Chicken Burrito Bowls

I'm not a big Pinterest user. I created an account a couple of years ago, but have never found a real use for it. It seems quite useful as a bookmark tool, for interesting websites, but only if the site of interest has an image associated with it. More recently though, I've found a good use for it in collecting recipes of interest. I've created a board just for Slow Cooker Recipes, and whenever I come across an interesting recipe I pin it to the board. Then, when I'm planning meals for the week, I have a growing collection of recipes to try.

This recipe for Chicken Burrito Bowls I came across some weeks ago and have been meaning to try. The recipe is pinned from Slow Cooker from Scratch, but the full recipe is from the kitchn. The recipe involves two stages, with the rice being added later in the process. Normally I wouldn't be able to do this, so I noted that the version on the kitchn recommends cooking the rice separately if necessary.

On Wednesday, hubby and I took the day off to go Christmas shopping, so it was an ideal opportunity to try this out. The preparation was dead easy, no pre-cooking or browning, simply throw everything in. When we got in, later that day, I decided to just add the rice to the crock-pot and turn it to high for about an hour. This approach worked a treat.

Preparation

On Wednesday morning, I put all the ingredients, apart from the rice, into the crock pot. These were: about 5 chicken breasts, a tin of chopped tomatoes, a chicken stock cube, 2tsp hot chilli power, 1tsp each salt and cumin, a tin of black beans, a handful each of frozen corn and frozen peas. I gave it all a bit of a stir and left the crock pot to cook on low for about 7 hours.

When we came home, I considered cooking the rice separately, but I could see a lot of juice in the crock pot and thought it would be much nicer to cook the rice in that. So, I added about 240g brown rice, again stirred it up, then switched the crock pot to high. Less than an hour later it was ready.

The Outcome

As expected, the chicken was well cooked and could be easily broken up into chunks and shreds in the pot. The rice had absorbed all the juice, and so we ended up with something quite substantial. The beans, corn and peas added some colour and texture to the dish. The flavour was good and I think we were all quite suprised at how tasty it all was.

The Verdict

Three of us really like the dish: simple, easy and tasty as it was. We covered our rice mixture with grated cheese, and hubby and I added a little quacamole and sour cream. Hubby declared it all to be delicious, and just what was needed after a day's Christmas shopping in the cold and rain. Mr Teenager didn't utter a word as he finished off a large bowl and went back for more. He didn't seem to notice the black beans and corn, which he would ordinarily have turned up his nose at. Only Ms Fussy Eater lived up to her name. She had a cold coming on and was probably not feeling too hungry anyway. She picked a little at her chicken but wouldn't eat anything else.

Unfortunately I didn't get a photo this time, but do take a look at the pin.