One Pot Cuban Style Rice (with Chicken and Sausage) - this delicious one-pot recipe with spicy seasonings, fresh vegetables and black beans is a perfect meal for any night of the week.
Living this side of the Atlantic in Ontario, Canada and close to the USA means I have access to all kind of amazing food, some items I had not even heard or tried before.
Cuban Style Rice (Arroz Congri or a few other different names) is definitely one of those things I hadn't tried until I moved here. It's a traditional Cuban dish of white rice and beans with some unique seasonings for flavour. My take on this dish and probably not very traditional really, add a few extras like chicken thighs and sausage to make it a complete one-pot meal.
While I use chicken and sausage in my recipe, it is so versatile that you really use any kind of meat of choice, like just chicken, ground meats (mince) or pork etc and if you are vegetarian then add some extra veggies instead or a meat replacement that you think will work well. Use a stock that compliments the protein you use, so for example if you use beef, swap the chicken stock for beef stock and so on.
I recommend cooking this in a deep frying pan with a lid, as there needs to be enough room for all the ingredients in the pan to cook and the lid is a vital part of the cooking steps, as we kind of steam the rice after all the stock is absorbed to create perfectly cooked rice.
This is a great dish for freezing up to, just make sure you follow health guidelines on how to store cooked rice safely. To heat up from frozen you can just add to a deep frying pan with a little stock and simmer until cooked through. Perfect!!
Love one pot recipes? Check out some of these that you might fancy too:
- CREAMY ONE POT PORK PASTA
- BEEF STROGANOFF PASTA
- ONE POT BEEF FAJITA PASTA
- NEW ORLEANS CAJUN PASTA
- CHEESEBURGER PASTA
- LEMON GARLIC CHICKEN RICE
- SAUSAGE AND LENTIL CASSEROLE
- MARMITE MACARONI AND CHEESE
- CAMPFIRE STEW
- NANDO’S PERI PERI RICE
or head on over to my Full Recipe Index with over 850 delicious Slimming Eats and Weight Watchers recipes all fully searchable by meal type, ingredients and smart points etc.
How can I add a ⅓ vegetables to this One Pot Cuban Style Rice?
Vegetables (healthy vegetables) are recommended (but not compulsory) as part of your meal, as they reduce the portions of your other free foods and so will boost your weight loss while keeping you well satiated. Check out my benefit of vegetables for more information on how they work.
With that in mind, you can totally enjoy this just as it is, but if you do want to add in some speed foods to make this more filling this would be great with some greens of choice, some suggestions are:
- Steamed Tenderstem Broccoli
- Sauteed or roasted Courgette (Zucchini)
- Sauteed Kale or Spinach
- Grilled or Roasted Asparagus
or even a mixed salad would pair well with this too. Choose from all kinds of yummy salad ingredients.
Kitchen Items used in this One Pot Cuban Style Rice:
- Measuring Scales
- Chopping Board
- Measuring spoons
- Santoku Knife
- Le Creuset Cast Iron Casserole or use a Deep Frying Pan with lid
- Measuring Cups or jug
- Wooden Spoon
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Recipe Card
One Pot Cuban Style Rice (with Chicken and Sausage)
One Pot Cuban Style Rice (with Chicken and Sausage) - this delicious one-pot recipe with spicy seasonings, fresh vegetables and black beans is a perfect meal for any night of the week.
Ingredients
- 1 onion, finely diced
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
- 200g (7oz) of boneless skinless chicken thigh
- 2 chicken sausages, sliced (or can double the chicken thigh amount above)
- 1 green pepper, sliced into small strips
- 1 red pepper, sliced into small strips
- 1 small carrot, diced
- 1 cup (180g) of long grain white rice
- ⅓ cup (80ml) of passata (or crushed tomatoes)
- 300g (10.5oz) of black beans (canned/drained)
- 180ml (¾ cup) of orange juice
- 1.5 cups (360ml) of chicken stock
- avocado cooking oil spray
- salt and black pepper
- chopped fresh coriander
- fresh lime wedges
for the spice mix:
- 1.5 teaspoon of cumin
- 1.5 tsp of paprika
- 1.5 teaspoons chilli powder
- ½ teaspoon of oregano
- ¼ teaspoon garlic powder
- ¼ teaspoon onion powder
- ¼ teaspoon of cayenne pepper (can add more or less depending on your preferred spice level)
Instructions
- Add all the ingredients for the spice mix to a bowl and mix to combine
- Spray a frying pan over a medium high heat with cooking oil spray.
- Add the onion and a pinch of salt
- Fry until golden and softened, add in a little water at a time to prevent onion from burning or sticking.
- Add in the garlic, chicken and sausage and continue to fry until browned.
- Add in the spice mix, and rice and stir to coat.
- Add in the peppers, carrot, black beans passata, orange juice and stock, bring to a boil, then simmer until stock is almost absorbed.
- Turn off heat, add lid and leave covered for 10-12 minutes (the steam trapped underneath will continue to cook the rice to perfection)
- Season as needed with salt and black pepper, sprinkle with fresh chopped coriandr and serve with fresh lime wedges, for squeeze a little lime juice over the top of your serving.
- Enjoy!!
Notes
Please see below for full nutritional info and additional details about recipe:
- Calories - scroll down to nutritional info box
- WW Points and other Slimming or Weight Loss programs - due to plans regularly changing and updating, we recommend calculating with the official tools you get as a member to those plans to ensure accuracy of values.
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Nutrition Information
Yield 4 Serving Size 1 SERVINGAmount Per Serving Calories 432Total Fat 7.5gSaturated Fat 2.5gCholesterol 61mgSodium 763mgCarbohydrates 64.7gFiber 8.7gSugar 9.6gProtein 27.7g
Tracey Tye says
How much is one cup of rice in weight?
Thank you
Shevy (Slimming Eats) says
I've put grams on the recipe now Tracey 🙂
Louise says
This was gorgeous! What chicken sausage do you use? As it looks like a smoked type that comes in a ring here rather than the heck chipolatas I used 😅 I think the smoked type wpuld be way better but 2 rings would be a lot 🤪
Siobhan (Slimming Eats) says
I find a smoked sausage is best for this dish. I use turkey or chicken smoked sausage as slightly lower in calories, you can get various different ones here in Canada. In the UK I think you get Matteson reduced fat smoked sausage which would probably be the best choice for this.
Teresa Killeen says
Hi there - I love the look of this but am completely ignorant. What is 'syn' and why is important that the chicken be free of it ? How will I tell if there is any in the product and how much there is?
Shevy (Slimming Eats) says
Hi there Teresa, syns are part of the Slimming World plan, and is an allowance given to foods which are not free. read more here: http://www.slimmingeats.com/blog/slimming-world-review - so if not following slimming world, you can ignore that part.
Sophie says
Is this sort of like the old el paso one pan rice meals?
Shevy (Slimming Eats) says
yes kind of - it's delish!!
chelle says
Can this be done in the instant pot and what times do you recommend as I am a new instant pot user. Thank you.
Siobhan (Slimming Eats) says
I’ve only tested this by the method in the recipe so far. If you do try it in the instant pot let me know how it goes.
CydD says
This was terrific! Used Andouille flavored chicken sausage and doubled the spice mix. The hubby loved it, I loved it---a huge hit!! Thank you!
Gemma Earp says
Absolutely love this recipe! We make it without any of the meat as a side as I'm veggie and it's a staple in our house. We found that 40g tomato puree and 40ml water works well instead of passata if you don't want to open a carton/have use for the rest. Love so many of these recipes! Thankyou!
Siobhan (Slimming Eats) says
glad you like it, great tip, thank you .
Jen Willis says
Can use any kind of rice?
Siobhan (Slimming Eats) says
basic long grain rice is best for this recipe.