Chicken rice bowl with veg: a 35-minute recipe for two

The question comes up almost every week: how do you put together a properly high-protein meal without spending an hour at the hob? This bowl takes 35 minutes, uses one pan and one pot, and lands at roughly 45 g of protein per serving. It feeds two, and it reheats well enough to double as tomorrow's lunch.

Prep time and servings

Prep: 15 min. Cooking: 20 min. Total: 35 min. Servings: 2.

The rice and the chicken cook in parallel, so you don't add those times together. Chop the vegetables while the rice simmers and you'll be closer to 28 minutes start to finish.

Ingredients

• 300 g skinless, boneless chicken breast
• 160 g white rice, uncooked (long grain or basmati)
• 300 ml water for the rice
• 200 g broccoli, broken into florets
• 150 g red pepper (one large), sliced into strips
• 100 g carrot (one medium), cut into thin rounds
• 20 ml olive oil (about 1.5 tbsp)
• 20 ml soy sauce
• 2 garlic cloves (about 6 g), finely chopped
• 1 tsp sweet paprika
• 1/2 tsp ground black pepper
• juice of half a lemon
• salt to taste — the soy sauce already brings plenty

Method

1. Rinse the rice under cold water until it stops running cloudy. Tip it into a pot with 300 ml water and a pinch of salt, cover, and simmer gently for 12–15 minutes.
2. When the water has gone, take the pot off the heat and leave it covered for another 5 minutes before fluffing with a fork.
3. While the rice cooks, cut the chicken into roughly 2 cm cubes and toss them with the paprika, black pepper and half the garlic.
4. Heat 10 ml of the oil in a wide pan over high heat. Spread the chicken in a single layer and leave it alone for the first two minutes — that's how you get colour instead of grey, steamed meat.
5. Cook for 6–8 minutes in total, turning a couple of times, until the pieces are white all the way through (75 °C in the centre). Move them to a plate.
6. Add the remaining 10 ml oil to the same pan, then the carrot for 2 minutes. Add the broccoli with 2 tbsp of water, cover for 3 minutes, then the pepper for a final 2 minutes. The veg should still have bite.
7. Return the chicken to the pan with the soy sauce and remaining garlic, stir, and cook for one more minute.
8. Divide the rice between two bowls, pile the chicken and vegetables on top, and finish with the pan juices and lemon.

Nutrition per serving

These figures are an estimate per serving (exactly half the recipe), worked out from the raw quantities listed above.

• Calories: about 630 kcal
• Protein: about 45 g
• Carbohydrates: about 80 g
• Fat: about 15 g

Expect a swing of around ten per cent either way, depending on how lean the chicken is, how much oil stays behind in the pan and how carefully you measure the rice. If you track macros closely, weigh the rice and the oil and eyeball the rest.

Swaps and variations

Fewer carbs: drop the rice to 100 g for the whole recipe and you cut roughly 105 kcal and 23 g of carbohydrate per serving. Add another 100 g of broccoli so the bowl still looks like a meal.

More protein: 400 g of chicken instead of 300 g takes each serving to about 56 g of protein and 685 kcal.

Brown rice: same weight, but budget 35–40 minutes and around 400 ml of water. Calories barely move; fibre goes up noticeably.

Gluten-free: swap the soy sauce for tamari. Meat-free: 300 g of firm tofu gives roughly 33 g of protein per serving with fat closer to 25 g.

Something sweet after: 150 g of strawberries adds barely 50 kcal, while 100 g of raspberries comes in around 52 kcal with a useful amount of fibre. A single kiwi works well if you want more vitamin C alongside the meal.

The short version

Thirty-five minutes, two pans, two servings of about 630 kcal and 45 g of protein each. Sear the chicken in a single layer and keep the vegetables crisp — that's the difference between a bowl you'll make again and one you're bored of by the third time. The rice is your main lever: scale it up or down and this fits almost any eating plan.