This recipe for Spanish Arroz con Pollo is a one pot meal that’s full of tender chicken thighs, creamy saffron rice and olives – the perfect quick and easy dinner!
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Here I am again, coming back at you with yet another one pot meal. This time I’ve got an amazing recipe for Spanish Arroz con Pollo (Chicken with Rice). The chicken and saffron rice are cooked together along with some green olives and tomatoes to make a delicious meal that’s fancy enough for company but easy enough to whip up on a busy weeknight.
How do you feel about olives? My husband tells me that olives are a divisive food – people either love them or hate them. My family is in the “love” category, especially the kids, which is why this meal appeals to them so much. I used chicken thighs here, I feel like they’re a great choice for this particular dish. However, you can use a different cut of chicken if you like, drumsticks or bone-in chicken breasts would also work although you may have to adjust the cooking time.
This recipe does utilize a few ingredients that you might not have in your pantry. Do you own a vial of saffron? If not, you should buy some. It can be a bit pricey, but a little goes a long way and it lasts for a really long time. You’re also going to want to buy some high quality green olives for this dish because they’re a major part of the flavor profile. Be sure to taste your olives before you season your dish, my olives were a bit saltier than usual so I scaled back on the amount of salt in the rice.
This recipe also uses a short grain rice. If you want to be really authentic, get yourself some Calasparra rice, that’s what they use in Spain. Otherwise you can use an arborio rice, pearl rice or a calrose rice, which is the inexpensive short grain rice available in my grocery store.
This dish is perfect as is, or if you want to round out the meal a little more you can serve it with a green salad or a loaf of crusty bread. Everyone in my family loves this Spanish Arroz con Pollo but for different reasons – one of my girls loves the chicken but not the rice, the other likes both the chicken and the rice and my littlest just eats the rice. But everyone’s happy, and that’s all that matters. Oh, and of course it’s always a bonus to have a one pot meal with less clean up.
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Spanish Arroz con Pollo
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup dry white wine
- Pinch of saffron threads
- 4 bone-in skin-on chicken thighs 6 ounces each
- Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
- 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 medium onion finely chopped
- 1 tablespoon minced garlic
- 2 roma tomatoes diced plus more for garnish if desired
- 1 bay leaf
- 2 cups chicken stock plus more if needed
- 1 cup short-grain rice such as Calasparra, Arborio or Calrose
- 1 cup small pimiento-stuffed green olives
- 2 tablespoons chopped parsley optional
Instructions
- Combine wine and saffron; let stand until ready to use.
- Season chicken on both sides with salt and pepper. Heat oil in a large pan over medium-high heat. Cook chicken, skin side down, until browned, 4 to 5 minutes.
- Flip, and cook until golden brown; transfer to a plate.
- Reduce heat to medium and cook onion and garlic, stirring often, until tender, 5 to 7 minutes. Add tomato, and cook, stirring often, for 5 minutes. Stir in wine-saffron mixture, 3/4 teaspoon salt, 1/2 teaspoon pepper, and the bay leaf.
- Cook until wine is almost completely evaporated, 10 to 15 minutes. Add chicken thighs, stock, rice, and olives; bring to a simmer.
- Reduce heat to low. Cook, covered, stirring halfway through, until rice is tender, about 45 minutes. (If rice is not done, add more stock, 1/2 cup at a time.) Remove from heat and let stand, covered, for 10 minutes. Discard bay leaves. Season with salt and pepper and garnish with parsley and extra diced tomatoes.
Things You’ll Need (or Want!)
This looks simply delicious! We love arroz con pollo over here.
Looks delicious! I love olives green or black but I never thought of putting them in my spanish rice. Thanks for sharing your recipe. Pinning and sharing!
Wow! This looks fantastic! I love one pot meals and cast iron. With only two of us at home now that the girls have grown and flown, I can make this exactly as you’ve done and have it for two meals. Not having to cook one night is always a treat.
This is an awesome recipe. I happen to love olives as well. My family not so much, but I think they’d love it with this dish.
What a totally delicious looking dish! Love all those olives in there…yum!
I am always looking for a good chicken dish. Can’t wait to try this!
This looks delicious. I am a big fan of Spanish food and this looks wonderful.
This looks so yummy! I would never of thought to put green olives with with Spanish rice, but it looks amazing! Well done with the blog post and how you formatted it 🙂
I love new chicken recpies! My mouth is watering! Thank you for sharing!
This looks delicious!
Olives are totally one of those foods that people love or hate. I love them!!! Especially green ones! This chicken dish looks like a perfect weeknight meal to me!
Pinned!
What a wonderful looking dinner! I’m always on the lookout for new family meals, this one would hit the spot for sure!
I love this and must try it ASAP. Arroz con Pollo is a family favorite, but the Mexican version. I have never even thought about a Spanish version! Love it.
This looks delicious! I have never cooked with saffron before but I would love to try!
Ooh, that looks awesome! I’ve never used saffron before, but I’m interested in trying!
I love easy one-pot meals like this! Looks delicious!
This looks amazing! I love a good Spanish Rice, and this one looks perfect!
That looks amazing! You can almost see the flavor in the rice.
Sara,
This looks like a great meal! I’m a fan of one pot dinners, and a fairly recent convert to green olives. I’d tarred them with the same brush as black olives on pizza, but wow do green olives have such a wonderful flavor! The whole family would dig right in.
Thanks!
Love this one-skillet meal – packed with delicious flavors, hearty and with such a lovely presentation, too!
This looks awesome! Put extra olives on mine 🙂 I soo love one pot meals after work
Looks easy and delicious. I’ll definitely have to try!
My family loves olives too and what a great dish to use them in. Pinned!
Wow, this one pot dish looks amazing! I can’t believe your kiddos like olives!
This looks great! I love one pot dinners. And olives too. We are olive people over here 🙂
Great recipe! Totally random- but is the a cork screw hot pad??
It’s a board made of wine corks – my mom found it for $2 at a rummage sale, makes an interesting background for photos!
Oh yum, I’ve been needing a good recipe for Arroz con Pollo! I’d have to agree that you either love olives or you hate them. In my case, I can’t stand them, but my hubby loves them! I’d probably just pick them out, because everything else in this looks amazing!!
One pot meals are essential for busy weeknights in my house! I love that you’ve packed so much flavor into this chicken dish!
I love one pot meals, and this one looks so delicious!
Are you kidding me? This sounds AMAZING. And how gorgeous is that presentation? NO one is going to say no to that!
Add capers. … and cube a half a bell pepper. And use atbs of aciete seeds (Mexican spices sectoion..little red seed pods) added to two tbs olive oil inthe bottom of a warming fry pan…when the oil turn an orange color, scoop out and throw away the seeds… what you now have left is Oil of Achote.. then fry the rice in 2 tbs that oil until it just starts to smell a little like popping corn. This is how Mexican and Spanish Rice gets its distInctive Orange/yellow color and flavor. Now proceed to finish the receipe.. One part rice,two parts liquid….and never lift the lid until a half hour. AUTENTICO!
If it takes as good as it looks it should be delicious.