One Skillet Mexican Chicken and Rice

This one-skillet Mexican chicken and rice recipe is tasty enough to be our at-home Chipotle bowl substitute and easy enough to put together in half an hour.

We love Chipotle. But it’s not exactly nearby for us, and it’s not exactly the healthiest meal out there. So popular demand called for a healthy, easy-to-make substitute to feed our spicy, flavorful Mexican chicken and rice bowl cravings.

I finally perfected this tasty recipe that everyone in the family will eat (even if the somewhat picky 6 and under crew don’t love it). Everyone else loves it. Good enough.

Ingredients

The ingredients are mosty what you’d expect in a Mexican skillet – with a healthy surprise thrown in for good measure!

Veggies

I like to use a small red onion, or half of a large one. Any onion really will work fine, the red ones just add a nice color to this highly colorful fare.

A nice colorful bell pepper also adds contrast to the visual appeal. Red, yellow or orange will do nicely, and even green is fine. Don’t overcook the pepper if you like to still have a bit of crunch in it.

A small hot pepper adds a nice little kick. You can use or not use a hot pepper, whatever suits your taste. I’m currently using up some chopped frozen peppers from the garden that are, in fact, purple. Yay for more color!

Sweet corn kernels add a delicious sweetness to the overall dish. Frozen works well, or freshly cut from the cob would also work well. I tend to stay away from canned corn. Here in rural Western New York we have such delicious local sweet corn that I’ve turned into a corn snob. I can’t eat any other sweet corn. I freeze my own to last for the rest of the year when it’s in season.

Hiding chard or kale in a dish like this is totally something my mother would do, but I guess now I do it too. It’s super healthy, and if you chop it small, you’ll hardly notice it’s there.

I have some beautiful rainbow Swiss chard in the garden right now and it also adds lovely color. Kale is a little more flavor neutral if you don’t like the taste of chard. It’s also totally optional. If you don’t feel the need to boost the nutrient value of your dinner, feel free to leave it out.

Protein and Bulk

Chicken breast or chicken thighs both are great in this recipe. Chop the pieces into small-ish cubes for quicker cooking and so that a piece of chicken doesn’t take over any particular mouthful.

When you’re adding the chicken to the skillet to cook, try to avoid overcooking the chicken so that it doesn’t get dried out or tough. You can do this by not quite fully cooking the chicken before adding the peppers and other shorter-cooking vegetables. Don’t worry, the chicken will be fully cooked through by the time everything else is done cooking.

If you want a vegetarian option, you can leave the chicken out altogether. But that’s more like a different recipe.

Black beans are a Mexican classic, and add more bulk and texture to the meal. I use canned beans for the convenience, but you could also use your own pre-cooked black beans.

This is a Mexican chicken and rice recipe, so rice should be a given. I suppose calling this a one-skillet dinner is slightly misleading, as you do need to dirty a second pot (or a rice cooker) to pre-cook the rice.

And with the rice you also have some choices to make. White rice is fine, but brown rice is a healthier option. Just remember to leave extra time to cook the brown rice, as it takes most of an hour to cook.

Another even healthier alternative, but one my family balks at is quinoa. If I were to make this recipe strictly to my own taste, I would use quinoa. Only one other in the family pretends to like it, so we stick to rice.

Also, my husband is trying to stick to a low-carb diet, so when I make this these days, I don’t add the rice to the one skillet with all the other veggies and meat. I’d prefer to, but I suppose it’s just as easy to serve the rice on the side. It’s hard trying to please everyone in a family of seven!

Spices

The spices are an unassuming standard of Mexican cooking. Chili powder, paprika, oregano and salt pack this dish full of punchy flavor.

Or if you really want to keep things simple, you could put in 1 and 1/2 Tablespoons of my Homemade Taco Seasoning Mix. It’s got a few extra things in there, but they fit right in here.

Cheese

It’s wouldn’t be proper Mexican (American-style, anyway!) without a coating of melty cheese. A Mexican blend shredded cheese is perfect, or stick to my family’s favorite, plain old shredded Cheddar cheese (with a bit of Mozzarella thrown in for good measure).

Cooking Instructions

This skillet is fairly quick and easy to throw together, but it’s important to get the timing right. I like to get everything cut up first. Then I know it’s ready to go when it’s time for each item to hit the skillet.

Cut the veggies

Finely chop the red onion and red pepper (and the hot pepper and chard or kale if you’re using them). Keep the onion separate from everything else, as it will go into the skillet first. It needs to get a head start cooking, as it takes the longest.

Cut the chicken breast or boneless thighs into small cubes. These should be small enough that any one bite isn’t overwhelmed by a large mouthful of chicken. Even-sized cubes also make for quicker and more uniform cooking.

Start cooking

Heat a few drizzles of olive oil in a skillet. Once the oil is hot, throw in the onion and saute at medium-high heat for 2-3 minutes until it is beginning to soften.

Add the cubed chicken and cook, stirring frequently, for another 3-5 minutes, until not quite cooked through. I find it helpful to add the next few veggies while the chicken is still slightly pink. This gives the chicken time to finish cooking with everything else and prevents overcooking.

Add the spices (chili powder, oregano, paprika and salt), and stir to coat the chicken. Or use this Homemade Taco Seasoning Mix.

Add the chopped peppers (sweet and/or hot), stir to distribute, and cook for 2-3 minutes. The peppers will still be on the firm-ish side, but they will finish cooking when the rest of the veggies are added.

The corn kernels and black beans really just need to be warmed through and don’t require much, if any, cooking. The chopped chard or kale (if you’re using it), will wilt with just a little warming, so add them at the same time as the beans and corn. Plan to cook for 3-4 minutes after these are added.

Last additions

You can add the precooked rice at this time and stir to combine. Alternatively, you can leave the rice separate and serve as a side.

Sprinkle the shredded cheese on top. Don’t stir it in, but leave it on the heat for 3-4 minutes to melt into a bubbly layer. You can cover the skillet to help trap the heat and melt the cheese faster if you want, but it will also melt just fine without it. Another option is to put the skillet under the broiler for a minute or two to get the cheese melty right quick.

Dig in!

Remove from heat and serve with tortilla chips, salsa, plain yogurt or sour cream, guacamole – whatever you like on your Mexican!

Adjustments

This is a super adjustable recipe to suit your taste or the ingredients you have on hand.

You can adjust the heat level to your taste by increasing or decreasing the number of hot peppers or adjusting the amount of chili powder. Feel free to leave out the hot peppers, or even peppers altogether. If you don’t like that hint of sweetness from the corn, that can also be left out.

Mix in the rice before adding the cheese or serve it on the side. Or not at all.

Make it into a burrito by wrapping it up in a burrito tortilla – Chipotle-style!

Serve it over chopped lettuce for a tasty, cheesy Mexican salad. The options are endless. However you make it, it’s sure to be a crowd-pleaser.

Store leftovers (if there are any!) in an airtight container in the refrigerator. Reheat in the microwave or back on the skillet.