Chicken Burrito Bowl with Cauliflower Rice

My goal every night, like the goal of most moms (I think) is to cook a dinner that everyone in the family will eat. Mostly so I don’t have to cook something different for every single person in the house. It’s too much work and frankly it’s too much clean up for me. Granted it wasn’t always that way, Grace like most kids went through a picky eater phase, but now that we’re successfully out of that phase and she’ll eat the majority of what I put in front of her, I’m expanding all of her culinary tastes.

I mean go figure she would like Thai and Indian food right? But we love them so she’s willing to try things and it’s awesome. I digress. Obviously we’re big into Mexican food in our house, it’s a regular staple of meals because it’s so good.

This whole dinner was crafted around Mexican spices, left over pollo asado and cauliflower rice (that I’m currently obsessing over). The cauliflower has such a good texture and lends itself well as a substitute for rice because it’ll absorb whatever flavors you add to it. Seriously, you can’t over season cauliflower. In fact, I find that the more seasoning you add to the cauliflower, the less the “cauliflower” taste.

Luckily this one came together easily because I had all the ingredients in my house that I was thinking about in my head. I feel like that never happens SO I decided to take advantage of my daughter and my husband having play time and mess around with what I had in my kitchen.

The result was a super filling take on a burrito bowl that was full on flavor but relatively healthy. If you have fresh jalapenos or fresh cilantro or both on hand be sure to add them! Sour cream also makes for a delicious topping. Guacamole would also be amazing but I feel like that goes without saying.

I added in pollo asado as my primary protein source for the bowl, but if you don’t have it on hand, really any other protein source would work. Baking up your own chicken, using leftover rotisserie chicken, shrimp, even an egg would be amazing. If all else fails, you could leave meat out completely and make the bowl a vegetarian bowl by adding in more beans for some extra protein.

Chicken burrito bowl with cauliflower rice

Prep time: 15 minutes

Cook time: 30 minutes

Serves: 4

2 tablespoons olive oil

1/2 onion, diced

3 garlic cloves, minced

1/2 cup corn (frozen or fresh)

1 15 oz. can black beans, drained and rinsed

2 tablespoons of taco seasoning

1 head of cauliflower, chopped to rice consistency

1 lb. of chicken, cooked and diced

1/2 bunch of cilantro, roughly chopped

1 bunch of green onions, roughly chopped

1 jalapeno, diced

Juice of two limes

1/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Cook your chicken however you desire. We grilled ours for 20 minutes, flipping halfway through. While the chicken is cooking, run your cauliflower through your food processor on the chop option, or chop your cauliflower down until it resembles rice. Heat your olive oil in a saute pan over medium heat, add in the onion and garlic, sauteing until the onions are translucent. Add in the corn and cook for an additional 5 minutes or until heated through. Add in the cauliflower and taco seasoning, cooking for an additional 5 to 8 minutes mixing so the seasoning gets evenly distributed and the cauliflower loses that “cauliflower” smell. Fold in the black beans, cooking for another 5 minutes or until heated through. Remove from the heat, add in the juice from the limes, the cilantro, jalapeno, green onion, mixing until evenly combined.

Divide mixture evenly into bowls, top with the chicken and cheese (and whatever other toppings you’re using) and serve while hot! Enjoy!