One pan Chicken Burrito Skillet made with tender beans, flavorful rice, and morsels of chicken topped with gooey cheese, cilantro, lime and green onion. It’s everything you love about a burrito but made in the skillet for a healthy dinner!
We also love this chicken enchilada skillet and cilantro lime chicken rice skillet!
This chicken burrito skillet is everything you love about chicken burrito recipe but without the tortilla and cooked as a one pan meal.
It’s perfect for weeknights where you don’t even have to chop an onion or a single clove of garlic.
This skillet consists mostly of pantry and fridge staples, and is highly versatile with white or brown and toppings. It’s comfort food and so good!
It’s gluten free, delicious, filling, and will be part of your family favorites!
Ingredients Needed
- Chicken: Boneless skinless chicken breasts or thighs cut into 1 inch pieces.
- Rice: You can use white rice or brown rice. It should be rinsed and drained but not pre-cooked beforehand.
- Corn: Fresh or frozen corn, no need to cook or thaw.
- Beans: You can use low sodium canned black beans that are rinsed and drained from gooey liquid. Or cooking dried beans at home is very easy as well.
- Diced tomatoes: A can of low sodium diced tomatoes that are not drained. For more saucy and red in color skillet, use same amount of plain tomato sauce.
- Seasonings: Low sodium chicken broth adds extra flavor. Dried onion and garlic powders make skillet quick and flavorful. And then just chili powder.
- Cheese: Freshly grated Tex Mexican blend cheese or shredded cheddar. Monterey jack cheese works, too!
- Toppings: Cherry tomatoes cut in half, fresh cilantro, green onions, avocado, lime.
How to Make Chicken Burrito Skillet
Prep, saute, and then let simmer on the stovetop, this chicken burrito skillet couldn’t be more simple. You may love these 65 healthy chicken recipes, too!
Prep: Drain and rinse beans. Rinse and drain rice. Dice chicken or use kitchen shears, no need to pound boneless skinless chicken.
Saute: Add chicken, corn, beans, rice and spices in large skillet over medium high heat and cook for 5 minutes. This step will flavor and pre-cook all solid ingredients. Do not add liquids yet.
Bring to a boil and cook: Add diced tomatoes (not drained) and broth. It is super important to bring mixture to a boil before cooking.
White rice will cook faster than brown rice. Stir only once and simmer on low heat covered the whole time.
Cheesy topping: When rice is soft, skillet is almost ready. Sprinkle cheese on top and let it melt while covered. Now is a good time to chop cilantro, lettuce, green onion etc.
Serve: With desired toppings! Keep reading for ideas.
Tips for Best Results
- Timesaver: Use cooked Instant Pot shredded chicken or cubed leftover chicken like cilantro lime chicken. Reduce cook time to 2 minutes when sauteing.
- Long grain rice: Long grain brown or long grain white rice is best. While you could experiment with other varieties, the way this recipe is written along with the amount of liquid called for it is best to use long grain.
- Slow simmer: The key to a skillet dinner with rice is to let it simmer covered without too much peaking to allow all juices to settle into the rice making it super flavorful!
- More spice: This skillet is mild because “kids”. Spice it up with more chili powder, cayenne pepper or homemade taco seasoning. Use a can of Rotel in place of diced tomatoes. Sub Pepper Jack cheese for regular cheese.
- Beans: If you don’t like black beans, use pinto beans. Or skip all together.
Topping Ideas
The best part of any good Mexican inspired recipe! Choose from below:
- Plain Greek yogurt or sour cream
- Greek yogurt guacamole
- Shredded lettuce and fresh chopped tomato
- Homemade pico de gallo
- Fresh salsa
- Cilantro and green onion
- Fresh squeeze of lime
FAQs
Yes! Use ground chicken, ground turkey or lean ground beef. Saute ground meat first, constantly breaking into small pieces with spatula. And then add beans, corn, seasonings as directed.
If you would like to reduce carbs in chicken burrito skillet, use fresh or frozen cauliflower rice. Add with liquids and reduce broth to 1/2 cup.
Yes! After it cools down, divide into meal prep containers for healthy lunch.
What to Serve with Chicken Burrito Skillet?
While this is a one pan skillet dinner, you may like to include a few healthy sides for a complete meal!
- Corn or flour tortillas
- Mexican kale salad
- Avocado salad
Can You Freeze Leftovers?
Yes! Cook, cool and freeze skillet in a large baking dish tightly wrapped with plastic and foil. Smaller leftovers can go into airtight containers for up to 3 months. Thaw on the counter for 6 hours or in the fridge for 12 hours.
Chicken and rice should be thawed completely before reheating. Use microwave in 1 minute intervals or add to a pot with splash of water/broth and simmer on low for 5-7 minutes.
How to Store Leftovers
Refrigerate for up to 5 days in an airtight glass container. You can cook, cool and divide skillet into individual containers for meal prep.
Transform leftovers into burrito bowls topped with avocado cilantro dressing or turn into tostadas!
More Skillet Dinner Recipes
- Mediterranean chicken skillet
- Taco skillet
- Skillet enchiladas
- Tex Mex sweet potato skillet
- Mexican chicken and rice
- Quinoa skillet
Chicken Burrito Skillet
Ingredients
- 1 lb raw boneless & skinless chicken breast or thighs cubed
- 15 oz can low sodium black beans rinsed & drained
- 1 1/2 cups brown rice or white rice rinsed & drained
- 2 cups corn fresh or frozen
- 1 tsp cumin ground
- 1 tsp chili powder
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp onion powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 15 oz can low sodium diced tomatoes not drained
- 3 cups chicken broth low sodium
- 1 1/2 cups cheddar, marble or Tex mex cheese shredded
Instructions
- Preheat large ceramic non-stick skillet on medium-high heat and swirl 1 tbsp oil to coat. Add chicken, black beans, rice, corn, cumin, chili powder, garlic powder, onion powder and salt. Saute for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Add diced tomatoes and broth; stir and bring to a boil. Cover with a tight lid and simmer on low for brown rice – 20 minutes, white rice – 10 minutes.
- Open the lid, give a gentle stir, cover and cook for another 20 minutes – brown rice and 5 minutes – white rice. Or until rice is soft.
- Remove the lid, sprinkle with cheese, turn off heat, cover and let stand for 5-10 minutes until cheese melts.
- Garnish with cherry tomatoes, cilantro, avocado, green onion and lime. Serve hot.
Notes
- Store: Refrigerate leftovers in an airtight container for up to 5 days.
- Meal prep: Store in individual containers for easy lunches.
- Freeze: For up to 3 months.
- Ground meat: As a substitute you can use ground chicken, turkey or lean ground beef. Saute first then proceed with recipe.
Wonderful recipe Olena. Full of flavor, healthy, and very tasty!!
Making this tonight, will let you know how I make out. I’m curious, if I use shredded/ground chicken, do I use 2 lbs or 1 lb? Thank you!
Just 1 lb.
This combination sounds amazing, however, I worry that the chicken breast will be overcooked. Was that a problem for anyone?
It is amazing and nice . My children loved it and always asking me to make it again and again….
Lovely recipe! Is there an instapot version of this?
I have Instant Pot chicken burritos.
Can I cook it in a large pot and still get the same results? I’m trying to cook for a lot of people and I don’t have a skillet big enough! I’m an inexperienced cook trying to learn by making dinners for my family. Will brown rice cook all the way through if I don’t cook it beforehand?
My pan of choice is a skillet, but you can make this in a pot. And yes, the rice will cook all the way through if you follow my instructions. Hope that helps.
Thank you! It went well and tasted delicious. I recommend that if others try the recipe and double it like I did, add a little bit less liquid so that it doesn’t become mushy.
Made this in a large skillet but it was overflowing when I added the broth and tomatoes so I transferred to a cast iron Dutch oven on the stovetop. Huge hit with my family! Used leftover roast chicken, garnished with green onions, avocados, pickled onions, sour cream, and crushed up tortilla chips. Adults used hot sauce too. Might have been bland without garnishes, but awesome meal almost completely from pantry. Very fast and will be making again!
Sounds great! Can’t wait to make it tonight.
Hi Tamera! I would love to hear what you think of the skillet once you make it 🙂
Oh this sounds really good…On vacation right now but will definitely try this when we get home…thank you so much….love your recipes…especialy Instant Pot ones as i love my instant pot..
Hi Roz! Please don’t hesitate to leave a comment and star review once you have tried this recipe 🙂 Have a great vacation.
My kid said “Freaking Amazing” about this recipe! I used adobo seasoning and baked it in the oven 375 for 45 min.
Thanks for sharing your positive feedback Veronica. Sounds like this recipe is definitely a hit at your house 🙂