Chicken Burrito Bowl Meal Prep
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Think of this as healthier (and cheaper!) Chipotle bowls that you can have all week long. Save time and calories here!!!
Simply think of this as a Chipolte bowl on-the-go. Except. You won’t be clocking in a 1000-calorie dinner disaster. (Seriously, their typical order comes in at 1,070 calories!)
But this bowl has all of the best flavors of Mexican food transformed into one convenient meal prep bowl with a healthy balance of nutrients, cutting out the worst nutritional offenders!
- The brown rice gives you a solid dose of healthy carbs and fiber. You can also use quinoa, white rice, amaranth or couscous as an alternative grain.
- I use chicken as the protein as it is low in fat and lean. However, you could also use ground beef, ground turkey or even ground tofu if you wanted to. Honestly, with the amazing mix of spices and herbs we use in this recipe, any of the proteins will taste incredible!
- The black beans also provide a high protein and fiber content along with several other key vitamins and minerals to maintain healthy bones, lower blood pressure, and manage diabetes.
- The corn is high in fiber, packed with vitamins and provides many antioxidants.
- The secret to this bowl is obviously the chipotle cream sauce. I use greek yogurt instead of sour cream as a healthier base. Add in to that the chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, fresh lime juice and garlic. This sauce is so good, my friends make a huge batch and use it on all their meals!
Chicken Burrito Bowl Meal Prep
Think of this as healthier (and cheaper!) Chipotle bowls that you can have all week long. Save time and calories here!!!
Ingredients
- 1 cup brown rice
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 ½ pounds ground chicken
- ½ teaspoon chili powder
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- ½ teaspoon ground cumin
- ½ teaspoon oregano
- ¼ teaspoon onion powder
- ¼ teaspoon paprika
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- 1 15-ounce can black beans, drained and rinsed
- 1 15.25-ounces can whole kernel corn, drained
- ½ cup pico de gallo, homemade or store-bought
For the chipotle cream sauce
- ½ cup plain nonfat Greek yogurt
- 1 Chipotle pepper in adobo sauce, minced
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lime juice
Instructions
- To make the chipotle cream sauce, whisk together Greek yogurt, chipotle pepper, garlic and lime juice; set aside.
- In a large saucepan of 2 cups water, cook rice according to package instructions; set aside.
- Heat olive oil in a large stockpot or Dutch oven over medium high heat. Add ground chicken, chili powder, garlic powder, cumin, oregano, onion powder and paprika; season with salt and pepper, to taste.
- Cook until chicken has browned, about 3-5 minutes, making sure to crumble the chicken as it cooks; drain excess fat.
- Divide rice into meal prep containers. Top with ground chicken mixture, black beans, corn and pico de gallo, drizzled with chipotle cream sauce.
Did you make this recipe?
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My review is for the chipotle cream sauce alone, as I built my bow a bit differently with spicy marinated chicken breast, but I just had to come and say that this low fat sauce is THE BEST addition to a burrito bowl that you could possibly have! So tasty and full of flavour. I’m making it for the second time in two weeks tonight!
Best recipe I’ve found in years. Easy to prepare, everybody loves it, and it’s very healthy. It is hard to find Tex-Mex dishes that don’t contain cheese.
I love this recipe. We almost always use ground beef instead of chicken. Sometimes we make our own pics, sometimes we get the store bought. Sometimes we add salsa, sometimes not. This is a great base for you to determine the level of spice and what you want to add to it to make it your own.
I’m confused it says 1 Cup , so does that mean 1/4 cup per bowl ?
This recipe is outstanding! Make it as is and you’ll love it. I crave this recipe. It’s one of my favorite dishes to eat.
How many servings does this make and do you have the nutitional values?
Hi Christina! This recipe yields 4 servings. Nutritional information is provided only for select recipes at this time. However, if it is not available for a specific recipe, we recommend using free online resources at your discretion (you can Google “nutritional calculator”). Hope that helps!
Wonderful Recipe. Can I use packaged seasoning for the chicken, or beef, or other meats I use. Or would it be better to stick to the list of seasoning above for the meat?
Whichever you prefer, Aileene. We recommend using our seasoning to get the original taste of the dish, but you can of course change it to your liking. 🙂
Can you freeze these without compromising the quality of the ingredients?
Freezing sounds like an amazing idea but unfortunately, I cannot answer this with certainty as I have never tried freezing this myself. Please use your best judgment for freezing and reheating.
Does it call for the entire can of Chipotle in Adobe sauce? Or are we just using 1 pepper out of the can? What about the sauce?
The recipe is calling for one pepper out of the can.
I used 2-3 peppers to increase the spicy flavour and subdue the tart yogurt flavour.
You can include some sauce drippings from the can to add more flavour and end up with a thinner sauce too.
Be careful if your planning to keep it like 7 days
I just went to get one out and it’s only been 5 and all my food has mold in the containers
Did you add the sauce overtop your meal prep? I’m thinking to make it fresh the night before and preserve it in a dipping cup
How the $%*^ can you get mold in the container in 5 days?
Your fridge might need Freon. This happened to me once and it turned out to be the fridge
Great recipe. I made it last night. The sauce is so good, although I used sour cream instead of yogurt. Yum.
The sauce is so great! Thanks for sharing, Gary!
How many calories does this have?
Hi Arianna! Nutritional information is provided only for select recipes at this time. However, if it is not available for a specific recipe, we recommend using free online resources at your discretion (you can Google “nutritional calculator”). Hope that helps!
My family loved it. I did use shredded chicken and a lime cilantro rice. Thank you
Easy and Delicious! Wish this website added the nutritional facts though.
Nutritional information is provided only for select and new recipes at this time. But if it is not available for a specific recipe, you can always use free online resources at your discretion (you can Google “nutritional calculator”). Hope that helps, Erika!
can you use ground beef instead of ground chicken? keeping all seasonings the same?
Yes, of course!
Omg! I am so siked to try this recipe!! This looks delish! Thank you so much for this recipe!
The chicken you cook is delicious and attractive. very delicious with rice.
Nowhere does it say if it’s eaten cold or reheated….
You can choose to have it at room temp or you can reheat – it’s completely up to you.
1.5 pounds of ground chicken divided into 4 servings contains 31 grams protein each. There is also protein in rice, beans, corn, and Greek yogurt. The human body can assimilate only 30 grams of protein at a time. 44 grams of protein in one sitting means 14 will end up stored as fat. You might consider reducing the amount of chicken in this dish.
Hi Jennifer! You can always reduce the amount of chicken to your liking to suit your dietary needs. 🙂
Protein does not turn into fat. Google it.
Protein in excess definitely gets converted to fat. I remember this from Biochemistry in Nursing school. Yes, you can look it up. If you eat more calories than your body needs from protein sources, the excess is converted to fat, albeit in a roundabout way. Protein is first metabolized into amino acids and ammonia. The leftover carbon compound is converted into glucose, which your body uses for energy. If your cells have enough glucose, and there is no space left to store it as glycogen in your muscles or liver, the excess glucose is converted into fat and stored.
I have all the ingredients on hand except ground chicken. Do you think it would be ok with shredded chicken instead? I’m sure it would be fine, but I don’t know what the ratio would be (seasonings wise). Any thoughts?
Unfortunately Liza, we cannot answer that with certainty. Please use your best judgement when making modifications. Sorry I can’t be more helpful!
Do you do anything so the rice isn’t dry and hard by the time you are eating your 4th one?
I typically don’t have any issues with hard/dry rice by the 4th day (but this can vary by brand and type of rice) but you can always make fresh rice day of if you prefer!