Chipotle Chicken Rice Bowl

A healthy lunch in disguise...

I have a special place in my heart for tex-mex - burritos, nachos, loads of that fake cheese sauce and a million different salsas, who doesn’t love that?

For lunch today, I created an essence of that but kept loosely on the straight & narrow of healthy living - for me, that looks like a little bit less cheese and only 1-2 dollops of soured cream. And sadly no tortilla chips but I do recommend using them to scoop everything up!

FULL RECIPE!

Ingredients (makes 2 bowls)

2 chicken breasts - flattened

1 tbsp chipotle paste

1/2 tsp smoked paprika

1/2 tsp ground cumin

1/2 tsp garlic granules

1/2 tsp onion granules

1 onion - half thinly sliced and half diced

1 green pepper - finely sliced

1 red pepper - finely sliced

100g sweetcorn - drained

200g black beans - drained

100ml stock (veg, chicken or beef, whatever you have in)

20g fresh coriander - roughly chopped

200g white basmati rice - cooked

1 ripe avocado

1 lime - juiced

100g soured cream

20g mature cheddar - grated

Tabasco or hot sauce (optional) - to taste

Method:

Start by bashing your chicken between a piece of parchment with a rolling pin then mix the chipotle paste, a splash of oil and dried seasonings with a pinch of salt. Smother over the chicken breasts then leave to marinate while you prepare the veg.

In a small saucepan, heat some oil then sweat the diced half of the onion. Add in the black beans and stock then leave to simmer for 10-15 mins while you make everything else.

For the guac, remove the avocado flesh from the skins, discarding the pit then smash with a fork and a squeeze of lime until you have your desired consistency (I like to keep it quite chunky). Mix with half of the chopped coriander and a pinch of salt and set aside.

In a large frying pan, bring to a high heat and fry the chicken breasts for 3 minutes on each side - get some good colour on both sides then transfer to a chopping board and dice up.

In the same pan just used for the chicken, fry the sliced onion, peppers and sweetcorn with a pinch of salt.

Cook the white rice, mix with the remaining half of the coriander.

In a bowl spoon on the rice, the black beans, the onions/peppers/corn mixture, the diced chicken pieces, guacamole, soured cream, a sprinkling of cheddar and some splashes of hot sauce.

Tuck in and enjoy!