BBQ Cabin Recipe Ideas: Chicken & Prawn Paella

At the end of 2025, we held a competition in our Arctic Cabins Owners Club to help us create the first ever Arctic Cabins Cookbook. Here is one of our top 5 competition entries submitted by Mark & Anne.

You might recognise Mark and Anne from a case study we did in 2024 about their Arctic Bar and over the last few years they’ve shared plenty of photos of them enjoying their cabin and cooking their delicious looking chicken & prawn paella. They have kindly shared the recipe through the recent competition to help inspire people in their own BBQ cabins! 

The Recipe

This paella recipe is perfect for hosting and can easily be scaled up or adapted to suit different dietary requirements. Plus, cooking in a giant paella pan is sure to impress your family and friends by bringing a taste of Spain to your BBQ hut!

Pair your chicken and prawn paella with some delicious bread or salad and enjoy this hearty classic as a delicious communal dish.

To make this recipe suitable for vegetarians or vegans, you can omit the chicken and prawns or swap them out for some plant-based chicken style pieces, like the classic Quorn Vegan chicken pieces. For that seafood vibe, Happiee!’s plant-based Shrimpiee works well too. Alternatively you can always add some more vegetables like carrots, sweetcorn, asparagus, and mushrooms. Get creative - the work is your (mushroom) oyster!

If you are going for the plant-based alternative, be sure to swap the fish stock for a vegetable stock and use vegetable oil for frying in place of butter.

Ingredients:

Serves 4

• 4 chicken thighs, diced (or plant-based alternative)
• 8 large shell on prawns (or plant-based alternative)
• 1 Red pepper, chopped
• 1 Orange pepper, chopped
• 5 Tomatoes, chopped
• Cup of green beans
• 1 large onion, diced
• Pint of fish stock
• 3/4 bag of paella rice
• 2 cloves of garlic, diced
• 1 tsp mixed herbs
• Salt & pepper to taste
• Butter for frying (use a vegetable oil if making a vegan or dairy-free version)

Method:

While your BBQ grill and paella pan are heating up, this is a great time to chop up all your vegetables and chicken thighs!

1. Fry the onions in butter (or vegetable oil) with the garlic
   
   
2. Once the onions are looking glassy, put all your vegetables into the pan, except the tomatoes and add the paella rice.
   
   
3. Pour in the stock to cook the rice, keeping it topped up so the dish doesn’t go dry, giving it a stir.
   
   
4. After 5 minutes, add the diced chicken thighs and stir. After another 5 minutes, add the chopped tomatoes.
   
   
5. Simmer until the rice is fully cooked then add the shell-on prawns for 5 minutes until there is no juice left in the pan, then serve!

If you try any of our featured recipes, make sure you tag us in your photos on social media - we love seeing and sharing what our cabin owners cook in their BBQ huts!