Healthy Chicken & Rice Recipes

Yellow curry paste is generally spicier than green but not as spicy as red, making it just right for this easy stir-fried chicken thigh recipe. Sizzling the curry paste in oil before making the curry gives it a boost in complexity.

This creamy French onion dip chicken and rice casserole topped with crispy potato chips is perfect for game day or whenever you want a comforting meal the whole family will love.

Browning the chicken and sautéing the aromatics before everything goes into the crock pot is key to building the flavors in our version of this popular curry.

This dish is inspired by the traditional New Orleans dish of red beans and rice, but adds plenty of roasted vegetables.

A more traditional take on this paella, from the region of Spain where the dish originated, would include rabbit and chicken, but this recipe only calls for easier-to-find chicken thighs. If you want, substitute 1 rabbit (3 1/2 pounds) cut into 2-inch chunks for half the chicken. If you can't find cranberry beans, double the limas.

This one-pan chicken and broccoli dinner is simple, healthy and packed with flavor. After the chicken roasts, we turn the drippings into a smooth and velvety pan sauce by adding a little stock and butter.

Leftover chicken and rice come together in this flavorful main dish salad. Serve over fresh greens.

We cut down the cooking time for this healthy chicken stew by fortifying store-bought broth with chicken and aromatics and then using the flavorful liquid to both simmer the rice and make the gravy. Try subbing 5 fresh curry leaves if you can't find the Indonesian bay leaves.

Paella started as an outdoor dish. Grilling seafood, zesty sausage and vegetables before combining them with saffron-scented rice replicates that traditional character. Note that perfectly done paella rice will be dry and the slightest bit toothsome: it's not creamy or overly moist.

Although there are many variations of this Mexican chicken soup, spicy chipotle chiles are always part of the broth. Make it a meal: Serve with a Mexican beer and cheese quesadillas.

A bowl of tender shredded chicken, hot cooked rice and slightly spicy black beans served with fresh toppings is a meal that will satisfy anytime. Make this slow-cooker chicken dish on the weekend and reheat throughout the week for easy at-work lunches or dinner at the end of a long day. For a variation, swap the brown rice for a grain medley.

Fresh ginger and pungent curry add big flavor to this one-pot meal.

A Louisiana favorite, our version of this spicy dish uses whole-grain Wehani rice. Long-grain brown rice also works. Traditionally made with chicken liver, which gives it a “dirty” color, we use healthy lean chicken sausage instead.

Fruity mango chutney, zesty barbecue sauce, and a bit of curry powder are the secrets to success in this slow-cooker chicken recipe. They combine to form a delicious glaze on the chicken, which is served over a brown rice and fresh mango mixture.

The bottom layer of this rice pie is all tahdig--the delectable, crispy golden rice that is the highlight of an Iranian meal. Cooking the pie on the stovetop before it goes into the oven gives the rice its signature crunch.

The secret ingredient is the onion...it provides a rich flavor and makes the texture creamier as the onions soften.

In about the time it takes to order and pick up Chinese takeout, you can make this much healthier version of sweet & sour chicken. Our version loses all the saturated fat that comes from deep-frying, along with the extra sugar and salt. If you prefer, use tofu instead of chicken, and use your favorite vegetables; just be sure to cut them into similar-size pieces so they all cook at about the same rate.

Massaman curry is a traditional Thai-style curry, popular for being milder in flavor and rich in taste. When students in Georgia were challenged to use local ingredients to come up with a creative dish that could be easily made in cafeterias, this recipe was a finalist. The kids wanted to cook their rice in milk with turmeric to give it a creamy texture and golden color, but they swapped in rice milk to keep the dish dairy-free. Regular milk works just as well. Adapted from Georgia Farm to School.

In this healthy chicken with red pepper cream sauce recipe, roasted red pepper and chipotle give this creamy sauce a beautiful red hue and give it a slightly sweet and smoky flavor. The sauce can be made ahead, then served with seared chicken, as we do in this recipe, or with grilled fish or ravioli. This recipe makes more Cream Sauce without the Cream than you'll need for the red pepper sauce. Refrigerate or freeze the extra sauce and use it in place of heavy cream in any sauce or soup that calls for cream.

In this healthy fried rice recipe, chicken, bok choy and carrots are tossed with Cantonese oyster sauce for a delicious one-bowl dinner. If you don't have leftover cooked rice on hand, be sure to thoroughly cool your rice before adding it to the wok--if it's too warm, it creates too much steam and sticks to the wok. To quickly cool warm rice, spread out on a large baking sheet and refrigerate while you prep the rest of your ingredients, about 15 minutes.

Present this meal buffet-style so everyone can craft their own bowls and get what they want (including an argument-free dinner). Chickpea "rice" has twice the protein and five times the fiber of brown rice. Find it in many supermarkets or online.

Arroz caldo, a bowl of comforting rice porridge seasoned with plenty of ginger and garlic, has countless variations throughout the Philippines. The porridge can have a variety of toppings, such as hard- or soft-boiled eggs, crispy tofu, crispy garlic bits or crispy shallots, lime, lemon, nutritional yeast and so much more. For a change of pace, you can swap cubed smoked tofu for the chicken. Quinoa, wild rice, cauliflower rice and other grains can also be substituted for the jasmine rice. Feel free to increase the amounts of garlic and fish sauce for an even more flavorful porridge. Serve this easy and healthy ginger-garlic rice porridge with love as my mother would always do.

This slow-cooker meal is simple to prepare and will elicit rave reviews from everyone at your table. The wild rice pilaf is started early in the slow cooker and followed up by the chicken and sweet and tangy maple-mustard sauce. It's a mouthwatering combination!

Maya Feller, M.S., RD, CDN, of Brooklyn-based Maya Feller Nutrition, recommends this cost-conscious recipe to clients looking to prepare satisfying, nutritious meals at home. "Pelau is a hearty dish that can be prepared in big batches and enjoyed over time," she says. (This recipe was part of a feature story, "The Real Cost of Healthy Food," in EatingWell magazine and has not been tested by our Test Kitchen.)