It’s back to school time, so you’re looking for a super simple recipe which doesn’t take any time, but delivers on flavour and nutrition. Here’s my one-pan chipotle chicken rice dish, with minimal fuss and washing up leaving you with more time to do your other tasks. We’re using onion, peppers and tomatoes for fibre and micronutrients, wholegrain rice for energy, beans and chicken for protein, extra virgin olive oil and avocado for healthy fats, plenty of herbs, spices and lime for flavour, and something to make the food fun which could be tortilla chips or grated cheese, but for me it’s soured cream, because nutrition is about inclusion, rather than exclusion. And, bonus fact about this dish, all this gives you a total of 9 plant points towards your weekly target of 30 which helps to feed the diversity of your gut microbiome.
Ingredients
- 3 peppers (300g), sliced
- 3 red onions (300g), cut into wedges
- 3 large tomatoes (250g), diced
- 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 2 packets of cooked wholegrain rice
- 1 tin of black beans, drained
- 400g boneless chicken thighs (option to use tofu to make plant-based)
- 2 tbsp chipotle flakes (option to reduce if you don’t like spice)
- 2 tbsp smoked paprika
- 2 tbsp dried oregano
- 1 tsp white pepper
- 1.5 tsp garlic powder
- 1/2 tsp salt (option to leave out if cooking for young babies)
To serve
- 2 avocados, diced
- 2 limes, one juiced and one cut into quarters
- Fresh coriander
- Soured cream
- Grated cheese
- Tortilla chips
Method
- Preheat the oven to 225°C fan/ 250°C convection.
- Mix the peppers, onion and tomatoes in a large bowl with the olive oil.
- In a large shallow ovenproof dish, add the rice and beans and mix to evenly distribute. Layer the pepper mix over the top and bake for 10 minutes.
- Meanwhile, marinate the chicken thighs in the dry herbs and spices. Once the veg is partially cooked, make slight indentations in the veg and nestle the chicken in. Bake for a further 20 minutes.
- While the chicken cooks, mix the avocado and lime juice together.
- Once cooked layer the avocado, coriander and soured cream over the top and serve hot with optional extras to make the meal more satifsying.
Per serving: 618kcal/ 24g fat/ 5.1g saturated fat/ 55g carbohydrates/ 16g fibre/ 35g protein