Chicken Burrito Bowl Recipe: High-Protein Meal Prep

Here's the bowl: lime and chipotle marinated chicken, seared and chopped, over white rice, black beans and charred corn, topped with salsa and a tangy Greek yogurt crema. One batch makes 4 bowls. Each one comes in at around 740 calories and 59 g of protein.

What you get in one bowl

Each bowl has about 170 g of raw chicken breast, a solid scoop of rice, half a can's worth of beans, some browned corn, a spoon of salsa and a quarter cup of yogurt crema. That works out to about 740 calories, 59 g protein, 94 g carbs and 14 g fat.

It's a big, filling lunch or dinner. Most of the protein comes from the chicken, and the yogurt adds a bit more. If you want it lighter or lower in carbs, the rice is the easiest place to trim. That's covered further down. First, the recipe.

The chicken burrito bowl recipe

Makes 4 bowls.

For the chicken and marinade

• 1.5 lb (680 g) raw boneless, skinless chicken breast
• 1 tbsp (13.5 g) olive oil
• Juice of 2 limes
• 1 to 2 chipotle peppers in adobo, finely chopped, plus 1 tbsp of the adobo sauce (or 2 tsp chili powder if you don't have a can open)
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp black pepper

For the bowls

• 1.5 cups (277 g) dry long-grain white rice
• 400 g canned black beans, drained and rinsed (about two 15-oz cans)
• 2 cups (272 g) frozen sweet corn
• 1 tbsp (13.5 g) olive oil, for the pan

Toppings, per bowl

• 2 tbsp (36 g) salsa
• About 1/4 cup (60 g) plain nonfat Greek yogurt crema (recipe in the protein section below)

If you track, weigh the beans after draining. Two cans give you a little more or less than 400 g depending on the brand, and the drained weight is what counts.

Steps

1. Whisk the oil, lime juice, chopped chipotle, adobo sauce, cumin, garlic, salt and pepper in a bowl or zip-top bag.
2. If the chicken breasts are very thick, pound them to an even thickness so they cook through at the same rate. Add them to the marinade, turn to coat, and put them in the fridge for at least 1 hour and up to overnight.
3. Cook the rice according to the package directions. Spread it out on a tray or in a wide dish to cool while you do everything else.
4. Heat 1 tbsp oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Lift the chicken out of the marinade and lay it in the pan. Throw the leftover marinade away.
5. Sear the chicken about 6 minutes per side, until a food thermometer pushed into the thickest piece reads 165°F (73.9°C). Check before you take it off the heat. A golden outside and clear juices don't tell you it's done, but the thermometer does.
6. Move the chicken to a clean cutting board and let it rest about 5 minutes, then chop it into bite-size pieces.
7. Add the frozen corn to the same skillet with the browned bits and cook 3 to 4 minutes, stirring now and then, until some kernels start to char.
8. Warm the rinsed beans in a small pot or the microwave.
9. Weigh or measure everything into 4 containers: a quarter of the rice, beans, corn and chicken in each. Salsa and crema go in small separate cups.

If you're prepping a bigger batch, a sheet pan in a hot oven works well for the chicken. Lay the breasts out in one layer and use the same thermometer check. A slow cooker works too, but you lose the seared edges, and those are half the flavor.

Handling raw chicken on prep day

Don't rinse the chicken. It comes ready to cook, and washing it only splashes germs around your sink and counter. In a USDA study, 1 in 7 people who cleaned their sink after washing chicken still had germs in it.

Keep a cutting board just for raw chicken. When the chicken comes out of the pan, put it on a clean board or plate, never the one it sat on raw, unless that's been washed in hot, soapy water. The marinade the chicken sat in goes in the trash. If you want to use it as a sauce, you'd have to bring it to a boil first, and it's usually not worth the bother.

Marinate in the fridge every time, even for the 1-hour version. If your chicken is frozen, thaw it in the fridge, in cold water, or in the microwave. Never thaw it on the counter. If you use cold water or the microwave, cook it right away.

Chicken breast or thighs

Breast is the lean one. You get more protein for the calories, which is why the recipe uses it and why the numbers come out the way they do. The downside is that breast goes dry if it cooks a minute too long, and it can get a bit chewy by the third microwave reheat.

Thighs have more fat, so they stay juicy and forgive you if you overcook them a little or reheat them hard. They also hold the smoky marinade really well.

My pick: go with breast if you're counting protein and calories. Pull it at 165°F, don't let it sit in the pan, and pack it with a splash of the pan juices. If you've tried breast before and couldn't stand dry reheated chicken, use thighs and accept the higher calories. Just know the nutrition numbers below are for breast.

Swapping the rice

Plain white rice is in the recipe because it's cheap, reheats well and stays soft. You have other options:

• Brown rice gives you a nuttier, chewier bowl with a bit more fiber. Cook it per the package, since it takes longer than white.
• Cilantro-lime rice is the restaurant-style version. Stir chopped cilantro, lime juice and a pinch of salt through cooked white rice once it's off the heat.
• Quinoa works if you like the texture and want a change.
• Cauliflower rice is the way to go for a low-carb bowl. Sauté it briefly so it doesn't release water into the container.

If you want to keep regular rice but eat a little lighter, cut it to 1 cup dry for the whole batch. That saves about 84 calories and 18.5 g carbs per bowl, and the bowl still feels like a proper meal.

Making it higher in protein

The easiest upgrade is the crema. Sour cream adds fat and not much else. Plain nonfat Greek yogurt with a little adobo sauce tastes close to a chipotle crema and adds about 6 g protein per bowl.

Greek yogurt chipotle crema

• 1 cup (240 g) plain nonfat Greek yogurt
• Juice of 1/2 lime
• 1 to 2 tsp adobo sauce from the chipotle can
• Pinch of salt

Stir it together, taste, and add more adobo if you want it smokier. Split it into 4 small containers, about 1/4 cup each.

You can blend cottage cheese with lime and adobo instead for a thicker crema. Some people like it better. Or just add more chicken. Bump the batch to 2 lb and every bowl gets a bigger serving.

Greek yogurt and cheese are both milk products. If you're dairy-free, skip the crema and use avocado or a double scoop of salsa for creaminess and moisture.

Calories, protein, carbs and fat per bowl

These figures use the weighed amounts from the recipe, split 4 ways. Lime juice, garlic and spices add very little, so they're left out.

Component (per bowl)	Calories	Protein	Carbs	Fat
Chicken breast, 170 g raw	204	38.3 g	0 g	4.5 g
White rice, 69 g dry	253	4.9 g	55.5 g	0.5 g
Black beans, 100 g drained	118	6.9 g	19.8 g	1.3 g
Frozen corn, 68 g	60	2.1 g	14.1 g	0.5 g
Olive oil, 1.5 tsp	60	0 g	0 g	6.8 g
Base bowl	695	52.2 g	89.4 g	13.5 g
Salsa, 36 g	10	0.5 g	2.4 g	0.1 g
Greek yogurt crema, 60 g	35	6.1 g	2.2 g	0.2 g
Bowl with toppings	~740	~59 g	~94 g	~14 g

Add-ons change things fast:

• 1 oz (28 g) shredded cheddar adds about 114 calories, 6.5 g protein and 9.4 g fat.
• About 1/4 avocado (50 g) adds about 80 calories, 1 g protein, 4.3 g carbs and 7.4 g fat.
• Cutting the rice to 1 cup dry for the batch takes off about 84 calories and 18.5 g carbs per bowl.

So a bowl with cheese and avocado lands around 935 calories. A bowl with less rice and no extras comes in near 655. Pick based on what that meal needs to do in your day.

Example: weighing your cooked chicken and rice

Say it's Sunday. You've cooked the chicken, chopped it, and you want to split it into 4 even portions. You put the whole pile on the scale.

It doesn't read 680 g. It reads closer to 500 g. Nothing went missing except water. The protein from the raw chicken is all still there, packed into less weight.

That's why the numbers per 100 g change. Raw breast is 22.5 g protein per 100 g. Grilled breast is 30.5 g per 100 g of cooked weight. In this example, each bowl gets about 125 g of cooked chicken, and that still holds the same 38 g or so of protein as the 170 g you started with raw.

The trap is mixing the two. If you weigh cooked chicken and log it with the raw figure, you'll undercount your protein. Use the raw number for raw weight and the cooked number for cooked weight, and you'll be fine.

Rice works the other way. It soaks up water, so it gets heavier. Dry rice is 365 calories per 100 g. Cooked is 130. A cup of dry rice weighs 185 g, while a cup of cooked weighs 158 g, and they're nowhere near the same amount of food.

The simplest fix: weigh the whole pot of cooked rice, divide by 4, and scoop that much into each container. If your pot comes to 780 g, that's 195 g per bowl, and each scoop still matches the 69 g dry portion in the table.

Packing bowls so bowl 4 still tastes good

The main container gets rice on the bottom, then beans, corn and chicken on top. Spoon a little of the skillet juices over the chicken if there are any. It helps a lot with dryness when you reheat.

Everything wet, cold or delicate goes on the side:

• Salsa and crema in small lidded cups
• Avocado or guacamole added the day you eat it, since it browns
• Lettuce, cilantro and jalapeños added fresh, because they wilt into mush in the microwave
• Crushed chips added right before eating so they stay crunchy

Cool things quickly. Spreading the rice out on a tray and packing everything into shallow containers instead of one deep tub both help the food chill fast. Get the bowls into the fridge within 2 hours of cooking, or within 1 hour on a hot day above 90°F. Bacteria grow quickly between 40°F and 140°F, so you don't want a warm batch sitting out while you clean up.

How long they keep, freezing and reheating

Cooked chicken bowls keep 3 to 4 days in the fridge, as long as your fridge runs at 40°F or below. They don't keep a full week. Day 4 is your last day.

If you won't eat bowl 4 within 4 days, freeze it on prep day, without the salsa, crema and fresh toppings. Your freezer should be at 0°F or below. Frozen cooked chicken tastes best within 2 to 6 months. It stays safe longer than that if it stays frozen, but the texture slowly gets worse. Move a frozen bowl to the fridge the night before you want it.

Reheating without drying the chicken

1. Take off the side cups and sprinkle 1 to 2 tsp of water over the rice.
2. Cover the container loosely with a lid or damp paper towel.
3. Microwave for 1 to 2 minutes, then stir and turn the container.
4. Heat again in 30-second bursts until it's hot all the way through.
5. Let it stand for 1 minute.
6. Check with a thermometer that the thickest bits of chicken read 165°F.

Then add the cold salsa, crema and whatever fresh toppings you saved.

FAQ

Can I freeze the whole bowl?

Yes, if "whole" means the chicken, rice, beans and corn. Leave out the salsa, yogurt crema, avocado and lettuce. Those don't freeze well and are better added fresh.

How long should the chicken marinate?

At least 1 hour, and up to overnight, always in the fridge. An hour gets you good flavor. Overnight gets the lime and chipotle deeper into the meat.

How do I keep reheated chicken from drying out?

Pull it off the heat right at 165°F the first time, pack it with some pan juices, and reheat covered with a splash of water. Stirring partway through heats it evenly, so you're not blasting the edges dry while the middle catches up.

Can I make it low-carb?

Swap the white rice for cauliflower rice and keep the chicken, crema and salsa. The beans and corn carry carbs too, so cut those down or skip them if you're going very low.

Is it cheaper than buying the bowl out?

For most people, yes. Chicken breast, rice, canned beans and frozen corn are all cheap staples. One Sunday batch covers four meals, and you control exactly what goes in each one.