One Skillet Mexican Chicken and Rice
Twin Cities food blogger greens & chocolate shares another go-to weeknight meal.
Ever since making my One-Pot Weeknight Spaghetti, I am hooked on one-skillet/pot/pan meals. They’re so easy and practical – it’s the best! Another great thing about one-pan meals? You can do so many different things in them: pasta, rice, quinoa, couscous … any grain, really. So when Mexican night rolled around, which is weekly in our house, I figured, why not make a Mexican dish in one skillet?
We absolutely loved this dinner. It was hearty and filling, stuffed with veggies, and of course you can’t forget that ooey, gooey cheese on top. The leftovers were great too, which is always key in my book, because as a family of three (minus the 2-month-old who doesn’t eat yet) we always have tons of leftovers.
We used the leftovers of this rice skillet as a stuffing for burritos, on top of salad, and of course just re-heated with more cheese on top. Because you can never have too much cheese.
If you want to make this even easier, you can cook the chicken a day or two in advance or even just use a rotisserie chicken. Then you would just start from the step where you cook the peppers and go from there, adding the rest of the ingredients and cooking until the rice is done. That’s it! Dinner is served.
One Skillet Mexican Chicken and Rice
Serves 6 Prep time: 45 minutes
Ingredients
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 medium chicken breasts, cut into 1-inch chunks
1 red bell pepper, diced
1 yellow bell pepper, diced
1 cup black beans
1 cup frozen, canned, or fresh corn
1 cup salsa
1 (8-ounce) can diced green chiles
1 cup white rice
2 cups (1 15-ounce can) vegetable broth
¼ cup water
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon chili powder
Salt and pepper, to taste
1 cup shredded Mexican cheese
Sliced green onions and cilantro, for topping
Directions
In large skillet, heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil over medium-high heat.
Add diced chicken and cook until browned on each side, then remove from skillet.
Add bell peppers and additional 1 tablespoon of olive oil and cook for 5-7 minutes, until softened. They don’t have to be cooked completely.
Return chicken to skillet, along with black beans, corn, salsa, green chiles, rice, vegetable broth, water, cumin, chili powder, salt and pepper.
Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low and simmer for 15-17 minutes, stirring often, or until rice has absorbed all of the liquid.
Top with cheese and either remove from heat and top with lid, or if your skillet is ovenproof, melt cheese under the broiler.
Serve topped with green onions and cilantro.
Enjoy!