ONE PAN TEX-MEX CHICKEN AND RICE is perfect for a busy weeknight meal or a dish to impress your friends and family! All you need is one pan and 45 minutes until dinner is ready!
In our family, we love one pan and Tex-Mex style meals! How could you not? It was so easy and perfect for a busy weeknight meal and loaded with tons of flavor.
If you love flavorful dishes that are a little bit spicy, you are going to love this. Just do me a favor and add any of the ingredients to your grocery list. I will say most of these ingredients you will find in anyone’s pantry, besides diced green chiles. If you are a Tex-Mex foodie, like me, you will probably have those!
Do not be alarmed at all of the ingredients it takes to make this dish. Trust me on this; you will want every single one of them for the flavor. As you can see in the recipe, I have broken the ingredient list down into two – seasonings for the cajun chicken and the seasonings for the rice.
On our blog, we have a very popular recipe called baked cajun chicken breasts. If you haven’t tried them, they are to die for! I took the same seasoning and added it to the chicken for this one pan Tex-Mex chicken and rice dish. The only difference is pan-frying the chicken for a few minutes and then baking it. That’s it.
If you have any little ones in the house who do need like a little spicy, then you can omit the red pepper chili flakes from the seasonings in the rice and the diced green chilies. You aren’t going to lose too much flavor, only the heat, which isn’t that much to begin with.
Ingredients
Chicken
- 3 boneless chicken breasts
- cajun seasoning
- ½ teaspoon chili powder
- 1 tablespoon oil
Tex-Mex Rice
- 1 tablespoon oil
- ½ cup onion
- 3 mini sweet peppers diced
- 3 garlic cloves minced
- 4 ounce can diced green chiles
- 1 ½ cups corn drained
- 1 ½ cups black beans drained
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon pepper
- 1 teaspoon cumin
- ½ teaspoon chili powder
- ½ teaspoon dried oregano
- ¼ teaspoon red pepper chili flakes
- 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
- 2 cups chicken stock
- 1 cup white rice
- lime juice optional
- cilantro optional
Instructions
Chicken
- Whisk together the Cajun seasoning and chili powder together. Rub the seasoning on the chicken breasts.
- Place the oil in the skillet and allow it get it warm over medium heat.
- Add the chicken breasts and cook on each side for 5 minutes. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
- Place the skillet in the oven and bake for 15 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through.
- Remove from the skillet and place onto a plate or a cutting board and set aside.
Tex-Mex Rice
- Place the oil, onion, mini sweet peppers into the skillet and saute for 10 minutes or tender the onions are translucent.
- Mix in the garlic, diced green chiles, corn, black beans, salt, pepper, cumin, chili powder, oregano, red pepper chili flakes, and paprika together.
- Add the chicken stock; mix, and bring to a boil. Add the rice and cover for 15 minutes or until the rice is tender.
- Add lime juice (optional) and place the chicken breasts on top of the rice.
- Garnish with fresh cilantro.
Erik says
The recipe tastes great, but for some reason the rice took an hour to cook all the way through. I even had to add two cups of water. Very strange.
Real Housemoms JK says
That is strange! What kind of rice did you use?
Janet Bradley says
Soooo want to try this but have one question. Could I used Thighs instead of breasts?
Thanks, Jan
Real Housemoms JK says
Of course! Just make sure it is cooked through. That will taste amazing!
GB says
I shredded the baked chicken and mixed it in to the rice after cooking. It was a hit as even my picky eater finished everything.
Aubrey Cota says
Great idea, thank you for sharing!
r says
For this recipe, I can’t put my pan in the oven, would it be fine if after frying the chicken breast for 5 min on each side take out of skillet and put on a pan and then put into oven