Healthy Chicken Paella
This post contains affiliate links. Read our disclosure policy.
One Pan Healthy Paella recipe is a quick, delicious dinner! This chicken paella recipe is packed with protein, veggies and brown rice.
This post was originally shared in 2018 but has since been updated.
If you’re looking for an easy, delicious one pot dinner that is full of flavor- try this Chicken Paella recipe. Made with no seafood, it’s a rich and yummy one pan meal that is simple to make!
Need more ideas for dinner? Check out Homemade Orange Chicken and these 40+ Healthy Dinner Recipes.
Why You’ll Love This Paella Recipe
- perfectly balanced meal- This recipe has a lot of protein from the chicken, is loaded with bright, colorful veggies, and it has whole grain brown rice in it for some good carbs!
- great for meal prepping – This meal gets more delicious as it sits and the flavors meld making it perfect for meal prep.
- seems fancy but is secretly super easy to make
- one pan = less clean up! If you want more one pot meals, check out these Healthy One Pot Meals!
Ingredients
What rice is used for paella? I used brown rice in this recipe but short grain bomba rice is typically used in paella.
How to Make Paella without Seafood
Making healthy paella is super easy!
- Brown the chicken, then remove and set aside. Sauté onion and garlic.
- Add in bell peppers, sugar snap peas, rice, chicken stock, lemon juice, spices and cooked chicken.
3. Cover and cook over medium high heat for 30-35 minutes.
4. Once the rice is cooked, discard bay leaves, stir in frozen peas.
Substitutions
Meat: Typically paella is made with chicken, chorizo, and seafood. You can add chorizo to this recipe – brown it with the chicken, set it aside with the chicken, and add it back in when you add the chicken in. If adding shrimp, add it at the very end when there are about 5-10 minutes so that it cooks. Do not add the shrimp in at the beginning because it will overcook. You can also substitute chicken thighs for chicken breasts in this recipe.
Veggies: You can substitute in carrots, sugar snap peas, green beans, more peppers or even mushrooms interchangeably. This is a flexible recipe. You can also add more peas if you like.
Saffron: Saffron is pricey and can often be difficult to find. You can substitute with 1/2 teaspoon of Sazon Goya but omit the extra salt from this recipe as that has a lot of salt.
Rice: You can use white or brown rice in this recipe. White rice will cook much quicker, and you may need less broth
Lemon Juice: Use fresh squeezed lemon juice for the best taste.
Broth: Chicken broth, chicken stock and bone broth can all be used interchangeably. You can also use vegetable or beef broth.
Vegetarian: We have not tried making this recipe without the meat. The chicken does absorb some of the broth, so the ratios might be off.
Storing Chicken Paella
Refrigerator: You can store this paella in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.
Freezing: I haven’t tried freezing paella, but I think it might work. The chicken might get a little bouncy when defrosted and the rice could get soggy.
Can this recipe be made ahead? Sure! When you’re ready to reheat, you may want to add a little broth. Heat on the stove until warm
Can this recipe be reheated? Yes, this paella recipe tastes great when reheated. You can reheat in the microwave, in the oven set at 350°F until the center is cooked through, or sauté on the stove until warm.
What goes well with chicken paella?
This chicken paella is a complete meal in itself. There’s no need to make anything to serve it with. If you do want to serve it with something, here are some ideas:
Important Note: This is not an authentic paella recipe. My goal is always to share recipes that are a bit healthier and made with affordable, accessible ingredients so everyone can enjoy them regardless of their food allergies or dietary restrictions. Check out this authentic paella recipe.
Other healthy one pan dinner recipes:
Check out these healthy chicken recipes or click here to download a free 30 minute dinners guide!
Easy Chicken Paella Recipe
Ingredients
- 1.5 lbs boneless skinless chicken breasts cut into ½ inch cubes
- 1 tablespoon olive oil divided
- ½ cup diced onion
- 1 tablespoon minced garlic
- 3 cups chicken broth
- 1 cup short grain brown rice
- 2 cups thinly sliced red bell peppers about 2 peppers
- 2 cups sugar snap peas
- ¼ cup lemon juice
- 3 bay leaves
- 1 tablespoon paprika
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
- ½ teaspoon dried thyme
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon saffron threads
- 1 cup frozen peas
Instructions
- In a large sauté pan heat ½ tablespoon of olive oil. Add the chicken to the pan and cook for 10 minutes until lightly browned.
- Once browned, remove the chicken from the pan and set aside.
- Add the remaining ½ tablespoon of olive oil to the pan. Sauté the onions and garlic until translucent, about 2-3 minutes.
- Add the chicken broth, rice, peppers, sugar snap peas, lemon juice, bay leaves, paprika, black pepper, thyme, salt and saffron to the pan. Stir together. Cover and cook over medium heat for 30-35 minutes, stirring every 5-10 minutes
- Once the rice is cooked, remove the bay leaves and discard. Stir in frozen peas.
OK, I need some help here. I followed this recipe nearly to the letter, save for the chicken, and after cooking for 40 minutes, there is still far too much liquid. I made sure it was only 3 cups of broth, 1/4 lemon juice, as per the instructions, but after 40 minutes of cooking, the rice is only partially cooked. Is it because I used long grain instead of short grain rice???
The chicken does absorb some of the liquid, so that is likely part of the problem. Did you cover the pot after adding the broth? Long grain rice can take longer to cook than short grain rice so that could also be the problem! Before leaving a bad review on something, please consider that you did make 2 major substitutions from the recipe by leaving out a main ingredient and changing the other main ingredient. We wrote in the post ‘We have not tried making this recipe without the meat. The chicken does absorb some of the broth, so the ratios might be off.’ When you completely change a recipe, it’s really not fair to leave a bad review because you made your own recipe, not ours 🙂
Is the 1.5 serving per cooked rice? 🙂
It’s 1.5 cups cooked rice, veggies & chicken.
So easy and healthy,was also very tasty
Hello. I’m confused about whether the pan needs to be covered or uncovered during the 20-40 min simmer time. There seems to be two different answers about that.
Thanks!
Hi! Not sure where the confusion is. It says to cover the pan at the end and simmer it. After you add the rice, bring it to a boil, then cover the pan and simmer it.
Just made this for dinner and it is delicious!! Like others, I had to cook it much longer for the rice (like an extra 30 minutes) but I think I had my simmer set way too low for the first 20ish minutes. Definitely will be making again!
We made this recipe for the first time and loved it we have never had Paella before, we will definitely be adding this to our family mealtime again. So easy to make and all in one pan.
Made this paella tonight. I didn’t have sugar snap peas so I added broccoli. Didn’t want it to over cook so added it half way through the cooking time. It was perfect. I’ve never made paella with just chicken but it was so good. Thanks Liz.
Thanks, Carol! So glad you liked it!
Could you do this with frozen cauliflower rice instead?
I haven’t tried this but I think it might work. Would probably be a little soggy..
Hi going to use your recipe tonight. Not sure about the brown rice, this is probably why some are finding it taking ages to cook rice, do you have Paella rice in US could also use pudding rice. I did look at a Spanish recipe and it advised soaking Saffron in water for 15 mins, it looks nice when the rice in finished dish looks yellow. I going to try and create Socorrat, apparently it’s traditional. Will let you know how it turns out. Looking forward to trying your menu..
I’m not sure I’ve ever seen paella rice, Dave. I’m sure that will be great! Hope you like the recipe!
I would just like to say this is a traditional Spanish dish from farmers in Valencia, Spain. Otherwise lovely dish!
Hi Coara – Thank you! We clearly noted in the blog post that this is a traditional Spanish dish. My husband first tried paella in Spain and loved it so much I recreated it when he came home.
I love the flavors in this dish. But in the three times I have tried to make this, it takes much longer than advised for the rice to cook, and that makes the chicken dries out. Suggestions?
Hi Lori – The chicken should not be drying out at all. Different rice cooks at different temperatures so you may need to just add a bit more broth depending on the type of broth you’re using. The chicken gets moist and juicy from sitting in the broth, so my guess is you need to add more liquid!
Another one of my all time favorites. So delicious.
Thank you!! So glad you like it!
Great meal… loved it, just a slight problem. Half a cup of chopped onions, tspoon of garlic?
Could you not just say half an onion, one clove of garlic?
Other than America’s measuring system this was great 😁
Hi John – Glad you liked it! Every onion and garlic clove is a different size, so that wouldn’t be a very detailed recipe. Half an onion could be 1 cup of chopped onion.. or it could be 1/4 cup of chopped onion, depending on the size of the onion. Same goes for garlic cloves. This isn’t an ‘American’ measuring system.. it would be the same if it was in metric measuring systems. 🙂 Measurements ensure the recipe tastes how it was meant to taste. But feel free to use however much onion or garlic you want – no one is forcing you to get out measuring cups.
Love this recipe! Have you ever tried to make this in a slow cooker or pressure cooker? What about with different grains like quinoa?
Glad you like it! I’ve never tried it in the slow cooker or pressure cooker. I don’t like the pressure cooker because it’s difficult to control, and I think the slow cooker would make this too mushy!
Easy one pan healthy meal! I was out of lemons but it was still delicious! Lots of flavor and always a bonus when it only requires one pan! Thank you for another delicious simple recipe!
So glad you liked it, Brenda! Thanks for the review!
Just made this and it was sooo good! I followed the recipe Exactly! My rice took forever to cook , but it was worth it! Even my 6 year old loved it!
So glad you liked it, Laura! This makes me so happy to hear 🙂
This was delicious. So far I’ve made your orange chicken, chicken pad Thai and now this wonderful meal!!!! I love your site. Now what should I try❤️
So glad you liked it, Sarah!! I think you should try my paleo turkey chili or healthy crockpot pulled pork next 🙂
This looks so yummy. I’m trying to venture out of my norm and cook different recipes. I see a lot of other paella recipes use a can of tomatoes. Thoughts!? I have no clue what I’m doing on this one as I’ve never had paella!
Thanks
Hi Sarah – I’ve never made my paella with tomatoes so I’m not really sure about that.. however, I can tell you that this recipe tastes amazing as is and I don’t think it needs anything added to it!
I want to make this tonight! When you are simmering everything together do I cover this for the 20-30 minutes or leave uncovered?
Thank you!
Hi Sarah, You leave it uncovered! Let me know how you like it 🙂
Hi there!
Is it 553 calories per serving or per pan?
Thank you!
Hi Tina – This is 553 calories per serving. A serving is about 1.5 cups. The nutrition facts at the end of the recipe give a few more details! Hope that helps!
My boyfriend is not a picky eater, and whenever I sit down to meal plan on Sundays, he never has any suggestions. Today I asked him if there was anything he wanted this week (not expecting an answer), and he said, “The paella you cooked last week!!!” It’s sooo good, and I love that it’s one pot! Looks like this will be added to our weekly staples
YAY!! I’m so glad you both liked it! It is definitely a staple in our house and I’m so glad it’s a staple in your house too now!!
Your Paella looks absolutely delicious! I’m going to follow your recipe over the weekend. The wife is going to be delighted! Thanks for sharing!
Thanks so much, Andy! I’m sure your wife will love it 🙂
Never Heard this type of Pan Healthy Paella recipe, But after reading your post, feeling to cook at home right today. Its somehting unique recipe.
Thanks so much, Arun! Hope you love it!
The dish looks delightful. I can imagine having it with a glass of wine. Its easy to eat since everything is contain in one bowl.
Thank you so much, Leo! It definitely pairs perfectly with a big glass of wine 🙂
I LOVE paella! Such an easy way to fit in a ton of veggies and some spice.
Isn’t it the best?? I love it!
Wow. Looks delicious. I’ve pinned this for future reference (meaning, so my husband can make it for me!)
I like the way you think, Laura!! Hope your hubby makes it for you 🙂