Spicy Peruvian Chicken and Loaded Rice
with Pickled Jalapeño & Creamy Salsa Verde
- Eggs
Peru has shared many gifts with the world: Machu Picchu, quinoa, piscos sours. We’d also add Peruvian chicken to that list. Our chefs created a recipe that’s quick to cook while still capturing the flavors of the classic poultry dish. Tender, succulent, and spiced just right, it’s a bird we go cuckoo for. And do not sleep on the accompaniments! There’s garlicky rice that’s amped up with tomatoes, scallions, and lime. But perhaps the scene stealer here is the creamy cilantro sauce that’s tangy with lime and a little spicy from pickled jalapeño. We like it drizzled over the chicken and rice but trust us when we say we wanted to put this sauce on everything!
Ingredients
2 tablespoon
Sour Cream
½ cup
Jasmine Rice
1 unit
Chicken Stock Concentrate
2 clove
Garlic
1 unit
Jalapeño
1 tablespoon
Fajita Spice Blend
2 tablespoon
Mayonnaise
(Contains: Eggs)
1 unit
Tomato
1 unit
Lime
10 ounce
Chicken Cutlets
2 unit
Scallions
¼ ounce
Cilantro
Not included in your delivery
teaspoon (tsp)
Salt
teaspoon (tsp)
Black Pepper
Nutrition Values
Utensils
Cooking Steps
• Wash and dry produce. • Peel and mince or grate garlic. Trim and thinly slice scallions, separating whites from greens. Thinly slice jalapeño into rounds, removing ribs and seeds for less heat. Zest and quarter lime. Finely chop cilantro. Dice tomato into ½-inch pieces.
• Reserve a pinch of garlic (you’ll use it in step 5). • Melt 1 TBSP butter (2 TBSP for 4 servings) in a small pot over medium heat; add scallion whites, remaining garlic, and 1 tsp Fajita Spice (2 tsp for 4) to pot. Cook, stirring, until softened and fragrant, 2-3 minutes. • Add rice, stock concentrate, ¾ cup water (1½ cups for 4), and a pinch of salt. Bring to a boil; cover and reduce heat to low. Cook until rice is tender, 15-18 minutes. • Keep covered off heat until ready to serve.
• In a small microwave-safe bowl, combine jalapeño, juice from half the lime, ¼ tsp sugar, and a pinch of salt. (For 4 servings, use juice from one lime, ½ tsp sugar, and a big pinch of salt.) Microwave for 30 seconds. Set aside to pickle, stirring occasionally.
• Pat chicken* dry with paper towels. Season all over with remaining Fajita Spice, salt, and pepper. • Heat a drizzle of oil in a large pan over medium-high heat. Add chicken and cook until browned and cooked through, 3-5 minutes per side. • Turn off heat; transfer to a cutting board to rest.
• While chicken cooks, remove jalapeño from pickling liquid (reserve liquid). Reserve a few rounds for garnish; mince remaining. • In a second small bowl, combine cilantro, mayonnaise, sour cream, reserved garlic, a squeeze of lime, a big pinch of lime zest, and a pinch of minced jalapeño to taste. (TIP: If you like some zesty heat, add a small splash of jalapeño pickling liquid in place of, or in addition to, lime juice.) Add water 1 tsp at a time until sauce reaches a drizzling consistency. Season with salt and pepper.
• Fluff rice with a fork. Stir in tomato, half the scallion greens, remaining lime zest, a squeeze of lime juice, and as much remaining minced jalapeño as you like. Season with salt and pepper. • Thinly slice chicken crosswise. • Divide rice between bowls and top with chicken. Squeeze juice from remaining lime over chicken. Drizzle everything with creamy salsa verde; garnish with remaining scallion greens and as many reserved jalapeño rounds as you like. Serve.
Customer reviews
Review summary
Updated on Apr 2026- Flavor: Many love the complex blend of spices and tangy pickled jalapeños, though some find it bland or lacking the bold Peruvian flavors they expected.
- Ease of prep: Generally easy to make with straightforward steps, though some feel it has too many components for a weeknight meal.
- Suggestions: Rice needs more water than called for (use 1¼ cups instead of ¾ cup); add extra fajita seasoning and garlic for bolder flavor.
- Leftovers: Delicious when fresh but loses flavor and becomes drier as leftovers the next day.
- Rice cooking: Multiple reviewers confirm the water ratio is incorrect — increase to 1¼-1½ cups water for proper texture and avoid crunchy grains.
- Sauce: The creamy salsa verde is a standout hit; many want more included or suggest doubling the recipe for extra drizzling.
Reviews from our home cooks
I really enjoyed this recipe. My favorite part was the pickled jalapeno. I didn't realize how easy it was to pickle jalapeno. Everything about the dish was tasty. The seasoning on the chicken was flavorful without being too spicy. The rice was amazing. I loved the creamy salsa verde. A perfect homage to Cinco de Mayo Eve.
I loved the loaded rice in this one. It's so awesome how flavor can be elevated with just a few simple ingredients. I do think the salsa verde could benefit from a couple of tomatillos. Otherwise, it was very tasty and fresh with the lime, cilantro, and pickled jalapeño. I added some panko to the cauliflower to give it a little crunch. This was a very satisfying vegetarian meal!
Honestly, I made separate meals - two nights of just the spicy peruvian loaded rice with tomato, jalapeno, and the sauce. Two nights of just the chicken, but mixed with buttered noodles and pepper. It was all great!
I left the chicken cutlets in freezer and purchased some bone-in/skin-on thighs. This recipe is NOT Peruvian chicken. It is at best "Southwest dull chicken with rice". I have a recipe for an authentic Peruvian chicken with aji verde that I plan on making instead. I will use some of the ingredients included in the bag to add to the proper salsa. And I have all the spices needed to make proper roasted chicken.
This dish was delicious! Bright fresh flavors, easy to follow instructions. Loved the pickled jalapeño crema and the lime with the zesty rice and savory chicken! Would make this again for sure! The chicken portions were quite uneven in thickness, so one cooked quicker than the other, but it was fine resting until the second was done.
We liked this dish better the first time we made it. This time the rice turned out a little mushy-not sure why. Bacon typically makes everything better, but in this case, I don't think it was necessary. The chicken with fajita seasoning was delicious and the spicy, tangy jalapeño lime crema is definitely the star of the show here. I used all the jalapeños and substituted the pickling liquid and remaining lime juice instead of water.
This is one of our favorite Hello Fresh meals. The combination of the seasoned chicken, fresh tomatoes, and pickled jalapenos with the creamy sauce always hits. We always bump the rice up to 3/4 cup for two people if the meal includes less and it's the perfect amount. The addition of the bacon to the improved recipe does not add much except extra calories (and I guess protein), but the bacon package lists the calorie count so it's easy enough to subtract it. I always add this one to our menu when it's available.
Really good recipe with lots of great flavors and spice. The loaded rice is almost a meal in itself. Using while whole chicken cutlets is way better than those crappy chicken strips, recommend this for all chicken recipes, better to cut then to receive pulverized chicken. Also love the sauce!
The pickled jalapeños were delicious. Overall this was juicy and a flavor bomb. My partner is from Peru and he had a bit of a laugh at the name, since it is quite far from actual Peruvian chicken, but that didn't make it any less delicious! I accidentally overate because I couldn't stop myself.
This was really yummy! It took a little longer than 30 minutes to cook, or maybe I could have prepped better. However, the delicious taste made up for it! I liked the loaded rice and the salsa verde.
