Mexican is one of my favorite cuisines, however it is not always the healthiest. That is why I created this version of a fajita, to be able to enjoy a healthier Mexican dish. When creating your meal plan for the week you are going to want to include this Mexican chicken fajita bowl. Additional, anyone counting macros or meal prepping you are also going to want to consider this recipe. It is delicious reheated and can be easily adjusted to fit your macros!
Mexican Chicken Fajita Bowl
Ingredients
- 6.5 oz Boneless, Skinless, Chicken Breast
- ¼ tsp Black Pepper
- ¼ tsp Red Pepper Flake
- ¼ tsp Garlic Powder
- ½ tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- 75 g Yellow Onion sliced, (about ½ an onion)
- 75 g Yellow Bell Pepper diced, (about ½ an pepper)
- 75 g Orange Bell Pepper diced, (about ½ an pepper)
- 30 g Jalapeno sliced, (about ½ an pepper)
- 2.5 g Cotija Cheese (just a sprinkle)
- 1 Serving of my Spicy Black Bean Recipe found at adashofmacros.com (about ½ cup)
- 40 g Avocado sliced, (about ¼ an avocado)
Instructions
- Heat stove top pan to medium heat, while the pan is heating season the chicken breast on both sides, with black pepper, red pepper, and garlic.
- Once the pan is hot, add 1/2 of the extra virgin olive oil to the pan.
- Place the chicken immediately in the pan, leave it there on medium heat for 2 minutes, then flip to the other side and cook for an additional 2 minutes. Both sides should start to become golden brown, but the center will still look uncooked…If not, give each side another minute…your pan wasn't hot enough.
- Then turn the heat to low and cover the chicken with a lid. Let it cook for about 6 minutes, then flip and cover again for another 6 minutes on the other side. After 6 minutes on each side covered, the chicken should be done. But this does depend on the size of the chicken breast…these times are based on a 6½ oz breast. My rule of thumb is, once covered, cook the chicken for 1 minute per ounce per side, I find that this deliveres a perfect juicy chicken breast every time.It is always best to check the internal temperature of chicken before serving.
- While chicken is cooking heat another large saute pan, add the remaining olive oil. Once the oil is hot toss in the sliced bell peppers and onions. Cook down for approximately 5-8 minutes until just tender. Stirring often to prevent burning.
- In a small sauce pot prepare the Spicy Black Beans according to my recipe, found on this website.
- Remove chicken from the pan and cut into bite size pieces. Plate by arranging pepper mixture, chicken, beans, and avocado in a bowl. Top with cheese and a few small slices of jalapeno.
Nutrition
Question:
- Are you trying to get better at meal planning?
- Are you having trouble finding recipes for meal prep?
- Or are you on a diet and counting macros?
If you are bored of eating the same recipes every week and answered yes to any of these question, then you are going to want to check out my notes below. Tips on how you can incorporate this Mexican Chicken Fajita Bowl into your meal plan and meal prep. If you are counting macros I have also included notes on how you can easily adjust the protein, carbs, and fats to meet your macro requirements.
NOTES FOR MEAL PLANNING:
Meal planning doesn’t have to be hard or take a lot of time. In fact, meal planning can be fun when you are provided with easy new recipes each week. Meal Planning can also help save money, prevent food waste, and save you time.
The best things about this bowl is it is great reheated, satisfies your craving for Mexican, and can be adjusted to fit just about any diet.
NOTES FOR MEAL PREP:
This Mexican chicken fajita bowl is a wonderful recipe for meal prepping. You can store each serving in the fridge for up to 1 week.
However, avocado does not meal prep very well. But, I have found a solution that can help slow the browning.
Tip:
- You can pre-cut your avocado: Toss your avocado chunks with a little lime juice, then portion into zip lock bags. Suck all the air out of the zip lock bag and store in the fridge. Typically my pre-cut avocados will last 2-3 days before starting to brown if I sucked all the air out.
When its time to reheat:
- Heat in the microwave for 45-60 seconds. Stirring halfway thru.
- Then top with your avocado.
NOTES FOR COUNTING MACROS:
PROTEIN:
The main source of protein in this recipe is the chicken, making this recipe super easy to increase or decrease the amount of protein per serving.
- Every 1 ounce of chicken has 8.8 grams of protein.
CARBOHYDRATE:
The veggies and the beans in this recipe is what provides most of the carbohydrates. Again, easy ingredients to adjust. Although, this recipe is on the higher side of carbs. Therefore, I assume that most people would be looking to decrease the carbs in this dish.
- If you are looking for a low carb meal, the easiest way would be to remove beans altogether. Not adding the beans would reduce the carbs by 24.1 grams per serving, 1/2 cups serving size of beans. However, you will want to keep in mind that this will also reduce the protein by 9.6 grams, and the fat by 4.3 grams.
- On the other hand, if you are in fact looking to increase the carbs, increase this amount of beans would be the way to go.
FAT:
The fat in this recipe comes mainly from the avocado and the oil that the chicken is cooked in.
The easiest way to adjust the fat the is by adjusting the amount of avocado used.
- For example: For every 15 grams (about 1/8 avocado) you increase or decrease the fats by 4 grams.
You could also choose to cook the chicken or the veggies in non stick cooking spray instead of oil. However, that may leave your chicken a little drier and your veggies might brown up a little faster. Therefore, if looking to reduce the fat I would recommend either reducing the amount of avocado, or the amount of oil the veggies are cooked in.
- For every 1/2 tablespoon of oil there is 7 grams of fat.
When making adjustments to the macros in this Mexican chicken fajita bowl, you will want to keep in mind the number of servings you are making.
Click the link below to easily find my:
Spicy Black Bean Recipe