Homemade Chipotle Burrito Bowls

Funny story - yesterday was a crazy busy day. I got home from a meeting around 4:40pm, but still needed to go for a run, take a shower/make myself presentable, make dinner, eat dinner, and be out of the house by 6:50pm so I could make it to Bible study by 7pm.

So, I changed as fast as possible, and flew out the door for my run by 4:45pm, planning on an easy 6-miler (about 50 minutes). I would be back by 5:35pm, and well on my way to preparing some delicious homemade Chipotle burrito bowls for dinner.

Except... as soon as I slammed the LOCKED door shut, I realized I didn't have the key. Crap. Hmm..... what could I do? So I decided to run to my Business Man's office (about 2.5 miles away), get his key and then run home. Perfect!

So I ran to his office. Except he wasn't there. After a quick panic, I realized that he had a meeting across town from 5-6pm. Which meant he wouldn't be home until 6:15ish. So I started running home, the long way. I figured that I could run the planned 6 miles and stand outside for half an hour and be cold, or I could run longer. I made it home with about 7.5 miles under my belt and kept looping around the block, waiting for my Business Man to get home. Finally I gave up and stopped running, after 9.3 miles. He pulled in about 5 minutes later. Impromptu 15km! Haha...

Needless to say, homemade burrito bowls didn't happen last night for dinner. I barely had time to shower, throw together some scrambled eggs, and make it out the door.

But because we didn't have burrito bowls last night, that meant we got to eat them tonight! Burrito bowls for the win.

The Bean Town just got a Chipotle a few months ago... and I am in love. The burrito bowls are my favorite. Why? Because not only do you avoid the whole brick-in-your-stomach feeling from eating an entire burrito (because who can stop halfway?), but when you get the burrito bowl you can always justify the chips. The fresh, perfectly salty, crisp tortilla chips.

I have such fond memories of eating Chipotle chips with my BFF Talen in college. We would often get Chipotle for dinner after track meets. (It was easy to pre-order and deliver to a track meet and feed 80+ hungry athletes.) 

Somehow we would always end up with a bag or two of leftover chips between us on the bus ride home. Chomp chomp chomp... we would devour whatever bags we had while chit-chatting the whole bus ride home. 

Talen & myself at my bachelorette party... can I be tan again? 

[Side note: Talen is considering running either the Illinois half or whole marathon with me in April! Woot woot! My bribery has worked... maybe we can show her some love in the comments section for her to fully commit. ;-)]

Anyways... back to burrito bowls. Cilantro-lime rice, with spicy black beans, and chili-lime chicken. Layered up with cheese, salsa, and sour cream. These are definitely as good as the burrito bowls from Chipotle, and a bit healthier because you can control the amounts of each ingredient. The chicken itself was my favorite part... we will definitely be making these again!

Perfectly delicious scooped up with tortilla chips. Since we're doing the whole 'homemade' Chipotle, we used our favorite lime-flavored tortilla chips.

Don't know what they put in these, but they are SO good.

And yes, there are quite a few pans bubbling away on the stove, which means quite a few dishes. But, just be sure to make plenty of extras, that way you can have leftovers! Just heat and eat.

Small pot for black beans, large pot for rice, saute pan for peppers/onions, and then the chicken on the indoor grill. Let's hope whoever cooks doesn't have to do dishes. ;-)

First up - the cilantro-lime rice.

Then the black beans. (I also added some sauteed peppers to get a few more veggies.)

Then the chicken.

Then the cheese. Looooove cheese.

Then salsa, sour cream, and a bit more cilantro.

 Ready for devouring! Don't forget the chips!

[click to PRINT]

Chipotle Chicken Burrito Bowls

Servings/Yield

4-6 servings

• Chili-Lime Chicken
• 3-4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
• juice from 3 limes
• 2 tablespoons chili powder
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• ½ tablespoon garlic powder
• Cilantro-Lime Rice
• 4 cups cooked brown rice
• ⅓ cup chopped cilantro
• juice from 1 lime
• 1 small pat butter
• Spicy Citrus Black Beans
• 2 14-oz. cans black beans, rinsed & drained
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 yellow onion, chopped
• ½ green pepper, chopped
• ½ cup chicken stock or water
• 1 ½ teaspoons oregano
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 ½ teaspoons minced garlic
• 1 ½ teaspoons cumin
• ¼ cup orange juice
• shredded monterey jack cheese
• salsa
• sour cream
• cilantro
• tortilla chips

Method

For chicken, combine juice from three limes, chili powder, olive oil, and garlic powder with chicken and marinate at least 30 minutes. (Can be marinated overnight.) Preheat grill to medium heat and grill chicken breasts until cooked through. Remove and dice into small pieces.

Meanwhile, prepare black beans. Heat the olive oil in a saucepan over medium-high heat and saute onion and pepper until tender, about 5-7 minutes. Add the garlic; saute one more minute. Stir in the beans. Mix in broth and bring to a simmer. Add oregano, salt, cumin, and orange juice. Simmer on low 20-30 minutes stirring occasionally.

For rice, combine hot cooked rice with the juice from one lime, chopped cilantro, and butter.

To assemble burrito bowls, layer rice, beans, chicken, and cheese. Top with salsa, sour cream, and additional cilantro. Serve with tortilla chips.

Source: chicken and rice from What's for Dinner?, black beans from Annie's Eats