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One Pot Cheesy Chicken Taco Rice

July 8, 2014 by Morgan 97 Comments

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One Pot Cheesy Chicken Taco Rice. This 30 minute, one pot meal will become a quick family favorite! | hostthetoast.com

“One Pot” recipes have become favorites of mine, since a) I hate washing dishes and b) I hate washing dishes.  By the way, did I mention that I hate washing dishes?  Because I do.  I hate it.

One Pot Cheesy Chicken Taco Rice. This 30 minute, one pot meal will become a quick family favorite!

But you know what I don’t hate?  Delicious chicken, beans, corn, rice, tomato, avocado, onions, and cheese all cooked together in one pot with salsa and Mexican seasonings and ready to eat in 30 minutes.  Nope, I don’t hate that at all.  In fact, I love it very much.

So much that I’ll be making One Pot Cheesy Chicken Taco Rice again this week.

One Pot Cheesy Chicken Taco Rice. This 30 minute, one pot meal will become a quick family favorite!

Now I know this is called “One Pot Cheesy Chicken Taco Rice”, but if you’re more of a beef or turkey fan, feel free to switch out the ground meat.  If you don’t like beans, nix them.  If you prefer quinoa, be my guest.  Throw some jalapenos in there if you like heat.  Really, this dish is quite versatile, so work with what you have on hand!

Speaking of work, can I just say how weird it feels to be back at work after the 4th?  Yesterday I could not focus.  Today, I’m totally zoned out.  I’m in a creative slump and I still have no idea what I’m going to be cooking tomorrow.  This blog post?  Well I really have no direction and I’m just hoping for your sake that you overlook most of it and focus instead on the pictures.

One Pot Cheesy Chicken Taco Rice. This 30 minute, one pot meal will become a quick family favorite!

See how cheesy that is?  Look at all of the colors.  It’s way more enticing than anything I could write right now.  OOOOH.  AHH.

But you know what?  These kind of one pot meals– the ones you just kind of throw in a skillet and grunt at or something, maybe stir every once in a while if you’re feeling up to it– are the kind people like me need on days like today.  No nonsense.  No challenge.  Hardly any clean-up.  Tons of taste.

One Pot Cheesy Chicken Taco Rice. This 30 minute, one pot meal will become a quick family favorite!

Now if you’ll pardon me, I’m going to leave you with the recipe and go do some jumping jacks or something to get the blood pumping again.  Let me know what you think of this recipe if you give it a try, and feel free to leave some “Morgan, this is how you can get your brain to function again after a long weekend” tips in the comments section.

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One Pot Cheesy Chicken Taco Rice


★★★★★

5 from 8 reviews

  • Author: Morgan
  • Prep Time: 5 mins
  • Cook Time: 25 mins
  • Total Time: 30 minutes
  • Yield: 4 1x
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Ingredients

Scale
  • 1 – 1.5 lbs lean ground chicken
  • 1/2 yellow onion, diced
  • 1 tablespoon canola oil, plus an extra drizzle for cooking the rice
  • 1 1/2 cups uncooked instant brown rice
  • 1 teaspoon cumin
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon chili powder
  • 2 cups low sodium chicken broth
  • 1 (14.5 oz) jar salsa
  • 1 cup corn kernels
  • 1 cup canned black beans, drained and rinsed
  • 1 Roma tomato, diced
  • 3/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese
  • 1 avocado, peeled and diced
  • 1 green onion, chopped, to garnish
  • Fresh cilantro, to taste

Instructions

  1. Add oil to a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add in the ground chicken and break it up a bit with a wooden spoon. Add the diced onion and cook until the chicken has browned and the onion is translucent.
  2. Move the chicken and onion over to one side of the pan and drizzle just a bit more oil on the empty side. Add in the uncooked rice and toss it around briefly to toast it.
  3. Stir in the spices, chicken broth, salsa, corn, and black beans. Bring the liquids to a simmer and then reduce the heat to low. Cover and cook for 18 minutes, or until rice is tender and liquid has absorbed.
  4. Taste the rice and adjust seasoning to your liking. Sprinkle the tomato, cheese, and avocado over the rice and then cover once more until the cheese melts, about 2 minutes. Then sprinkle with green onion and cilantro and serve!

Notes

Feel free to sub in pinto beans for black beans (or use them in addition) if desired!

Did you make this recipe?

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Filed Under: Food, Gluten Free, Main Course, One Pot, Poultry Tagged With: 30 Minute, Bowl, Burrito, Chicken, Chicken Taco, Dinner, Easy, Enchilada, Gluten-Free, Mexican, Mexican Rice, One Pot, Recipe, Rice, Salsa, Skillet, Taco, Taco Rice

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Comments

  1. Jenna says

    July 8, 2014 at 12:29 pm

    Could you use cooked shredded chicken for this instead of ground chicken? Going to try this soon thanks!

    Reply
    • Morgan says

      July 8, 2014 at 5:22 pm

      You can definitely do that! Just add the chicken in later in the recipe, as you don’t want to overcook it. =)

      Reply
  2. Gurinder says

    July 9, 2014 at 1:02 pm

    This looks amazing, I can’t wait to give it a try! I’ve been searching for a great summer dish and it looks like this fits the bill

    Reply
    • Gurinder says

      July 10, 2014 at 3:57 pm

      So I made this today, and just blew my mind, I ended up using ground turkey instead of chicken (hey a bird is a bird) it turned out so good that I’ll be making it again and again and again throughout the summer. I also put in some chopped jalapeno peppers to give it an extra kick.

      Love this blog and keep posting!

      Reply
  3. Kate @ ¡Hola! Jalapeño@ says

    July 14, 2014 at 6:43 am

    Seriously amazing! I’d be afraid I’d eat the whole thing myself!

    Reply
  4. Hannah says

    July 15, 2014 at 7:13 pm

    Morgan,

    I’ve been making your cubano sandwiches for a while (via foodgawker) and for some reason, I never looked at the rest of the recipes on your blog until today. Based on the amount of recipes I flagged, food we apparently both like, and your sarcastic sense of humor, I think we could be best foodie friends forever (bfffs, if you will). Thanks for the great recipes. Carry on, food warrior 🙂

    Reply
    • Morgan says

      July 17, 2014 at 10:32 am

      Haha thanks Hannah! Always happy to make a new bfff =) I’m so glad you enjoy the recipes and posts. Thanks again for the nice comment!!

      Reply
  5. Sharon says

    July 23, 2014 at 2:32 pm

    Hi Morgan,

    I made this today and it is absolutely delicious! The only problem I had is that the rice took forever to cook (well, over an hour – i kept adding more broth) and still has somewhat of a bite to it. I know brown rice tends to be that way but I’m not sure what I did wrong (I’m new to cooking so it very well could have been many factors! Haha) I used a fresh salsa so maybe it was just too dry?

    Regardless, it was worth the wait because the dish is fabulous!

    Thanks,
    Sharon

    ★★★★★

    Reply
    • Morgan says

      July 23, 2014 at 3:40 pm

      Hi Sharon,
      I’m sorry to hear that. I’ve heard a few people say that they had the same problem so I went back and tried the recipe again several times this week using different types of rice and different methods of cooking to see what worked best. Some different brown rices I used (especially long grain) took especially long to cook. I found that instant brown rice is the best option as any brand I tried worked out fine. Sometimes”medium-grain” rice worked great, but sometimes it didn’t, so for now on I’m going to recommend instant brown rice. I hope that helps in the future, and I’m sorry the recipe gave you some difficulty (but glad to hear you enjoyed it none-the-less)!

      Reply
      • Sharon says

        July 23, 2014 at 7:58 pm

        Thanks so much! I will use instant next time and I’m happy know I’m not just doomed when it comes to cooking! Haha

        Reply
      • Shan says

        November 2, 2014 at 7:07 pm

        I gots a solution to that problem. I cook plain old rice in mass quantities in the oven then bag it up and chuck it in the freezer. When you want to make this skillet of yum, zap it in the microwave and dump it in or dump the frozen block right into the pan, put a lid on it, go draw a bath, go back into the kitchen and stir it, plate it, put a gigantic dollup of sour cream on top then you and your meal trot right off to the tub.

        Yep. Just you and your grub in the tub. Ole. Tell no one.

        Reply
  6. Amy says

    July 26, 2014 at 7:09 pm

    Loved this concept but my rice,I used success basmati boil in a bag, was over cooked. But the flavor was great! And I loved the avocado on top. I cooked for 15 min maybe 10 would have been better.

    Reply
    • Morgan says

      July 27, 2014 at 11:24 am

      Hi Amy, yes, that kind of rice won’t work well here as it cooks much faster. I’m glad you enjoyed it none-the-less! 🙂

      Reply
  7. Chris says

    August 1, 2014 at 12:04 am

    Made this three times – awesome recipe. But I still can’t figure out how you have the prep time as five minutes. Am I missing something? It takes me that long just to prep the tomatoes and avocado for the final steps. Never mind stripping the cilantro from the stems. Am I missing something?

    Reply
    • Morgan says

      August 1, 2014 at 12:22 pm

      Glad to hear that you enjoy it, Chris! How long does it usually take you to do your full prep for this recipe? I am pretty fast at slicing/dicing, etc, so 5 mins for me might be different for someone else! I also chop my tomato/avocado/green onion/cilantro as the rest of the dish cooks, so as not to waste time, so the entire meal takes around 30 minutes. That might help cut some time out for you as well!

      Reply
      • Chris says

        August 3, 2014 at 10:33 pm

        I thought that prep time was the time you spend physically working on the dish and the cook time is when you just check on it. Am I wrong? But if you are still prepping as the dish is cooking, wouldn’t that count towards prep time? I am not splitting hairs. But that is always the way I’ve read recipes. – have I been wrong all of this time? Honestly curious.

        In either case, this is still a great recipe. I tried to streamline it a bit (I’m lazy and cheap – sue me). This is what I did….

        I threw a 28 ounce can of whole tomatoes, onion, garlic, jalapeno and salt in the blender. And blended. Used that instead of the salsa the recipe called for. Not a big fan of jarred salsa and this came out fresher with less of a ‘processed’ taste., I did use Tostitos the first time so that could have been the problem.

        So… I browned the meat. Toasted the rice. Added half of the ‘blender salsa’. Plus the beans, corn, water, bouillon etc.

        Then, I threw a ton of cilantro in the blender with the other half of the salsa. Pureed that for a minute.
        Once the rice was cooked, I added the cheese and let it melt. Then mixed in avocado and topped with the rest of my blender salsa. I omitted the green onion. Until tonight (and google), I never realized that you can chop them up and freeze them. And I wasn’t buying a bunch just to throw 2/3’rds of it out.

        Between your chicken riggies and cheesy chicken, you have single-handedly cured 90% of my future hangovers. You are freaking awesome.

        Reply
  8. Chris says

    October 31, 2014 at 6:28 pm

    Made this with ground turkey, chicken and beef (obviously not at the same time). I usually just buy whatever is on sale.

    I wasn’t crazy about the ground turkey. I bought that from Costco and for some reason it tasted game-y to me. The beef is really good. I finally tried it with ground chicken the other night and that version was, by far, my favorite. I ended up going back to the store today to buy another six pounds of ground chicken to freeze just for this. You rock Morgan!

    Reply
    • Morgan says

      November 3, 2014 at 9:19 am

      Glad you like it, Chris, and thanks for all of the info about the different types of meats!

      Reply
  9. Lisa says

    November 3, 2014 at 6:45 pm

    This was great!! Used white rice because we don’t eat brown and bumped up the garlic powder and child powder and added onion powder and Franks (we like spicy) and if was wonderful. Immediately going onto my Pinterest Favourites folder!!!

    Reply
    • Morgan says

      November 3, 2014 at 8:12 pm

      Great to hear, Lisa! Thanks for the notes on your adjustments! =)

      Reply
  10. Melissa says

    January 12, 2015 at 6:29 pm

    Thanks so much! I am a university student and make this at least 2 times a month to eat for the week. Easy and delicious

    Reply
  11. Andrev says

    January 19, 2015 at 2:12 pm

    Add me to the list of satisfied customers. Made this for dinner Wednesday and my fianc� and I agreed it was an excellent meal. The only minor change I made was to up the cider vinegar to 3 TBS since I thought the sauce was a bit too sweet with just the one TBS. I used less than the 3/4 tsp of red pepper flakes also. This is a fairly healthy dish, certainly low in fat, and one we’ll enjoy often. I did have to simmer it longer than the 20 minutes, since we had a delay that came up, so I just added a bit of water periodically and it turned out fine.

    Reply
    • Morgan says

      January 19, 2015 at 10:47 pm

      Great to hear, Andre! Thanks for sharing your tips as well!

      Reply
  12. Courtney says

    March 4, 2015 at 6:52 pm

    I made this for dinner tonight for my two apprehensive and finicky kids. One of them tried it and went back for seconds, and (most of us) agreed that it was a keeper of a recipe. The youngest didn’t try it, but I sort of expected that.

    Reply
  13. Faye Cartet says

    March 8, 2015 at 8:40 am

    How do you cook rice in the oven

    Reply
  14. keri dimascio says

    March 15, 2015 at 4:48 pm

    Thank you so much for sharing this recipe! Easy, delicious, and healthy all wrapped into one is hard to find! This one is a winner!!!

    Reply
  15. Chantelle says

    March 26, 2015 at 7:42 pm

    Hi! Just made this last night and it was delicious! Only thing I found was adding a whole jar of salsa made the dish a bit too acidic for me, got a bit of heartburn. Do you have an alternative to adding a whole jar of salsa yet still retaining that Mexican flavor?

    Reply
    • Morgan says

      March 26, 2015 at 9:48 pm

      Glad to hear you liked it! If the acidity bothers you, cut down the salsa (but not all of it, maybe half), add a bit of water (1/4-1/3 cup should be fine) in its place to make up for the loss of liquid, and add more of the listed spices, to taste, at the end if you feel the flavor is lacking. The spices are all common in Mexican dishes, so you’ll still get that flavor without as much tomatoey acidity.

      Reply
  16. Zanna says

    March 26, 2015 at 10:25 pm

    This is one of my favorite quick dinners. I use trader joes frozen pre-cooked brown rice for added convenience and pile in the spinach for an added veggie kick. Love this recipe!!

    Reply
  17. Morgan says

    March 29, 2015 at 4:12 pm

    My name is Morgan, too, and I also hate doing dishes! Haha! Trying this recipe for tonight.

    Reply
    • Morgan says

      March 29, 2015 at 5:18 pm

      We’re practically the same person, haha! I hope you enjoy the Taco Rice =)

      Reply
      • Morgan says

        December 14, 2015 at 4:26 pm

        I’m a Morgan too, and I also hate dishes. We should form a support group! I’m going to have to make this tonight for sure now!

        Reply
        • Morgan says

          December 14, 2015 at 4:52 pm

          ARE YOU ME?

          Reply
  18. Tricia says

    April 20, 2015 at 3:36 pm

    Hi! This recipe looks awesome, but I have a quick question. What size skillet do you use for this? I’m afraid that once I start adding ingredients I’ll run out of room if I don’t use the right size! Thanks 🙂

    Reply
  19. Courtney K says

    April 22, 2015 at 2:54 pm

    Thank you for this recipe! I made it last night and it was a huge hit. My picky beyond sanity 20 mos old devoured it. I swear to god I heard a chorus of Hallelujah in the background. I actually used regular jasmine rice and made sure my pot was tightly covered and I didn’t open it until 20-25 mins later and it was cooked perfectly.

    Thanks again! New fan here 🙂

    Reply
  20. Britney says

    June 2, 2015 at 11:21 am

    Have you tried this as a make ahead freezer meal?

    Reply
    • Morgan says

      June 2, 2015 at 2:26 pm

      I have not, Britney =( But if you do try it, please let me know how it goes for you!

      Reply
  21. Abbie says

    June 9, 2015 at 3:55 pm

    if I use white rice instead of brown rice do I use the same quantity? Looking at my boxes of instant rice it says on serving of brown is 1/4c dry and instant white says one serving is 1/2c dry. So i wasnt sure. I love cooking with brown but my husband prefers white unfortunately!! Cant wait to try this!!

    Reply
    • Morgan says

      June 9, 2015 at 4:26 pm

      You can sub the white rice in the same amount, Abbie =) I hope you and your husband enjoy it!

      Reply
  22. Chantelle says

    August 1, 2015 at 9:43 pm

    Hey! I made this recipe a while ago! And I want to share it with my family! The only thing is, my mom is vegetarian and the rest of my family are meat eaters… is there a way to make a vegetarian version and then adding the meat near the end without compensating the flavor? Or using two pans?

    Reply
    • Morgan says

      August 1, 2015 at 10:32 pm

      You could definitely make the meat separately and mix in later, or just use more beans and veggies instead of the meat. I have made this with zucchini and bell peppers before and it was really good!

      Reply
  23. Amy says

    August 3, 2015 at 3:12 pm

    If I make this with ground beef do you still use chicken broth or substitute for beef broth?

    Reply
    • Morgan says

      August 3, 2015 at 4:27 pm

      I’d still go with chicken broth. I only use beef broth every once in a while (like for French Onion Soup) where it is important for the depth. Beef broth can sometimes taste metallic and lend some “off” flavors, whereas chicken broth is usually a pretty neutral base. Hope you enjoy!

      Reply
  24. Judy says

    January 12, 2016 at 3:17 pm

    I developed a border line obsession for Tex-Mex foods and doubled every recipe, one for now and one for the freezer. Then I started cooking several bags of dry beans, portioning them and bagging then for the freezer. Same for rice, I just cut cooking time because it finishers cooking in the oven. (It gets cooked in broth, chicken, beef or vegetable for extra flavor.). just saw a super easy recipe for flour tortillas and plan to try it next!!

    Reply
  25. Heather says

    April 20, 2016 at 7:53 pm

    I made this for dinner tonight and it turned out AMAZING! My toddler inhaled it. Thanks much!

    Reply
  26. Michelle says

    January 3, 2017 at 6:55 pm

    Hi Morgan! This was amazing! Do you know how many calories are in it? When I plug it into my fitness pal it’s almost 800 but that doesn’t seem right?

    Thank you

    Reply
    • Morgan says

      January 3, 2017 at 8:19 pm

      Hi Michelle! It obviously depends on how much chicken you use / what specific products you use, but when I plugged everything in, for a large serving (1/4 of the taco rice) it is in the range of 650 – 700 calories. If you’d like to lower the calories, cut back on the avocado (although those good fats are always nice!) and use low fat shredded cheese =)

      Hope that helps!

      Reply
  27. Anne says

    November 12, 2017 at 6:08 pm

    Delish! I used leftover baked chicken and bundled the lot into burritos. I’ll definitely fix this again.

    Reply
  28. M. House says

    August 13, 2018 at 8:48 pm

    So good! Thanks for the idea, tomorrow itll be put in wraps for dinner. Might add some heat to it next time. Thx!

    ★★★★★

    Reply
  29. arlene says

    August 30, 2018 at 7:39 pm

    Thanks for sharing, this was yummy! I used long grain parboiled white rice instead of instant brown and I was let with oodles of food. I am going to use the leftovers from this recipe for burritos this weekend.

    Reply
  30. Liz says

    August 31, 2018 at 9:29 am

    This was delicious! I had a bunch of cooked quinoa leftover from earlier in the week, so I used that instead of rice and nixed the chicken broth. It came out beautifully! I also squeezed a wedge of lime into the mix, mostly because I also had one on hand and didn’t want it to be wasted. So, so good. I also love that this recipe can feed an army. My boyfriend went back for seconds, we packaged up a couple of servings in Tupperware for the less fortunate folks outside our building (we live in a big city), and even after all of that, there’s still a ton left! Rave reviews all around. 🙂

    ★★★★★

    Reply
  31. Llh says

    September 10, 2018 at 1:16 pm

    I just skip the salsa use enchilada sauce. So much easier and tastes better.
    Also use birdseye steam brown rice for a quicker put together.
    Add cheese mix a bit threw not alot and add on top. Sometimes I bake it to for 25 min. Or make it in the crock pot. Whatevers easier for me that day.

    ★★★★★

    Reply
  32. Liza says

    October 30, 2018 at 7:08 pm

    Hi) I am going to cook this for two tonight and I don’t have much salsa left. Can I also use diced tomatoes with juice ? Do you think it will ruin the flavor of the dish?

    Reply
  33. Carol says

    December 5, 2018 at 5:23 pm

    We have made this several times and really like it

    ★★★★★

    Reply
  34. Chrissy says

    January 15, 2019 at 5:19 pm

    I’m wondering if you could make this in a quick cooker (insta pot). Any ideas if you’d have to add in more liquid?

    Reply
  35. Kelly says

    January 25, 2019 at 2:33 pm

    I made this last night and I thought it was really tasty. I’ll definitely be making it again.

    Reply
  36. Karla W says

    March 14, 2019 at 11:20 pm

    I made this tonight for dinner! Absolutely delicious!

    ★★★★★

    Reply
  37. Sonya Bender says

    May 28, 2019 at 9:25 pm

    This is a keeper! Delicious, healthy, easy & versatile – perfect for a weeknight family meal. Thanks for sharing!

    ★★★★★

    Reply
  38. Kay says

    September 8, 2019 at 6:29 pm

    Yummy!

    ★★★★★

    Reply

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MEET MORGAN

Morgan is a full-time food blogger, pizza-related sleep talker, and self-described hobby hoarder.
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