Update!
This reader favorite is so good, we HAD to make it again three years later. Check out the new and improved Recipe Revamp: How to Make a Chipotle-Style Burrito Bowl at Home!
So Chipotle is one of my guilty pleasures, but as someone who’s (1) saving for her wedding and (2) trying to fit into said wedding dress I know it’s not realistic for me to eat there often. That’s why I decided to try making a copycat version of their Chicken Burrito Bowl at home. And because I’m all about healthy cooking, I made this recipe slightly better for us by using lower fat ingredients (for those who don’t care you can just substitute with regular). I had an absolute blast making up this concoction, and the best part was that it was so quick and easy. This recipe is completely made up based solely on my extensive knowledge of how Chipotle food tastes and just simple experimentation. I hope you enjoy my attempt at making a copycat recipe.
Chipotle-style Chicken Burrito Bowl
Serves: about 4 people
For Cilantro-Lime Rice:
2 Cups of organic Jasmine Rice
4 Cups of water
1 teaspoons salt
1 tablespoons of low-fat butter
1/2 to 1 cup cilantro, chopped
1/4 cup of onion, chopped
1 lime, squeeze out fresh juice
dash of cumin
1/2 tsp of pepper
For Chicken:
1 package fajita seasoning mix
3 cups of lean chicken, chopped
1/4 cup chopped onion
Other:
2 cups frozen Corn
1 can black beans, low sodium
a bag of low-fat shredded cheddar or Mexican blend cheese
Salsa, if desired
Pico de gallo, if desired
lettuce, chopped
tomatoes, chopped
1 small container of low-fat sour cream
For Guacamole:
Psst! We have the official Chipotle recipe for guacamole!
Directions:
For Rice:
- Start by making the rice first (be sure to follow the directions on the bag of any jasmine rice you’re using).
- The only difference will be that you’re adding salt, butter, lime juice, onion, cumin and cilantro. Add these after the boiling stage but before the simmering stage. Mix well and keep covered. Keep in mind one of the key ingredients to making this like the rice at Chipotle is the lime and cilantro, that flavor is important!
- While the rice is cooking… steam the corn in a separate pot and keep warming on the side. Also put entire can of black beans into separate pot and heat on low, stirring often, until hot.
To Make the Chicken:
- Add some oil of chose to a frying pan and toss chicken in. Heat chicken on medium heat, stirring often to get chicken cooking evenly.
- Add 1/4 cup of water and entire package of fajita seasoning (you can also just follow the directions on that packet). Add more water if necessary.
- Toss and stir chicken until evenly coated, turn heat to low-med and simmer for another 5 to 8 minutes.
For the Guacamole:
- Remove peel and core from avocado and chop up into pieces. Add to a medium bowl.
- Chop and blend avocado until it’s the desired texture.
- Add chopped cilantro, 1/4 cup of onions, lime juice, salsa or tomatoes and mix well.
- Add pepper to taste.
Now that everything’s complete you can get large bowls for each person eating. Follow the below order of things if you want it to resemble Chipotle the most:
- First add rice to bowl
- Then add black beans
- Then add chicken (remember I used chicken but you could substitute for pork, beef or go veggie!)
- Add desired amount of corn.
- Add cheese.
- Then add salsa or pico de gallo, tomatoes, and add sour cream (just plop it on, no science to this).
- Finally top that off with desired amount of chopped lettuce.
You are finally ready to eat the heck out of this dish, trust me I did!
I hope you all enjoyed my little restaurant copycat cooking adventure! If you make your own attempt be sure to let me know how it goes with comments below.
If I’ve really wet you’re appetite for Mexican food then be sure to check out these 15 Quick Mexican Recipes. For even more copycat recipes be sure to check out AllFreeCopycatRecipes.com for some yummy take-out fake-out recipes.
Have a great week!
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Mmmm. Looks – and sounds – great! You’ve inspired me for dinner tonight! One trick I like to do with rice is to toast it a little bit (with a dash of olive oil or a little butter) before I start it boiling. Gives it a great flavor and helps the spices open up a bit; cumin is so great toasted. Of course, then it wouldn’t quite taste like Chipotle rice.
Sounds awesome. Don’t forget to add chipotle peppers crushed to chicken or it’s not chipotle. Remove seeds if you don’t want it too spicy.
A couple add ons: I think cilantro is the key to giving any dish an authentic Mexican flavor. But, to ensure you get its fullest flavor, fresh cilantro makes all the difference in the world as opposed to dried cilantro. Another great and easy way to enhance flavor is to use freshly shredded cheese, for this dish Chihuaha cheese would be perfect.
It looks delicious! I am also a huge fan of Chipotle and love their lime flavored tortilla chips. I think breaking up some tortilla chips and sprinkling them into your burrito bowl would add a nice crunch to the dish. If you’re short on time, Tostitos actually makes a tortilla chip that features a “hint of lime” flavor that would pair nicely with your Chipotle-inspired flavors. As with anything, you can always try your hand at creating your very own lime flavored tortilla chips!
The Tex-mex flavors in this dish sound great, but I like my Mexican food spicy! When I make the guacamole for this Burrito Bowl, I’ll be adding a pinch of cumin and coriander for the authentic Mexican aromas, a pressed clove of garlic for depth of flavor, and a minced jalapeno to bump up the heat.
I made this last night and it was out of this world! The family loved it so much that it’s on the menu for tonight as well. Being vegetarian, I sautéed onions and peppers in the fajita mix and added the blackbeans and corn directly to the sautee pan. I also skipped the butter in the rice and never missed it. Love this!
That’s great Laura! I’m so happy this worked out for you. I enjoyed this experiment at home a ton!
Thanks for sharing.
Editor Sarah
I worked at chipotle. The rice is slimply cooked, a touch of soy oil added to it. Then tossed about with lime juice, cilantro and salt. Very simple- you should be able to taste all ingredients. The chicken is marinated in an Adobo mix, very hot stuff. Never used cumin in any recipe there.
My Husband and I made this together last night, and its was amazing! He asked if we could make it again next week! Thanks for giving us an excuse to stay home, save some money and spend some time together making dinner! =)
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Thanks for posting such a great recipe. I am planning to make this tonight. I love the idea of tossing the rice in lime juice and cilantro. I cook everything from scratch for my family, we have a serious food allergy so we can never go to a restaurant. I appreciate finding great restaurant-type recipes I can fix at home. Thanks so much for posting this!
Plz can you tell me how we make beans and hot sauce like with (onion and tomatoes )
I could eat these burrito bowls every other night!
I have seen Chipotle promotions that say they prepare their black beans in a special sauce, but I don’t know what it is, so I invented this one: a bit of chopped onion, a bit of chopped tomato, a dash of garlic crystals, a dash of powdered chipotle pepper, a dash of cilantro, a dash of mexican oregano. Add these to a rinsed can of black beans and cook lightly. Good! (You can add a cup of frozen corn and a cup of chopped peppers, also, and thus simplify the number of steps in the recipe above.)
For crunchiness, I love sesame blue corn chips, preferably the “Food Should Taste Good” brand, but others are OK, too. Not authentic, I know, but tasty.
I am going to try this soon because my daughter could eat these every night and i am tired of giving Chipolte all my $$$
I love Chipotle so much, so I made this recipe with a little bit of changes. I cooked the rice following the recipe, however; 4 cups of water were not enough at all to cook the rice. I was adding more water until the rice was cooked. I was not measuring how much water I was adding, but roughly I added about 2 more cups of water. Next, I added lemon juice, cilantro, butter, onion and salt to the rice, and as they said in the recipe, I mixed all the ingredient together. After I have done that, the rice looked like an oatmeal, which was very unpleasing. They said we only need 1 tablespoon of butter, when I think we need more to prevent the rice from breaking.
The best part of Chipotle bowel is the tomato salad. This recipe has totally forgotten about it, so I tried my best to make it. I chopped two tomatoes and half an onion, and then I added cilantro, lemon juice, salt and paper. I mixed everything and put it in the refrigerator until I was done cooking the chicken.
I followed the recipe to make the chicken, however; I didn’t have the fajita seasoning mix, so I replaced it with salt and pepper.
This dish was fine; not very good, but not bad at all. I should say that my kitchen was a huge mess, so probably I will never make this dish again.
I made this recipe last night, and I must say that it was amazing and extremely delicious it resembles the normal Chipotle bowl a lot and I woulf recommend this recipe for everyone.
This was fantastic. Tasted BETTER than chipotle. I boiled lean ground pork, then added it to a pan to simmer with fajita mix, black beans, and medium salsa. Served with all the fixings, including greek yogurt in place of sour cream. Awesome! Make again!
you said you needed onion for the chicken but you never metioned when you used the onion in the chicken?
Made this for the kids and I tonight. We love chipotle and go often. But let me tell you that this was AMAZING. I loved it. The kids loved it. Only thing we added was the fajita peppers. I made homemade guacamole and homemade pico de gallo. It did take abt an hour to prepare everything but OMG it was so worth it. We have enough left over for dinner tomorrow and I can’t wait.
Love that this post is still so relevant 3 years later – perfect proof that Chipotle will never go out of style! I’m a huge fan of copycat recipes, and I essentially have what I like to call a burrito bowl addiction (which my bank account hates), so I was thrilled to find this! I usually skip the salsa at the actual restaurant, but I love that this option would allow me to go as spicy or as mild as I’d like with my own ingredients. I’d love to hear what fajita seasoning was used; Chipotle’s chicken is always a bit too spicy for my taste, so I’d be interested in finding an option that gives the same flavor without all of the spice! So excited to try this out, the commenting reviews make it sound fabulous.
Sounds so good may try it with pork carnitas, with all the oriental rice bowl recipes showing up online this is a nice change