so it would not change at all
what size can of tomato sauce? Thank you.
It’s one cup of canned tomato sauce. I used part of a 15 ounce can, but as long as you measure out a cup worth of tomato sauce they can size isn’t important
Could lime zest replace the lemon?
Making this right now! Looking forward to trying it.
This is so tasty and easy! We add more olives because they’re so tasty! Thanks for the great recipes, this and your buffalo chicken casserole are two of our favorite recipes to make!
I made this last night and just had leftovers for lunch. Another A+++++ for Emily!!!
For people that enjoy a slight citrus zing with salty bits, this is for you!
Very easy to make, and ridiculously low in points. I actually used extra light olive oil and mine came out to be 5 points.
Delicious!
I tried this tonight, added chilli flakes and Courgette and red pepper as well as the chicken, it went down a storm
I made this tonight. Turned out very good. My only problem is I had to cook the dish for almost an hour for the rice to be finished. I took my chicken out because I didn’t want it to be overdone. It was a great dish I didn’t have green olives so I used black and I used brown rice as we prefer it to white.
Brown rice takes longer to cook than white rice, so it sounds like that substitution was the culprit!
Amazing! I love this recipe – and my favorite olives! I made this for a second time and it was another success. It reminds me a lot of my mom’s texas hash recipe!
I love this dish!!!!!
Can you make this with cauliflower rice to reduce the points?
Educate me about lemon zest. I don’t see what it adds to a recipe. Other than that my husband and I love your recipes. One pot chicken picatta is my favorite.
Just finished eating. Very tasty and easy enough to make! We definitely thought that the lemon zest put this dish over the top. Thanks for sharing a great recipe!
I can’t wait to try this. I want to make it with brown rice. How do I adjust the liquid and cooking time?
Very good with great flavors and so easy to make!
Perfect for week nights. Easy to prepare and cooks fast. This was so good, it’s definitely going into my regular dinner rotation.