Easy Chicken Fajita Rice Bowls are healthy and quick to make, they’re like your favorite fajitas but without the tortillas and easy to pack for lunch!
Easy Chicken Fajita Rice Bowls are a staple in our household for dinners, but even more importantly for lunches! It takes just 15-20 minutes to cook the chicken and the vegetables and you’ve got an easy lunch you can pack ahead for or freeze. Big thanks to our favorite lunch secret, Minute® Ready to Serve Rice for sponsoring this post. We always have a huge stock of them in our pantry for quick meals.
I routinely make a double batch of the recipe so we can enjoy them for dinner, for a couple of lunches that week and I freeze the remaining chicken and vegetables in portioned out containers so I can grab one along with a Ready to Serve Rice Cup to go for a quick lunch.
We’re huge fans of Mexican food in our house and I’m an even bigger fan of food that can be served out of a bowl. These Chicken Fajita Rice Bowls combines my favorite crispy pan seared seasoned chicken with a quickly sautéed peppers and onions and the best shortcut ever, Ready to Serve Rice.
I think another reason I love making this so much is because it reminds me of my favorite chopped chicken and rice meal ever, Halal Cart’s Middle Eastern Chicken and Rice. In that case Turmeric Seasoned rice is served with spiced chicken with a spicy yogurt sauce on top. You can absolutely use these cups to make that meal too, adding just a pinch of the spices and butter to the rice cups before microwaving. I would use the Basmati Rice flavor for that recipe.
Ready to Serve Rice is one of our favorite lunch time items to pack. I’ve previously made One Minute Brown Rice Risotto using them and now my husband enjoys it for lunch on a regular basis.
The great thing about them is they’re portioned so you can just grab one and go, and take just a minute in the microwave. You can mix in quick flavors like I did for the risotto or you can add them to an otherwise prepared dish like the chicken and fajita vegetables in this recipe.
They also come in a large variety of flavors that include brown rice, including Brown Rice (which we love and it is also the flavor used in the risotto recipe) Brown & Wild Rice and Multi-Grain Medley (which we use pretty regularly because it saves me from having to cook wild rice which I have never been a fan of!) along with the Brown Rice and Quinoa I used in this recipe. They do also have white rice varieties so you can always have a huge variety of flavors to work with
The seasoning of the Chicken Fajita Rice Bowls is super simple and made up of pantry spices and the most important part is just getting a super hot cast iron skillet (I think I link to that skillet in almost every post, I have an unhealthy obsession with my cast iron skillet).
Because you want that awesome sear on the veggies and chicken without really cooking them for long. You’ll end up with super flavorful, moist chicken and crunchy but caramelized peppers and onions. My favorite part of this dish is probably the crema because I use it liberally on everything until I run out. For day’s I’ll have it on eggs, on steak, on roasted potatoes or even on soups.
Tools used in the Making of this recipe:
Cast iron skillet: Nothing better for getting a good hot sear on your ingredients and holds heat so well, I love this pan!
Minute Ready to Serve Rice: There’s a page full of easy options you can even order online. We love these for quick meal fixes.
Favorite Bento Box for Lunch: This lunch box will store all your chicken and veggies for the perfect lunch you can add the rice to. We have a whole stack of these at home.
Ingredients
- 1 medium white or yellow onion , sliced
- 1 red bell pepper , sliced
- 1 green bell pepper sliced
- 1 pound chicken breast , sliced into 1 inch pieces
- 1 tablespoon cumin
- 1/2 teaspoon cayenne
- 1 teaspoon oregano
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
- 4 tablespoons canola oil , divided
- 1 cup greek yogurt or sour cream
- 1 tablespoon taco sauce or Mexican hot sauce
- Minute Rice Ready to Serve Brown Rice and Quinoa
- 1 avocado , diced
- 1 lime , quartered
- 1/4 cup cilantro , minced
- 1 can black beans
Instructions
- In a small bowl combine the cumin, cayenne, oregano, garlic powder, salt and black pepper and combine half of it with the sliced vegetables and half with the sliced chicken.
- in a second small bowl combine the yogurt or sour cream with the hot sauce and stir to make your spicy crema.
- In a VERY hot skillet, put two tablespoons of canola oil.
- Add the chicken and cook on high heat, searing the outside for 1-2 minutes, then turning and cooking for one more minute.
- Remove the chicken from the pan and add in the onions and bell peppers.
- Cook on high for 1-2 minutes until the edges are slightly browned but they are still crisp.
- Serve over Minute Rice Ready to Serve Brown Rice and Quinoa, spoon on some of the vegetables, then the chicken and the avocado.
- Add some parsley and the spicy crema and serve with a wedge of lime.
Nutrition
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Thanks again to Minute® Ready to Serve Rice for sponsoring this post.
There is no nutrition menu to see how much trans fat or saturated is in the chicken fajita rice bowls
I’m in the process of updating all the recipes to show nutritional stats. Just completed this one for you. 🙂
What kind of black beans do I buy? Cooked? In water? When do I add them? Thanks!
You can use whatever can of black beans you prefer. I just added them on top at the end.
From Lawrin:
Hi, The photo shows beans, but your list of ingredients does not include them. What kind are they, and how much do you put in? I’m referring to Easy Chicken Fajita Rice Bowls. Thanks!
Yes, so sorry about that, I did add canned black beans to the bowls as well. I edited the recipe. Thank you for letting me know 🙂
Oh my gosh!! Sooo good! Thanks for sharing.
You’re welcome! Thanks for dropping back by and letting me know how much you like it!
Making this for dinner tonight but wondering what I do with the cilantro? Ingredients list includes it but it’s not in the directions anywhere
My apologies about that, it is used as a garnish. Hope you enjoy the meal!
Hi Sabrina,
I made this today and it was a BIG hit. As my husband says…it goes into the book of life LOL. I’ve made several of your dishes and each one has been Fabulous. I appreciate the hard work of blogging and thank you so very much for sharing your great recipes.
Thanks, Beth! It’s always great to hear that my hard work is being appreciated! 🙂
This recipe looks so delicious and easy to make. I am sure my family will love it. i will have to try this recipe on the weekend.
I hope you all love it!
That looks amazing! WE need a new menu so I will have to try this on the next meal plan!
That is so sweet, thank you!
This sound great and I bet my husband would love that spicy crema sauce.
Thanks Scarlet!
I love chicken and rice meals! My kids love brown rice so I was looking for more ways to incorporate it into our meals. I will have to add this to my menu plans.
Awesome! I hope they enjoy it! 🙂
Would my Le Creuset porcelain coated grill pan work for this?
Yes! I would cut the pieces of chicken into longer strips so it doesn’t fall into the grooves of the grill pan, but it would be a great pan to use!
But where is the recipe?
For some reason WordPress was having a hard time with this post update! Thank you for your comments, when I saw them on my phone I knew something was immediately wrong! Thank goodness for backups in Word! 🙂
I couldn’t find your recipe. I found the rice recipe though.
For some reason WordPress was having a hard time with this post update! Thank you for your comments, when I saw them on my phone I knew something was immediately wrong! Thank goodness for backups in Word! 🙂