Skinny Chicken Burrito Bowl

Remember me showing you how to make the most amazing Perfectly Poached Chicken breasts in a pressure cooker in 10 minutes? Crazy good, right?  Well one thing about love making chicken that was is how one simple recipe can turn into incredible ‘new’ dishes!

Like this recipe… my skinny chicken burrito bowl.  Unless you live in the sticks or never leave the house pretty much every town has a Chipotle place to eat. Heck we even have one nearby and I live in countrybumpkinville.  The first time I was there I got their burrito bowl.  It was good but I was surprised by how many people got it when honestly it’s one super simple thing to make yourself at a fraction of the cost.  So I was set out to come up with not a copycat recipe but one that is TKW worthy cause after all I am a food snob.  LOL

My recipe is pretty basic and what’s awesome about it, you can add in whatever you want.  Don’t limit it to what’s in the recipe but rather expand it and add other things to it.  Try grilled asparagus pieces, chopped fresh peppers.  Maybe some jicama or crunchy tortilla strips.  Well okay maybe not the last one as this is a healthy recipe.  However you know me and I firmly believe in everything in moderation.  Truth be told when I make this I do have a side of chips with it as I love to scoop it up with that and eat it.  I like that textural balance of crunchy to the meatiness of the dish.

So if you see I went with simple and colorful.  Do you eat via the color pallet? I’ve been reading a lot about this and it actually makes sense.

Blue, purple and deep-red fruits and vegetables are full of anthocyanins and proanthocyanins, antioxidants associated with keeping the heart healthy and the brain functioning optimally. Green fruits and veggies such as broccoli and kale, provide compounds called indoles and isothiocyanates, which may help prevent cancer by amping up the production of enzymes that clear toxins from the body. Many yellow and green vegetables are good sources of lutein and zeaxanthin, phytochemicals that accumulate in the eyes and help prevent age-related macular degeneration, a leading cause of blindness in older people. Leafy greens are also rich in beta carotene. Alpha and beta carotene make foods like carrots and sweet potatoes so brilliantly orange. The body converts these compounds into the active form of vitamin A, which helps keep your eyes, bones and immune system healthy. These phytochemicals also operate as antioxidants, sweeping up disease-promoting free radicals. Red foods, such as tomatoes and watermelon, contain lycopene, a phytochemical that may help protect against prostate and breast cancers. (src, Eating Well).

Plus honestly I love a very vibrant looking dish.  We eat visually, at least I do, so if the dish looks tasty and appealing I’m more apt to try it.  so as you can see this dish runs the rainbow of brilliant colors as well as flavors.  So ever since going to Chipotle I’ve been making this recipe.  I have it at least once a week mixing up what I put in from a veggie side as well as a grain side.  I LOVE this with couscous and quinoa. You can skip the carbs and go with chopped kale and spinach too!

Well a few weeks ago I was at the butchers and he had an in-store special of boneless skinless chicken breasts for $1.49 a pound. For here that’s super cheap! I had made a batch of the regular poached chicken but a commercial for Chipotle came on the tv which IMMEDIATELY got me craving one of these things.

Out came the Mexican spices, chipotle peppers and adobo sauce, my Fanfriggentastic Fajita seasoning mix and more chicken!   Into the pressure cooker they went and 10 minutes later I had KILLER Chipotle Chicken that was just begging to be made into one of these healthy burrito bowls. One thing about me is I always have these things on hand – brown rice, corn (if it’s in season I’ll shuck a dozen or so cobs and flash freeze the kernels), avocados (cause they are AWESOME), black beans, tomatoes, romaine lettuce and fresh herbs. I know it’s a 50/50 split out there for those of you that love cilantro and those of you that hate it.  I’ve yet to find a person that is “meh, I can take it or leave it”.

Once the chicken rested a bit, I rough chopped it, diced up my veggies and out came my bowl.  As I was plating my food for the shoot Mr. Fantabulous came out to see what I was doing, a.k.a., see what he could munch on.  As he watched me he was snacking on the chicken and veggies, often grabbing a bit of each all at once and stuffing it in his mouth.  Now he loves every single thing in this bowl HOWEVER when it’s assembled as such he will not eat it.  He says he ‘hates’ stuff like this which makes absolutely NO sense as I could seriously put everything that is in his bowl, into an actual burrito and he would inhale it.

Go figure!

So that’s exactly what I did.. I made 2 burrito bowls but then literally dumped one entire one in a 12″ round tortilla, rolled it and put it in a plate for him.  No lie he then said “Wow honey this is amazing!  I love the flavors.”  Then he looked at my bowl and said “How can you eat that?”  Um….. yeah, let it go Lori; let it go.  LOL  But that’s the beauty of this recipe, if you were weird like Mr. Fantabulous you could make this recipe as-is and end up putting it in an actual tortilla shell. Now granted it wouldn’t be a burrito bowl but rather well, a burrito but hey, as long as you make it and eat it, life is good.

What’s funny is I know friends that have been eating this type of dish for decades, long before the concept of a Chipotle restaurant or a Chipotle-like one was even thought of.  This isn’t revolutionary nor new by any means.  However they made it a ‘thing’ and popular.  It was buzz worthy, readily accessible, fast and pretty tasty.  Running to one of these places is kinda-sorta-fast though it’s been my experience that it’s not a quick in-and-out experience as there is ALWAYS a line out the door.  Congrats to them but fix this, please.  Anyway the thing is a burrito bowl is not technically a burrito, as it consists of burrito fillings served without the tortilla, with the fillings placed in a bowl, and a layer of rice at the bottom.

But yeah, you kinda knew that, huh?  It’s like ‘enough lady, I wanna eat!’

So grab your pressure cooker, veggies and go make this.  One batch of this can last you for days!  Lunches for the week!

Skinny Chicken Burrito Bowl

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• Author: The Kitchen Whisperer

Ingredients

• 2 cups cooked, warmed brown rice (I cooked mine in stock)
• 2 cups black beans, drained and rinsed
• 2 ears of corn (kernels only) or 2 cups canned whole kernel corn, drained
• 2 cups cherry tomatoes cut into small cubes
• 3 cups cooked chicken breast, cubed *See note for best cooking method and spices
• 1 large avocado, pitted and cut into small cubes
• 4 tablespoon chopped cilantro
• 3 cups chopped romaine lettuce
• 3 tablespoon lime juice

Optional toppings:

• Fat free sour cream
• Cilantro Lime Dressing

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Instructions

1. While the rice is warm add in 1 tablespoon of cilantro and 1 tablespoon lime juice and stir gently.
2. Evenly divide the cooked rice into the serving bowls.
3. Top with lettuce, corn, cherry tomatoes, black beans, chicken (See note on cooking), avocado and remaining cilantro.
4. Sprinkle over the remaining lime juice.
5. Garnish with sauce and garnish of choice.

Notes

For this chicken I used my Pressure Cooker Perfectly Poached Chicken Breasts recipe with a few tweaks to the spices. Instead of the spices in that recipe I used the following with the stock:

1/2 cup rough chopped red onion
3 garlic cloves, peeled
2 chipotle peppers canned in adobe, seeded and roughly chopped
1 tablespoon adobo sauce (don’t use the seeds)
2 tablespoon fresh lime juice
3 tablespoon Fajita Seasoning
1 tablespoon smoked paprika
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
4 cups chicken stock
3 lbs boneless chicken breasts

Place all ingredients except the stock and chicken in a blender and pulse to combine.
Place the chicken breasts in your pressure cooker, marinade blend and then stock.
Lock the lid and set the pressure to high for 10 minutes.
As soon as the pressure cooker timer goes off, do a quick release.
Once the pressure is released, remove the lid and pulled out the poached chicken breasts.
Place a strainer over a large bowl and strain the stock.
Allow the stock to cool and remove the fat.
Remove the chicken and allow to rest for a few minutes and then dice.
Place all ingredients except the stock and chicken in a blender and pulse to combine.
Place the chicken breasts in your pressure cooker, marinade blend and then stock.
Lock the lid and set the pressure to high for 10 minutes.
As soon as the pressure cooker timer goes off, do a quick release.
Once the pressure is released, remove the lid and pulled out the poached chicken breasts.
Place a strainer over a large bowl and strain the stock.
Allow the stock to cool and remove the fat.
Remove the chicken and allow to rest for a few minutes and then dice.

Sauces for this Burrito Bowl try the following:

Cilantro Lime Dressing

Creamy Cilantro Dressing

I can’t preach enough good things about my Pressure Cooker.  It’s never too early to add things to your wish list.  This is a MUST HAVE in the kitchen!!!

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