These chicken Fajita Bowls are a healthy all-in-one-meal with chicken, veggies, and rice that’s restaurant quality and bursting with bold flavor!
Looking for more grilling recipes? Try our Caribbean Jerk Chicken Bowl or Carne Asada Tacos!
What I love about this dish:
- Healthy & Fresh: packed with protein and fresh vegetables and so much flavor!
- Perfect for Meal Prep: I love to make a double batch and use the leftovers for meal prepping!
- Easy to Customize: substitute the fresh produce you have on hand (broccoli, zucchini, mushrooms, snow peas, and carrots would all taste great), or even marinate tofu, instead of chicken, to make it vegetarian.
How to Make Fajita Bowls:
Prepare marinade by mixing ingredients. Pour half the marinade over chicken, and the other half over the veggies and refrigerate.
Make rice by sautéing onion and rice. Add spices, chicken broth, and beans. Simmer for 20 minutes. Remove rice from heat, add lime, and rest for 5-10 minutes. Fluff with fork.
Cook chicken in a large skillet with oil for 2-3 minutes on one side, until nicely browned. Turn chicken over, cover, and reduce heat to medium. Cook until chicken is cooked through. Rest before slicing.
Sauté fajita vegetables after draining in a colander to remove excess marinade. Sauté for a few minutes, until warmed through, but still has a little crunch.
Assemble and Serve: Layer rice, vegetables, and chicken. Top with Chipotle Lime Crema.
Recipe Variations:
- Steak Fajita Bowl: Swap out the chicken for steak.
- Shrimp Fajita Bowl: Use shrimp instead of chicken.
- Vegetarian Fajita Bowl: Leave out the chicken (or sub tofu), and feel free to add even more of your favorite veggies!
- Brown Rice: Brown rice may be substituted, but increase cooking time to about 40 minutes, or until liquid is absorbed and rice is tender.
More “Bowl” Recipes to Try!
- Caribbean Jerk Chicken Bowls
- Spring Roll Bowls
- BBQ Ranch Grilled Chicken and Veggie Bowls
- Coconut Curry Chicken and Veggie Bowls
- Chipotle Chicken Fajita Bowls
- Grilled Hawaiian Chicken Teriyaki Bowls
- Sweetfire Chipotle Chicken Bowls
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Recipe
Fajita Bowls
Ingredients
Marinade:
- 1 pound boneless skinless chicken breasts
- 2 Tablespoons lime juice
- 1 Tablespoon honey
- 1 1/2 teaspoons oil (vegetable or canola oil)
- 1 1/2 teaspoons white vinegar
- 1 teaspoon EACH chili powder, garlic powder, liquid smoke
- 1/2 teaspoon EACH ground cumin, paprika, salt
- ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper (optional)
Veggies:
- 1/2 red onion , roughly chopped
- 1 red bell pepper , roughly chopped
- 1 green bell pepper , roughly chopped
- 1 cup corn , fresh, canned or frozen-thawed
Rice:
- 2 Tablespoons oil (vegetable or canola oil)
- ½ cup red onion , chopped
- 3 cloves garlic , minced
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1½ cups long-grain white rice (*see note below)
- 3 cups low-sodium chicken broth
- 15 ounce can black beans , drained and rinsed
- dash of salt
- juice from 1-2 limes
- ½ cup fresh cilantro , chopped
Sauce:
- 3/4 cup sour cream (or plain Greek yogurt)
- 1 1/2 Tablespoons lime juice
- 1 teaspoon sauce from a can of chipotle chiles in adobo sauce , or more to taste
- salt , to taste
- 1/3 cup fresh cilantro , finely chopped
Instructions
- Marinade:
- Mix marinade ingredients together. Place chicken and veggies in separate bowls or ziplock bags and pour half of the marinade over each. Refrigerate for 1-6 hours.
Rice:
- When ready to cook, heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a large pan over medium heat. Add onion and saute for 2-3 minutes or until tender. Add the rice and cook, stirring constantly, until golden, about 5 minutes.
- Add garlic, cumin and salt and cook for 30 seconds. Add chicken broth and bring to a boil. Once boiling, stir in the black beans, reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer for 20 minutes.
- Remove from heat. Remove lid and squeeze juice from 1 lime over the rice, but do NOT stir. Return lid and allow to rest for 5-10 minutes.
- Then, remove lid, sprinkle with cilantro and fluff gently with a fork. (Don't "stir" it, just fluff it with a fork so it doesn't get mushy.)
Sauce:
- While the rice is cooking, prepare chipotle cream sauce by mixing all ingredients together. Refrigerate until ready to serve.
Chicken and veggies:
- Heat 2 tablespoons oil in a large skillet over medium high heat. Once skillet is hot, remove chicken from marinade and add to skillet. Cook for 2-3 minutes on one side, or until nicely browned. Turn chicken over and cook until cooked through. Remove to a cutting board and allow to rest for 5 minutes before slicing.
- While chicken is resting, add another splash of oil to the same skillet over medium-high heat. Drain vegetables in a colander to remove excess marinade. Add vegetables to the hot skillet and saute, stirring occasionally, for a few minutes, until warmed through. I like them to still have a little crunch.
Assemble:
- In bowls, layer rice, vegetables, and chicken. Top with Chipotle Lime Crema. Enjoy.
Notes
- Steak Fajita Bowl: Swap out the chicken for steak.
- Shrimp Fajita Bowl: Use shrimp instead of chicken.
- Vegetarian Fajita Bowl: Leave out the chicken (or sub tofu), and feel free to add even more of your favorite veggies!
- Brown Rice: Brown rice may be substituted, but increase cooking time to about 40 minutes, or until liquid is absorbed and rice is tender.
Nutrition
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Recipe adapted from Carlsbad Cravings
Have you tried this recipe?!
RATE and COMMENT below! I would love to hear your experience.
I first shared this recipe in August 2014. Updated March 2018 and June 2021.
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Tasty recipe but so spicy. I doubled the marinade, thinking I didn’t have enough to cover the chicken and the veggies. I shouldn’t have doubled and I shouldn’t have added the cayenne. You can tell this is a delicious recipe but it, unfortunately, was inedible from the spice. My fault totally!
I would love to make this tonight but only have the 10 minute boil in a bag rice. Has anyone made this using that instead? Thanks.
Can’t wait to try this recipe!!! Wondering if it would freeze well in individual servings?
I don’t have access to liquid smoke. Will it change the meal entirely if I omit it? Or is there a reasonable substitute you can recommend?
You can leave it out! It just adds a little smokey flavor that I like, but no big deal to leave it out.
This is really good! Tastes like a Chipotle meal! A little more work than I expected but overall delicious! My rice was a little hard so I will have to figure out next time what I did wrong. But I highly recommend.
My husband and I absolutely loved this recipe! It is our favorite so far!
Thanks Mrs McBride — I’m so happy you liked it!
This is delicious! Will be putting in regular rotation from now on! Yumm
Wow! My family loved this and wants it again soon! My daughter even commented that it tastes gourmet. Don’t skip the liquid smoke.