CHIPOTLE CHICKEN BOWL

I marinaded my chicken breasts in a plastic bag. I continuously flipped the chicken over and over while it marinated so that the juices and flavor would move around. I was only able to marinate the chicken for 30 minutes. I can’t even imagine the more intense flavors that will come if you marinade for an hour or more! (Recommend no more than 3 hours).

When I go to Chipotle this is how I walk the line:

Brown rice
Little bit of black beans
Chicken
Pico de gallo
Corn salsa
Cheese
Lettuce
Sour cream
Guacamole
& chips!
{please & thank you}

Anyone else have a similar order…? My point of that was that my kitchen, if you didn’t already know, iss not a Chipotle… so I had to improvise and do my best to copy and reinvent the praised chipotle bowl.

Here is the order in which I made my chipotle chicken bowl. I find this could be useful to read in case you do choose to make this and want to make it with all the ingredients hot and finished at the same time.

First I started my brown rice. I followed the instructions of the packet using a tiny but of my favorite yogurt butter.

Second I marinated my chicken (try do this first before if you have extra time, more than 30 minutes)

Third I chopped my tomatoes for my guacamole and pico de gallo, I chopped onion, cilantro, pickled jalapeños, and also smooshed my avocado. I made the two in separate ramekins.

Next I seared my chicken with 10 minutes left on my rice, then started cooking the corn and black beans.

From that point on it was just assembling everything!

Chipotle chicken bowl recipe
4 chicken breasts
1 cup rice
1 teaspoon butter
1 packet taco seasoning
1/4 cup salsa
1/8 cup pickled jalapeños (depending on heat preferred)
Olive oil
Lime juice
1 large tomato
1/2 yellow sweet onion
2 ripe avocados
1/4 cup cilantro
1/2 cup frozen corn
1 can black beans (reduced sodium)
1 head romaine lettuce (one of three in a packet)

directions
1. Start cooking your rice with equal amounts water and the little pad of butter (mine simmered for 30 minutes)
2. Marinade chicken with lime juice, olive oil, and taco seasoning in a plastic baggy (cover chicken with half and half lime juice to olive oil)
3. Start making the salsa’s; cut tomatoes, onions, pickled jalapeños, and avocado
4. Combine salsa, avocado, some lime juice, 1/4 tomato, 1/8 onion, mix well and smoosh avocado
5. Combine rest of the tomato, onion, all of the jalapeños, some lime juice, and chopped cilantro into a separate ramekin; mix
6. Rinse black beans and combine with corn in a small pan, season with pepper and cook on low heat to warm
7. Sear chicken breast on medium heat until cooked through with seared marks on both sides in a nonstick pan
8. Chop romaine lettuce into thin slices and grate cheese
9. Once rice is cooked add 2 tablespoons lime juice and the rest of the chopped cilantro, mix together
10. Layer rice first, top with black bean & corn mixture, lettuce, cheese, then chicken, then toppings of sour cream, pico de gallo, and guacamole
11. Finish off with any extra cilantro pieces and my fav… Some chips!

Phew that’s a lot of steps. It seems like it will take forever but in all honesty I did ALL of that work in under 35 minutes (work it out!!).

The great part is that while the rice cooks you can do everything else.

If you’re really killing it for some more lime juice I paired mine with a lime wedge. I think if you’re not a lime lover maybe give this one a miss.

They actually say lime juice is really good for you… Does that mean using it in all parts of a meal? Okay I didn’t use it in some of the parts in this chicken bowl.

I’d love to hear some feedback on instructions or ingredients for this post if you’re interested. I did my best to make the best chicken bowl that I could and believe me, I was extremely satisfied and I didn’t have to fish out $10.60 for dinner. (Yikes that’s expensive for some Mexican Ish food! At least on my budget.)

Go ahead and give it a go, I know you want to! And remember this is a healthy option for you for this week!

Remove rice, chips, cheese, and sour cream if you’re really worried about the health aspects!