Mexican Chicken & Rice Bowls
with Salsa Fresca & Lime Sour Cream
- Milk
The beauty of a bowl-style dinner is the DIY element. This meal begins with aromatic yellow rice and Southwest-spiced chicken, all jazzed up with homemade salsa and a limey crema. When ready to build your bowl, feel free to go crazy with assembly. Crema on bottom! Rice on top of chicken! Hot sauce on everything!!
Ingredients
10 ounce
Chopped Chicken Breast
4 tablespoon
Sour Cream
½ cup
Jasmine Rice
1 unit
Chicken Stock Concentrate
1 teaspoon
Turmeric
1 unit
Long Green Pepper
1 unit
Tomato
1 unit
Lime
2 unit
Scallions
1 unit
Tex-Mex Paste
1 tablespoon
Southwest Spice Blend
1 teaspoon
Hot Sauce
Not included in your delivery
teaspoon (tsp)
Salt
teaspoon (tsp)
Black Pepper
Nutrition Values
Utensils
Cooking Steps
• In a small pot, combine stock concentrate, half the Southwest Spice, ¼ tsp turmeric (½ tsp for 4 servings), and ¾ cup water (1½ cups for 4). (Be sure to measure the turmeric—we sent more.) Bring to a boil, then stir in rice and a pinch of salt. Cover and reduce to a low simmer. Cook until rice is tender, 15-18 minutes. • Keep covered off heat until ready to serve.
• While rice cooks, wash and dry produce. • Halve, core, and thinly slice green pepper into strips. Dice tomato. Trim and thinly slice scallions. Zest and quarter lime.
• Heat a large drizzle of oil in a large pan over medium-high heat. Add green pepper; cook, stirring, until slightly softened, 2-3 minutes.
• Meanwhile, pat chicken* dry with paper towels; season with remaining Southwest Spice. • Once green pepper is slightly softened, add chicken and a large drizzle of oil to pan. Cook, stirring occasionally, until chicken is cooked through and green pepper is caramelized, 4-6 minutes. • Add Tex-Mex paste and ¼ cup water (1⁄3 cup for 4 servings); cook, stirring, until sauce has thickened, 2-3 minutes. • Stir in 1 TBSP butter (2 TBSP for 4) until melted. Turn off heat.
• While chicken cooks, in a small bowl, combine tomato, scallions, a squeeze of lime juice, salt, and pepper. • In a separate small bowl, combine sour cream, lime zest, a squeeze of lime juice, salt, and pepper.
• Fluff rice with a fork; stir in 1 TBSP butter (2 TBSP for 4 servings) until melted. Season with salt and pepper. • Divide rice between bowls and top with chicken mixture, salsa, and lime sour cream. Drizzle with hot sauce to taste. Serve with remaining lime wedges on the side.
Customer reviews
Review summary
Updated on Mar 2026- Flavor: Many loved the bold, spicy flavors, though some found it too hot; adjusting spice levels to taste is recommended.
- Ease of prep: Quick and easy to make, though some struggled with rice cooking times and textures.
- Suggestions: Consider adding avocado, beans, or corn for extra texture; serve with tortilla chips for scooping.
- Portions: Several felt the rice portion was too small; adding extra rice or serving in a tortilla could make it more filling.
- Leftovers: Reheats well and makes great next-day burritos or bowls.
Reviews from our home cooks
I loved how fresh and spicy this dish was! The salsa fresca is so simple and packs tons of flavor, especially paired with the creamy lime sour cream! The smoky, spicy chicken and peppers were extra yummy with the brilliantly flavorful, colorful rice!
I made some very minor adjustments to the recipe (added bay leaf to the rice, added onion and other pepper to the ones provided for more color and veggies), and my love of sour cream means I would have to double it to share with my family, but once it was all in my bowl and I took a bite of everything together, it was absolutely delicious. Much better than I anticipated. Can't wait to make it again honestly. And I haven't even made meal number 2.
Recipes like this is 1 reason why I love Hello Fresh! It's quick, it's easy, it's fresh, it includes ingredients that I don't normally keep on hand, so I love getting the exact amount I need! I almost always get a Mexican rice bowl when it's available!
Liked it all. Good chicken-flavored rice, good salsa, love the lime sour creme on top. Quick & easy meal.
I've made a lot of Mexican rice bowls with you guys but this one was an all-timer. I don't know if it was the thighs, maybe the turmeric, or what, but this was extra super delicious. One of my faves.
The spice in this dish was delicious. Also the salsa & the lime cream toned down the spiciness and enhanced the flavors. We would order this again.
Very good meal. I'm starting to think I had never heard of a lime before Hello Fresh. We are 65+ and after eating dinner tonight we both said we've eaten more items with lime in them over the last few months than we have in our entire life's. We do like these rice bowls. Thanks for a great dinner.
First, the lime sour cream sauce was spectacular. We'll be making that many many times. My husband and I liked this one, the kids not so much. We love Mexican food and felt like this was missing an element. The peppers overwhelmed the flavor and the kids ended up making burritos with it, so it worked out, but it could have used another element (we couldn't figure out what).
I usually don't eat Mexican food, but I wanted to try this because of the salsa Fresca and the lime sour cream. I was not disappointed. They both complimented the southwest flavor of the chicken.
We don't like sour cream so ended up using the packets for a different recipe instead of wasting it. The rice had a tad too much water but it worked out and could have used cilantro for the salsa and dish to add extra flavor.
