One-Pot Chicken Burrito Bowl

One pot recipes are the perfect dinner recipes to make on busy weeknights. This one pot chicken burrito bowl is easy to make. The best part is that everything is cooked in one pan making an easy meal for the whole family to love.

Flavorful chicken and rice are cooked in a pot with diced tomatoes, black beans, and spices. All topped with melted mozzarella cheese.

One Pan Recipe

Everything is cooked together in one pot or frying pan. I don’t think it could be any easier! I LOVE one pot / one pan meals because I don’t like added fuss. The most work you’ll be doing here is grating cheese and chopping chicken.

• It’s loaded with chunks of chicken. Like, LOADED! Plus black beans, tomatoes, rice and spices.
• To keep things as simple as possible, you can use canned diced tomatoes and black beans.
• The cheese really completes the recipe – it’s so simple but takes this meal from an 8 to a 10. There’s something about adding a bit of cheese that just makes things more delicious, don’t you think?
• With simple fresh ingredients, you can make an easy weeknight dinner all in one pot. Use leftovers as an easy meal prep for weekday lunches.
• Chicken breasts are chopped into bite-sized pieces, but can be replaced with pork or beef. For a more affordable meal, you can use ground turkey, chicken, or beef like we did in our ground turkey sweet potato skillet recipe. 
• If you like this chicken recipe, you might also enjoy our sweet and sour chicken bites (a family favorite), instant pot chili chicken (easy 30 minute dinner) and our easy baked chicken legs.

Recipe Ingredients

• CHICKEN: I used 1.4 lbs of small chicken breasts (about 0.63 kg). To save time, you can also use a store-bought rotisserie chicken. For more flavor, marinade the chicken ahead of time with one of our six easy chicken marinade recipes.
• RICE: I used short grain brown rice. You can also use long-grain white rice or brown rice.
• BEANS: You’ll need one 14 oz can of black beans, drained and rinsed.
• DICED TOMATOES: You can use canned diced tomatoes or chopped fresh tomatoes.
• SPICES: A combination of onion powder, garlic powder, cumin, chili powder, paprika, salt and pepper. If you're in a pinch, skip the seasonings listed here and just use 1 teaspoon of taco seasoning.
• CHEESE: Use freshly grated mozzarella cheese. You can also use cheddar cheese, marble, or monterey jack.
• TOPPINGS: This is a great recipe to add favorite toppings like sour cream or plain greek yogurt, pico de Gallo, adobo sauce, sliced red onion, and freshly squeezed lime wedges.

VARIATIONS: If you don’t have an ingredient that I used, swap it for something else. Swap black beans for chickpeas, lentils or kidney beans. Before heading to the grocery store look in your fridge first… anything there you need to use up? What about some frozen corn or peas? If you have some bell peppers, those would work great too!

How To Make One Pot Chicken Burrito Bowl

1. Grate cheese, chop onion, chop chicken.
2. Toast the rice in a pot over medium heat with a bit of olive oil. Add onions and garlic.
3. Sear the chicken. Add broth, black beans, diced tomatoes and spices according to full recipe instructions below.
4. Simmer until liquid cooks down.
5. Sprinkle with grated cheese. Serve and enjoy!

Leftovers can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge up to 4-5 days. Add to separate containers for easy meal prep lunches. Spoon a serving into whole grain wraps with romaine lettuce for future lunches.

Recipe Tips

• It’s easier to prep ingredients before you begin the recipe. There are a few small steps to cooking but each requires only 1-2 minutes before moving on to the next. That’s not enough time to chop and prep between each one.
• Keep cooking oil nearby. You’ll need to add it as you go – before toasting rice, before adding chicken and before onions. Use any cooking oil you regularly use in your kitchen.
• Toasting the rice adds flavor to the meal and creates more even cooking. Add a bit of oil to the pot then mix in the rice. It will only take a minute or two before you start to see the rice turning brown.
• Sear the Chicken quickly for only 1-2 minutes before moving on to the next step. This helps to seal in more flavor.
• Add other vegetables if you have them. Frozen corn or peas, chopped bell pepper and olives would all be delicious! Make sure to use softer vegetables – hard vegetables such as carrots and sweet potatoes will take longer to cook.

More Easy Dinners

One-pan dinners are life savers! If you want to cut back on time and effort in the kitchen, here are some more simple recipes:

• Pineapple Chicken Sheet Pan has everything cooked in the oven on a baking sheet.
• Beef Rice Cabbage Casserole is a great way to use ground beef and inexpensive cabbage.
• Ground Beef Sweet Potato Skillet uses a frying pan for an all-in-one dinner.
• Chicken, Peas and Pasta Skillet is another quick and fast frying pan recipe.

Did you love this chicken burrito bowl? Be sure to leave a rating below!