Delicious Chicken Taco Bowls with Lime and Cilantro

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Do you love Chipotle as much as I do? image

Then you will love this chicken taco bowl with whole grain rice with lime and cilantro (which is exactly what makes Chipotle rice so good).

This week I’ve had four freelance writing deadlines I’ve been working on (3 down, 1 to go!). So multi-tasking takes on a whole new level. And you know who that means has to cook dinner.

The crock pot.

And the rice maker too.

And did I mention you start by throwing your frozen chicken breasts in? Let’s just say I made double for some nachos later this week.

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imageI first heard about this dish from my friend Jen who has three of the cutest little boys and raved about how easy these chicken taco bowls were in the crock pot. We did the whole, ‘I need the recipe!’ and ‘I’ll send it to you!’ and then forgot about it a nano second later as moms do.  But it hung around in the deep recesses of my mind I guess because when I was flipping through Instagram I spotted it. And then quickly added the ingredients to my online grocery order. (I hope you have one of those services.)

This dinner gets 5 Curtis stars (meaning 5 out of 6 Curtises liked it, but our picky eater didn’t mind the rice with melted cheese on top, so I might call it 5 1/2 stars?) And it is really great for customizing to each person as you probably figured out because of your keen intellect when you read the words ‘taco’ and ‘bowl’.  Plus, we all felt awesome after we ate it which I canNOT say after a bad decision to go to Burger King last weekend.

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^ Way better then Burger King. And standing in line at Chipotle.

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The salsa that you use sort of drives the flavor so make sure it is one that you like. The recipe calls for fresh but I think a really yummy jar of sauce would be great too. And it does come out pretty mild so the kids liked it, but it is easy to doctor up a little with toppings for us grown up spicy lovers.

So spend five and feed lots of people for, like 2 weeks. You’re welcome. xoxo Katie

Delicious Chicken Taco Bowls with Lime and Cilantro (printer version here) –

Ingredients:

  • 11/2 lb chicken 4 large frozen chicken breasts
  • 1/4 cup water
  • 1 cup fresh salsa
  • 1 tsp chili powder
  • 3/4 tsp ground cumin
  • 1/2 tsp kosher salt
  • 1 clove garlic minced
  • 1 can black beans drained and rinsed
  • 1 can corn drained
  • 1/2 lime juiced about 1/2 TB

Cilantro Lime Rice

  • 2 TB butter
  • 1 cup uncooked white long rice
  • juice and zest 1 large lime
  • 1 14 oz can chicken broth
  • 1/4 cup finely chopped cilantro
  • ¾ teaspoon salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Place chicken in a large crock pot and pour water and salsa over the chicken. Next add in chili powder, cumin, salt, garlic, lime juice, black beans and corn. Cook on low heat for 6-8 hours, or until chicken easily shreds.

2. Make the rice: In a skillet melt butter with rice. Add the chicken broth and the rest of the ingredients. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover and cook for 20 minutes or until liquid is absorbed.
3. Serve chicken over rice. Optional: top with cheese, avocados, sour cream and serve with tortilla chips.

(Recipe from www.iheartnaptime.net – see printer link!)