You will fall in love with this easy-to-make Mexican chicken and rice! Whenever you are lost for ideas for a simple, delicious, and wholesome dinner, you will come back to it, again and again.
500gfree-range chicken mincepreferably from the thigh
1red capsicum(bell pepper) diced
1yellow capsicum diced(bell pepper) diced
1oniondiced
1clovegarlicminced
2tbspextra virgin olive oil
2tbspyour favorite taco seasoning or you can see mine in the notes below
3/4cupspassataItalian tomato sauce
1tin of organic black beans
1cupBasmati rice. See notes about cooking rice.
2cupschicken or vegetable stock
1/2cupGrated cheese. You can use a Mexican mix or just grate your everyday Tasty or Cheddar.
Optional extras:
Fresh coriander
Greek/plain yogurt or sour cream if you prefer
Avocado
Fresh lime
Pickled jalapenos
Instructions
Preheat your oven to 200'C (390'F)
Heat the olive oil in a large frying pan on medium heat. Add the onions and cook for one minute. Add the diced capsicum and fry for a further two minutes. Add garlic and fry for one more minute.
Move the vegetables to one side of the pan, and add chicken mince to the pan. Using a spatula break up the chicken mince and fry until the chicken is cooked. Mix the chicken with the vegetables.
Add taco seasoning and mix well.
Add black beans and tomato sauce to the chicken mix, stir to combine.
Add rice and vegetable or chicken stock, bring to a boil, and turn the heat down to low immediately.
Cook rice and chicken with a tight lid on for about 10 minutes. Taste the rice, if it is not done yet, cook it for another five minutes. You can add extra stock or water if there is no liquid left in the pan.
Sprinkle cheese on top and put the pan in the oven. Change the setting to broil. It should take only a couple of minutes for the cheese to melt and get brown, so make sure to watch it closely.
Take out of the oven and serve! Be careful when taking the pan out of the oven, it is heavy and hot!
Notes
Rice
I use basmati rice because this is my kids' preference. However, you can use any kind of rice, just adjust the cooking time accordingly.
I wouldn't recommend using brown rice, because it takes too long to cook and your beans and vegetable will be mushy.
For brown rice to work for this recipe you will have to precook it ahead of time and just add it instead of basmati rice in step 5 in the instructions.
If using cauliflower rice, only cook it for a couple of minutes, so that cauliflower still has a bite to it.