Our Spanish-style chicken & rice started life as a limited-edition dish on the Pots for Tots menu — a colourful, paella-inspired dinner packed with vegetables and mild, smoky spice. It was popular enough that Lizzy, our Head of Product, wanted parents to be able to make it at home too, so here's the full recipe.
It's a dairy-free dinner that's great for introducing little ones to new flavours and textures. One serving carries six different vegetables, plenty of protein and just enough gentle spice to keep things interesting without overwhelming younger palates. It's a balanced meal for toddlers and grown-ups alike.
Quick answers, if you're short on time: most toddlers can tuck into this from around 12 months, with the paprika and any added salt kept light (or stirred in separately for the adults). It freezes well for up to three months. Cool it fully, portion it into pots, and reheat until piping hot right through.
Rice dishes for toddlers: why they work
Rice is one of the easiest bases for a toddler's dinner. Once cooked, it's soft and forgiving for anyone still working on bigger textures, and it's a blank canvas that carries mild spices and hidden veg without putting a fussy eater off. It also happens to be naturally gluten-free, which helps if you're feeding a mixed group of allergies and preferences round the same table.
Because it freezes and reheats so well, a rice dish like this one earns its place as a proper batch-cooking staple, not a one-off treat. This Spanish-style chicken & rice is just one flexible example of the format: swap in different veg or a different protein and the method below still works, so treat it as a template for getting more veggies into any dinner. If you'd rather skip the cooking some nights, our own Spanish-Style Chicken & Rice is made to the same recipe and ready to heat in minutes.
Ingredients you'll need
Serves 2 adults and 2 children, plus seconds
- Chicken thighs, skinless & boneless – 6
- Olive oil – 1 tbsp
- White onion – 1 large, peeled and diced into 1cm pieces
- Courgette – 1 small, diced into 1cm pieces
- Red pepper – 1 small, diced into 1cm pieces
- Yellow pepper – 1 small, diced into 1cm pieces
- Garlic – 2 cloves, peeled and finely chopped
- Paprika – 1 tsp
- Turmeric – ½ tsp
- Tomato purée – 2 tbsp
- Water or stock – 800ml
- Basmati rice – 400g
- Frozen peas – 200g
- Lemon juice – to taste
Method
- Preheat your oven to 200°C / 180°C fan.
- In a large oven-proof pan or casserole dish, heat the oil. Add the chicken thighs and fry for a couple of minutes until golden on both sides, then remove to a plate and set aside. They won't be fully cooked yet!
- In the same pan, add the onion, courgette, red pepper and yellow pepper. Fry until soft and golden, stirring occasionally.
- Add the garlic, paprika and turmeric, and cook for 1 minute while stirring. Stir in the tomato purée and cook for another minute.
- Bring the water or stock to the boil in a separate pan or kettle.
- Stir the rice into the pan with the vegetables, then pour in the boiling water or stock.
- Return the chicken to the pan, cover with a lid or tight-fitting foil, and place in the oven for 30–40 minutes, until the liquid is absorbed and the chicken is cooked through.
- Remove the chicken, chop it into 1cm pieces, then stir the chopped chicken, peas and lemon juice through the rice. Return to the oven for a final 5 minutes to cook the peas.
Serve it on its own for a complete toddler-friendly meal, alongside toasted baguette for scooping and dipping, or top it with steamed or roasted vegetables for extra fibre and vitamin C.
Other ways to serve and adapt it
Once you've made the base method a couple of times, it bends easily to whatever's in the fridge.
- Swap the protein: white fish works well in place of chicken, or go veggie with chickpeas or lentils for an easy plant-based twist. Our Mild Chicken Korma takes a similar chickpeas-and-rice approach if you want the ready-made shortcut.
- Stir through grated cheese (leave it out to keep things dairy-free) or extra finely grated veg for a bit more hidden goodness.
- Press cold leftovers into patties or fritters and fry briefly in a little oil, a good finger-food option for younger toddlers, or a handy one to pack for a picnic the next day.
- Serve it deconstructed for babies and younger toddlers who prefer their chicken, rice and veg kept separate rather than mixed through.
- If rice is a hard sell during a fussier week, our Mac & Cheese is another one-pan, veg-packed dinner that covers the same "easy weeknight" brief.
Why we love this recipe
Gentle, smoky spice and soft vegetables make this an easy sell to little palates. It's also a genuinely useful way to get six different vegetables onto one plate, helping your toddler work towards their 5-a-day. One serving provides around a quarter of a toddler's daily fibre and over 85% of their daily protein requirement, so it's a properly balanced plate rather than just a quick fix.
It's what keeps mealtimes easy on the nights you've nothing left to give: one pan, one oven, no fussing over several pots on the go. And because the whole dish is dairy-free, it suits toddlers and families managing a cow's milk allergy or intolerance without any substitutions needed.
Tried this chicken, veggie and rice recipe? We'd love to see it. Tag us on Instagram @pots_for_tots. And if you're after more dairy-free meals, you'll find the full range on our made without dairy menu, or order a ready-made dairy-free bundle for the nights when even this recipe feels like too much.
