Paprika Chicken with Creamy Paprika Sauce (an easy all-in-one Thermomix dinner)
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Last night I got home late after a busy day and didn’t have dinner organised, so it was ‘Thermomix to the rescue’ once again! I had a quick think, and this is what I came up with. Nothing fancy, just an easy and tasty dinner with basic ingredients, that took all of 25 minutes to make. Sometimes that’s just what we need when we can’t be bothered, right? (It is really yummy though, and the chicken breasts are amazingly tender and juicy when steamed!)
This fed our family of six and there were plenty of leftovers, which is always a bonus since everyone generally wants dinner for breakfast at our house.
This recipe is gluten free, and egg free, and if you omit the butter is also dairy free. The sauce is blended with cashews to make it creamy, but if you can’t have nuts, see the nut free variation below. I’ve added some tips for those of you without a Thermomix, so you don’t miss out.
{Update} For those of you with a TM5, make sure you have 1 litre (1000g) of liquid in the bowl when cooking rice, or you’ll find it won’t cook through properly. You may also need to cook for 25-30 mins instead of 20-25 mins.
See also the notes at the end of the recipe for a GAPS/Paleo version!!
- 900g water if using a TM31; 1000g water if using a TM5
- 380g basmati rice
- (these are just suggestions, use what you have)
- 3 carrots, peeled and sliced thinly
- 200g green beans, topped and tailed
- 1-2 zucchini, thinly sliced
- 150g frozen corn
- 600-700g chicken breast fillets, sliced in 2cm thick pieces
- smoked paprika powder (approx 1 tsp)
- herb salt (eg. Herbamare)
- garlic powder (approx 1/2 tsp)
- 1 Tbsp butter or ghee (optional)
- 60g raw cashews
- 60g water
- 2 tsp chicken or vegetable stock paste (my chicken stock paste recipe here)
- 1 tsp smoked paprika powder
- (See notes below for nut free version)
- Pour water into mixing bowl.
- Weigh rice into steaming basket and rinse well, then place basket inside mixing bowl.
- Place chicken pieces onto Varoma tray and sprinkle with paprika, herb salt and garlic powder, and dot with butter or ghee if using.
- Place Varoma into position with lid on.
- Turn speed dial to speed 5 for a few seconds to wash the water through the rice. (That's my little trick to make sure the top of the rice cooks well and you don't end up with crunchy bits.)
- Begin cooking for 20 mins/Varoma/speed 2 while you cut up the veges, adding them to the dish as you go. (It takes about 10 minutes for the steam to really start filling the Varoma, so it's easy enough to get the veges cut up in that time.)
- At the end of the cooking time, check that the chicken is cooked; add a couple more minutes if not.
- Remove chicken, vegetables and rice to Thermoservers or serving dishes. (Or if you're having an "I don't feel like doing heaps of dishes" night, just leave them in the Varoma and basket and set aside.)
- Add all the sauce ingredients to the little bit of liquid left in the bowl. (There should only be about 3cm of water left as the rice has absorbed most of it.)
- Blend 1 min/speed 9. Scrape down lid and sides of bowl with spatula and blend again if needed, until smooth. Season to taste.
- Serve the rice onto plates, top with veges and chicken, and drizzle with sauce.
- Instead of rice, you could make either cauliflower rice or cauliflower mash. For cauliflower rice, cut 600g cauliflower into florets, and chop in Thermomix bowl 5 sec/reverse/speed 5. Remove to internal steamer basket and set aside. Reduce water to 500g, begin cooking, add steamer basket to bowl 10 mins into cooking time. (You may need to tip off a little water before making the sauce - you only need about 3cm water left in the bowl.)
- For the cauliflower mash version, see my recipe for cauliflower mash (on blog), place all mash ingredients in bowl, cook 20 mins or until chicken is cooked through, then remove Varoma and blend. Remove mash to a serving dish, leaving about 3cm of mash in the bowl. Add sauce ingredients, doubling the water, and blend.
- Omit corn from recipe for a GAPS version - add in some diced pumpkin, squash or peas.
- Leave out the cashews and add 250g coconut cream instead, with the 2-3 tsp vege stock paste and 1 tsp paprika powder. Warm it up a bit, 1 min/90C/speed 4. Season to taste.
- Pour 100ml boiling water over the raw cashews and allow to soak (covered) while the meal cooks. Cook the rice in a rice cooker or on the stovetop. Cook the chicken and vegetables in two layers in a steamer, or in a large frypan with a lid, over med-low heat, until done. Blend the soaked cashews with soaking water and remaining sauce ingredients in a powerful blender until smooth and creamy. Season to taste. (Massel stock powder can be used instead of stock paste.)
72 Comments
Thanks Jo for yet another awesome recipe. Love…love…loved it x
Yay!!
This is one of the most straightforward, yet delicious all in one thermomix meals and one that Jo is known for on social media. If you are yet to try it, you are missing out
Awww thanks! 🙂
I tried this last night and although I had to tweak the cooking times, my family prefer veggies more soft, it was the most delicious quick meal I have ever cooked. Well done chef you have inspired me to be more adventurous think you
I assume you add another 60g of water on top of what’s left in the bowl for the sauce? Just doing it now so looking forward to dinner!
Yes – that is right! Hope it worked well! 🙂
silly question as I am just starting out using Varoma…does the chicken and vegetables allgo on the flat top tray or should I have the chicken in the bottom part of varoma??
Vegetables go in the bottom dish, and chicken on the top tray.
Can I do this with brown rice instead of basmati by extending cooking time and adding vegies and chicken a little later?
I cannot eat cashews, can this be replaced with another nut?
Looks like a great recipe and an easy one!
Yes, try blanched almonds!
The whole family loved this recipe! Very easy recipe to follow and I just added a few extra cashews at the end to have a thicker sauce. Just delicious!
I am cooking this as we speak. This is all quite new to me. I found the chicken is not cooking but rice is more than ready but am worried raw chicken juices have contaminated the rice. I have the chicken at the very top with the veg underneath. Is this correct? I am paranoid of the chicken juices running into veg and rice 🙂
So quick, easy, healthy and delicious. I used brown rice and lentils (took a little longer to cook) which was so tasty. Thanks for this beautiful recipe Jo.
I didn’t have much success and not sure why. I am a newbie to the Thermomix but I followed your instructions very closely. I had to double the cooking time and the rice was gluggy underneath and not cooked properly on top despite using the tips given. Also the sauce was runny like water. I was very excited to make these types of all in one dinners in the Thermomix but so far they have all been lacking with the meat tending to be chewy and lacking flavour. I am trying to stay positive.
Thanks. I have your quirky cooking book and I love it. Was so nice to find a recipe book where I can eat most of the recipes.
Hi, made this tonight, it was delicious – thank you!
It’s the first time I’ve ever used the varoma for an all in one meal and after the 20 mins the work top was saturated under the machine & a puddle of water on the floor too…. Has this ever happened to you?
Hi Jade! If you end up with water leaking out it means there aren’t enough steam holes left free and the condensation built up and leaked out the sides of the Varoma. You’ll need to make sure there’s more holes open for the steam to get through next time. Also, if you do notice it leaking, stop and clean it up as the water may get up in the machine and that wouldn’t be good for it.
Jo
I’m not sure what I did wrong. I did the tip about putting the machine on speed 5 for a few seconds to wet the rice further but the rice still came out uncooked on top. I cooked longer than suggested because the chicken wasn’t cooked properly. I ended up with crunchy rice, over cooked veg and perfect chicken???
If you’re using a TM5 you’ll need to add 100g more water as the bowl is bigger. Would that be the problem?
I learned this trick tonight – tip the basket upside down and let it sit for 3-5 minutes, then fluff with a fork. The steam evens it all out so that all the rice is fluffy and even.
I think the speed should be 4 instead of 2 to cook the rice. I added a litre of water and also had dry rice on top for the TM5.
Hi Emma, make sure you rinse the rice well before cooking, and for TM5 you need to use 1 litre of water. The speed should never be higher than 2 on Varoma temp for safety reasons. What you can do if you’re having trouble with rice cooking through in that time is soak the rice for 20mins or so before cooking, and stir part way through cooking time. Hope that helps!
Hi can you use just regular milk instead of cashews?
The cashews thicken the sauce, if you use regular milk it will be thinner.
Thank you for sharing this recipe ~ so simple and delicious. My almost one year old absolutely loved it.
Thanks Jo another winner!! I have your quirky cooking book and throughly enjoy all the recipes I have tried! My husband and young adult son love this paprika chicken sauce in particular! Very easy and I love the fact it’s all done in one go!
Do you have another book in production??
I do! It will be a program (online) first with ebooks, then later a printed book. 🙂
I made this tonight for dinner and it was sooooo yum. Thank you so much for sharing your recipe. I will definately be making this again soon.
Hi Jo i was wondering if there’s an alternative to herb salt? I dont have it. Thanks.
yes just salt or with your choice of herbs
I used some yeast flakes, sea salt and dried mixed herbs, was delish!
My whole family LOVED this meal. It will become a family favorite. The changes I made based on comments here: I cooked the chicken a few minutes longer, only put a very small amount of vegies into the varoma and I used a full small packet of cashews (maybe 100-150 g) to make the sauce thicker. I used brown basmati rice and it cooked perfectly
I couldn’t find any of the herb salt, what else could I use instead?
Normal salt with your choice of herbs 🙂
This was a bit of a disaster here tonight. I didn’t realise the veggies should have gone in the Varoma bowl and the meat on the tray – I had them around the opposite way so we had raw chicken when I served it up to the family. The kids are eating ham sandwiches for dinner while I attempt to re-cook the meat in the top rack of the Varoma… 🙁
Can I use brown rice instead of basmati? And do I need to add extra water and what would be the cooking time? Thank you, can’t wait to try this recipe!
You can but change to 1.2lts of water for the TM31 or 1.3lts for the TM5 and 35 mins cooking time, so dont add veggies until last 15 mins 🙂
Hi. I just prepared this recipe but not sure what went wrong. I followed the recipe very carefully using tm31.
The chicken didnt cook through, veggies were not soft,rice wasn’t fully cooked.then i added 2cmins and still wasn’t enough. So i added a bit of water and cooked for another 5 min. When it was time to make the sauce,was very runny : ( Also will just cook 300g of rice next time coz it was a lot.will definitely have to cook recipe again as im sure it is supposed to be nice but didnt work for me.
I have raw almonds and no cashews in the house can I substitute with almonds?
We came home from a road trip containing 3 days of convenience food. We felt DISGUSTING! Popped into the shops on the way home for chicken, some beans, carrots and zucchini. 25 minutes later we felt we were eating real food again. The kids LOVED this!
Wow first time making this. Only had my thermie for 2 weeks now. I used the coconut cream to make the sauce as i cant have cashews. My sauce was very runny. Was i only meant to use the coconut cream and not the left over water too? I added the coconut cream to the rice water. Got the tick of approval from whole family ! Thanks
My family won’t eat rice or cauliflower! Very difficult! Could I cook white potatoes in the steaming basket instead?
I made this tonight, it was delicious. I cut a whole chicken into pieces (skin on) and kept the carcass to make stock or bone broth. I put the chicken in a hot oven for 5 minutes at the end to crisp up the skin a bit. Cooked the chicken for the full 20 mins before adding hard veges (added soft veges after another 5 mins) and cauliflower in basket given the chicken was on the bone and then another 15 mins and it came out perfect.
How do I salvage crunchy rice please ? I followed the insturctions of washing for 5 seconds but on what speed? Perhaps I should do it longer?
It makes a lot of rice too! I dont want to throw it all out and start again but noone will probably eat it 🙁
Thanks for any help
Hi Jo,
yummy recipe. Thanks 🙂 I cooked it tonight. I have the TM5 so i put the extra 100 ml of water in. I also put the machine on speed 5 for a few seconds to wet the rice further to begin with but the rice still came out uncooked on top. What could i be doing wrong?
Hi just wondering if I don’t have stock paste how much stock powder would be needed instead thanks
Wow! This was so easy and delicious!!!!! Thanks heaps for posting this recipe. ?
I finally made this – it was delicious! So much flavour. My husband even loved it and he says he doesn’t like smoked paprika ;). Great work, thanks for another beautiful recipe
Is there an alternative to the stock paste, I’ve run out and don’t have time to make more at the moment! Thanks
First meal I made in my Themomix everyone loved it, would recommend it for you to try
I’ve made this a few times and it’s always a winner but the cooking time never is long enough.. Wondering if I’m doing something wrong or not reading the recipe properly?
Are you using a TM5? This recipe was developed for the TM31. If using TM5 you will need to use 1L of water and cook longer as the bowl is bigger. 🙂
I just made it with the TM5 and the cooking was more like 35 minutes
The sauce didn’t thicken at all though?
Would love to make this tonight, can I use Sweet Paprika instead of Smoked….I’ve run out!!
Yes, not quite as nice but will work fine 🙂
Thermie newbie here! Tonight was my first night with mine and omg it was a hit. Did it with the cauliflower and leak mash omg ????
This was a lovely yummy dinner for me to avoid lots of carbs and dairy that was in the creamy chicken I made for the rest of my family. It was so yummy and felt (mostly lol) guilt free. Thank you very much ??
Just made this. Very quick, very simple. Very delicious.
Perfect meal to make if you don’t want to spend long preparing dinner.
Came home from work and did not feel like cooking one bit but googled thermomix and chicken and this came up, thank you for a delicious and quick dinner. Will definately be cooking again soon.
Wow this recipe is SO yum and so quick and easy! And every person in my family LOOVED it. Including my 1yr old. That is a huge thing to make a meal that every single person loves. Definitely going on the weekly meal list now. Thank you Jo for sharing this with us all.
5 star dish! Everybody loved it. Hubby and kids were very pleased. I will definitely make it again.
Next time I will put less rice in as it was way too much for this amount of meat plus did not cook the hole portion: 330g maybe?
Hi Teo, thanks for the feedback – I recently made it in the TM5 and realised it doesn’t work as well in that one (it was designed for the TM31) so I will update it!
Hi,
Just following your update..any yet?
Shasha
Hi Jo,
Have you updated the recipe for TM5 (and brown rice?) yet as per your last reply to Teo? Also, can it be made with chicken stock instead of stock paste? I don’t have any stock paste.
Thanks so much – looking forward to cooking tonight!
Made it – yummy!!
The sauce didn’t blend as well and smoothly as I could’ve hoped, but was very good anyway!
Hi, just wondering if anyone has ever made this meal and froze it?
Wow! This was delicious! Having been in bed all weekend with a cold I was looking for something easy and tasty to feed the fam… this was it! So simple! I cut up an onion and a clove of garlic and threw that in with the rice for a change to plain rice and it gave it a beautiful flavour as well… will be making this again! Thanks Jo!
Hi only have roasted salted cashews will these still work or will it b too salty?
Has this been done with other meat?
Can I keep the leftover sauce and use for something else???
Hi,
Would like to know if to replace the Basmati rice with Cauliflower, when is the time to cook the cauliflower? As I am planning to cook this at one go to save time. Note : I am using TM5 here.
Shasha