What can I use in place of frying pan with tight fitting lid for making Spanish rice recipe?

I think you can use electric rice cooker in the place of frying pan. As it is a rice dish, the purpose of the pan with a lid is to cook the rice evenly. This can be done even with electric rice cooker. Moreover, the use of frying pan could be to half cook the rice and then toss it with some other ingredients in the same way as you make fried rice. For this you can achieve the same result in rice cooker provided you keep the right measure of water.

Moreover, you can check your spanish recipe book and make sure if most of the recipes call for frying pan with heavy lid. Even then, you can try making one dish using rice cooker and see the end result. If the results are fine, then you can go ahead with the same method.

It depends on what your preferences are. If you think that you want to try out the recipe in the exact way, then it is better to go for a frying pan with lid. But, for everything there is an alternative and all you need to do is make sure you get the same end result. Additionally, if you are not tight on budget, then you can very well buy a frying pan.