Honey Lime Chicken Bowl {Portion Fix/21 Day Fix}

One of my favorite ways to eat a one-dish meal is “bowl-style”. My Egg Roll in a Bowl and Bigger Big Mac in a Bowl can testify to that! My latest creation of a Honey Lime Chicken Bowl is easy and flavorful. I love that it is easy enough for a weeknight meal!  

What are the 1st 2 layers for this Honey Lime Chicken Bowl?

 The first layer in my bowl is brown rice. However, if you wanted to use quinoa you could. I don’t have a fancy recipe for this layer. All I use is warm brown rice, salt n pepper, and a little lime juice. I add any fresh herb I happen to have handy such as chives, parsley, or cilantro. If I don’t have anything like that I just add a little garlic/garlic powder to the rice. 

If you wanted to use cauliflower rice instead you totally could. You could even use half brown rice and half cauliflower rice to add an extra veggie to your plate. Here is a great recipe for a Garlic Cilantro Cauliflower Rice. 

The second thing I layer into my bowl is the cooked chicken. But I have to cook it first! 

To begin with, I butterfly it open and pound it out just a little to get it all the same thickness so that it will cook evenly. The only ingredients for this chicken are salt, pepper, honey, and lime juice. I mix 2 teaspoons lime juice with 1 teaspoon honey per piece of chicken. When I can marinate my chicken in it for about a 1/2 hour to an hour.  If I can’t I just go ahead and cook it anyway. 

You can cook your chicken in a number of ways. Baking it in the oven or in my air fryer is the easiest way. Just 15-25 minutes in a 350-degree oven will do it and about the same amount of time for an air fryer. But if I can I grill it for the same amount of time I get that extra layer of flavor I really like. After it is done I finish it with 1 teaspoon of lime juice and 1 teaspoon of honey mixed and brushed over both sides.  

How do you finish up these bowls?

You can cube up your warm chicken and put it over your warm rice. 

Next comes the fresh stuff!! I make this part ahead of time and have it ready for when my rice and chicken are ready. 

I have a recipe for fresh pico de gallo that is my go-to for this layer. You can find that recipe right HERE.  Although, I leave the veggies bigger for this bowl recipe. I add bell peppers to my basic recipe for some extra crunch. I add jalapenos according to my mood, sometimes more – sometimes less. 

This is where you can customize your bowl even more. You can mix and match any combination of veggies and however much heat you want. Because I want to stir the lime juice and salt n pepper around I just mix it all up. 

You can use any amount of this mixture as you want. Just make sure to count how much of a Green container you use. I use about 1/2 cup per piece of chicken. 

Creamy Avocado Dressing

The last thing I top my bowl with is a creamy avocado dressing. Again this is a simple shortcut style recipe. It starts with premade guacamole!

We buy the little Wholly Guacamole singles fairly often. I never have to worry about getting a perfect avocado the exact day I want to eat it. And you can throw them in the freezer and they last forever that way!  I mix 1 container of the guac with mayonnaise, coconut cream, and garlic. I count that as an orange container. 

The Wholly Guacamole is not quite 1 Blue container. It is 3 Tablespoons worth and our Blue container holds 5 Tablespoons. So I add 2 Tablespoons of coconut cream to make it a whole Blue container. 

One tablespoon of mayonnaise and 1/2 teaspoon minced garlic make up the rest of the sauce ingredients. Sometimes I add a 1/2 teaspoon of lemon or lime juice to the mix if I am not going to use it all at once, like if I serve it to my whole family. Give it all a big stir. Add a splash of almond milk to thin it down just a little and use right away. 

 

If you don’t want to use the avocado cream, you could always make a ranch-style dressing instead. I have a great mayo-based ranch dressing HERE.  

Before you get started…

Here are a few things to remember when you read the recipe:

I am not going to give instructions for cooking for brown rice in this recipe. I personally use Boil in the Bag brown rice when I just need a couple of servings but any rice you precooked will be fine.

The pico de gallo can be made while your chicken is cooking or ahead of time so the flavors have time to meld. Either way is delicious.

The container counts are going to be up to how much you put into your bowl. Sometimes I only use 1/2 cup of rice other times a whole cup so my Yellow container count changes. Just keep track of how many containers you add to your dish and that is your container count! 

Let’s make a Honey Lime Chicken Bowl!

I love to serve this Honey Lime Chicken Bowl salad style too! 

Just make sure to count those greens of lettuce that you add. I have even crushed some tortilla chips over the top of my salad like croutons. Tortilla chips are a treat swap on the 21 Day Fix. I have some information HERE about treat swaps. 

Even if I don’t make the pico de gallo, I just chop tomatoes and veggies and do all the rest!