Easy Chicken Burrito Bowl Recipe

This easy chicken burrito bowl is one of those meals where you get a bit of everything in every forkful. There’s spiced chicken, lime rice, beans, sweetcorn, tomatoes, red onion, lettuce, avocado and jalapeños, all piled into one bowl.

I particularly like meals like this when different people want slightly different things. You don’t have to mix everything together before serving, so someone who loves jalapeños can pile them on while someone else can quietly leave them at the other end of the table!

The chicken is marinated in lime, paprika, cumin, chilli, garlic, onion and oregano before being cooked on a griddle pan and sliced. Most of the remaining ingredients only need chopping or draining, so although there are quite a few components in the finished bowl, none of them is particularly complicated.

If you’re looking for more ways to use chicken, have a browse through my healthy chicken recipes too.

Ingredients for the chicken burrito bowl

For the bowl you’ll need:

• 1 boneless, skinless chicken breast
• 1 cup cooked rice
• ½ teaspoon lime juice
• 1 small avocado, chopped
• 1 tablespoon chopped spinach
• ½ cup canned beans
• ½ cup canned sweetcorn
• A handful of cherry tomatoes, quartered
• ½ red onion
• 1 lettuce leaf
• 1 tablespoon chopped jalapeño peppers, canned or fresh
• Salt and black pepper to taste

For the chicken marinade, you’ll need:

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 tablespoon lime juice
• ½ teaspoon paprika
• ½ teaspoon ground cumin
• ¼ teaspoon chilli powder
• ¼ teaspoon garlic powder
• ¼ teaspoon onion granules
• ¼ teaspoon dried oregano
• A pinch of salt and black pepper

There are quite a few ingredients written down when you see them all together, but most are things you’re simply opening, draining or chopping rather than cooking separately.

How to make a chicken burrito bowl

Mix all the marinade ingredients together, add the chicken and coat it thoroughly. Leave it to marinate for 20–30 minutes. You can also prepare the chicken in advance and leave it covered in the fridge to marinate overnight.

Preheat a griddle pan and cook the chicken for approximately 5–7 minutes on each side, checking that it is thoroughly cooked before removing it from the pan. Chicken breasts vary in thickness, so don’t rely on the time alone.

Leave the chicken to rest for about five minutes before slicing it.

Prepare the rice and season it with the lime juice, salt and black pepper.

Place the lettuce in the bowl and arrange the rice, beans, sweetcorn, tomatoes and red onion around it. Add the sliced chicken, avocado and jalapeños.

You can arrange everything separately as I have in the photos or pile it all together. It tastes exactly the same either way, so I’m not going to pretend your dinner needs to be Instagram-ready before you’re allowed to eat it!

Getting the chicken right

The marinade does most of the work here. Lime, paprika, cumin, chilli, garlic, onion and oregano give fairly ordinary chicken breast considerably more flavour.

Leaving it for 20–30 minutes gives the chicken time to sit in the marinade without requiring you to organise dinner hours beforehand. If you are organised, though, you can prepare it earlier and keep it covered in the fridge.

Once you’ve cooked the chicken, give it those few minutes to rest before slicing it. You can use that time to finish assembling everything else.

The important thing is to make sure the chicken is thoroughly cooked. The 5–7 minutes per side in the recipe is a guide rather than a guarantee because a particularly thick chicken breast can take longer.

What beans can I use?

This recipe is quite forgiving when it comes to beans, so you don’t need to buy a particular tin purely for one portion.

Black beans would fit the burrito-bowl idea particularly well, but if you’ve already got another type of canned bean open, use what you enjoy. Chickpeas would change the finished bowl slightly but are another option.

Drain the beans before adding them because you don’t want the canning liquid making the rice and salad soggy.

How spicy is this chicken burrito bowl?

The chicken itself has some chilli powder in the marinade, but the jalapeños are where you can make a much bigger difference to the heat of an individual bowl.

That makes this quite easy to serve to people with different preferences. Add plenty of jalapeños to one and none to another if necessary.

You can always put them on the table separately rather than adding them before serving.

Can I use microwave rice?

Absolutely. If the thing stopping you making a meal like this is the thought of cooking a tiny portion of rice separately, use a microwave pouch.

Plain rice keeps the other flavours quite clear, although you could experiment with a flavoured rice if you find one you particularly like.

If you do want to cook it yourself, my guide to cooking rice should help.

Other vegetables you can add

Cucumber works nicely with the tomatoes and avocado if you want something extra fresh and crunchy.

You could also add peppers or swap some of the salad ingredients according to what you’ve got available.

I wouldn’t feel you need to keep adding vegetables just to make the bowl bigger, though. Rice, chicken, beans, sweetcorn, tomatoes, onion, lettuce, avocado and jalapeños already make this quite a substantial bowl.

Making a vegetarian burrito bowl

As I’m vegetarian, this is the sort of meal that’s particularly easy for me to adapt without making an entirely separate dinner.

You could replace the chicken with marinated peppers, courgette and aubergine and cook them on the griddle. A vegetarian chicken-style alternative is another easy option.

Tofu could work too, although I’d use a firm tofu and press it first so it holds together properly during cooking.

Have a look through my vegetarian recipes if you’re looking for more meat-free meal ideas.

Is a chicken burrito bowl good for meal prep?

A lot of the preparation can certainly be done ahead, but I wouldn’t assemble the entire bowl and then expect every ingredient to be at its best later.

Cooked chicken, rice and the other prepared ingredients need to be cooled and stored safely. I’d also keep ingredients such as avocado and lettuce separate until you’re ready to eat because their texture won’t benefit from sitting underneath everything else.

For a work lunch, you could prepare the main components beforehand and add the fresh ingredients when you assemble the bowl.

Food safety with chicken and rice

There are two things to think about with this recipe because you’re dealing with both raw chicken and cooked rice.

Keep raw chicken separate from ingredients that will be eaten without further cooking, and wash your hands, utensils and surfaces properly after handling it. Don’t wash raw chicken because splashing water can spread bacteria around the kitchen.

Make sure the chicken is thoroughly cooked before serving rather than relying solely on the suggested cooking time.

Cooked rice also needs to be cooled and stored correctly if you’re preparing it ahead. Follow current Food Standards Agency guidance on storing and reheating leftovers, particularly if you’re making the rice or chicken in advance.

More easy chicken dinners

For another rice-based chicken dinner, my chicken and bacon dirty rice is smoky, spicy and cooked as one mixed dish rather than assembled as a bowl.

If you fancy pasta instead, try my creamy chipotle chicken pasta or browse my chicken pasta recipes for more ideas.

You’ll also find curries, salads, slow cooker meals, air fryer chicken and plenty of other family dinner ideas in my healthy chicken recipes collection.

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