Regardless of the time of year, one-dish meals are always in season and priceless. Modeled after a dish I used to make all the time in college, Southwest Chicken Casserole is one of my favorites!
Southwest Chicken Casserole is an easy one-dish meal using chicken, rice, black beans, tomato, corn and southwest spices.
One-dish recipes save time on the front end during preparation and the on the tail end for clean-up. Southwest Chicken Casserole is not only a simple one-dish meal, it is also fairly healthy.
Make sure you PIN Southwest Chicken Casserole!
Using brown rice, vegetables and fiber rich beans adds color, texture and flavor. Southwest spices are full of antioxidants and flavor. There is also some evidence that suggests spicy and smoky flavors may help increase metabolism for an hour after being eaten.
I developed Southwest Chicken Casserole after craving a dish I used to make when I was in graduate school. It was a premade seasoning packet that only required the addition of canned tomatoes, beans, chicken and corn.
Southwest chicken and rice, yummy, yummy!
It was basically a shake and bake, coming with an oven bag. I realized it was no longer on the market and I’d need to develop my own version. It was actually quite simple and gave me the flexibility to add even more flavor and reduce the sodium. Win-win.
Did you know that rinsing canned vegetables can reduce the sodium by up to 90%? I rinse the beans and corns, but keep all of the flavorful juices from the tomatoes and zesty green chiles.
These liquids soak into the brown rice, which can be bland and usually requires additional salt. Also, making your own southwest seasoning with dried herbs you most likely already have at home, saves money and allows you to adjust the salt content to your own preferences.
Sealing the baking dish tight with aluminum foil creates the same type of steaming as you would get with rice in a saucepan, trapping the moisture in and keeping the chicken moist.
I was making Southwest Chicken Casserole as meal prep for the week before meal prep recipes were even cool! One batch accounted for an entire week of lunch or dinner.
PRO TIP: To save a few calories, substitute plain Greek yogurt for sour cream.
Topping your southwest chicken bowl with sour cream, avocado, cilantro and even fresh jalapeno slices will elevate it even more. You can also add cheese, if you’d like. Cheddar, colby and pepper jack work best!
Making an entire casserole can sometimes be too much and you have leftovers. If that’s the case and you’d like to freeze the leftovers, here are some casserole freezing tips!
More easy chicken recipes:
- Chicken Broccoli Casserole
- Garlic Parmesan Chicken
- Bacon Ranch Chicken
- Cheesy Crack Chicken Casserole
Easy King Ranch Recipe
Chicken Pot Pie Casserole
Tools you will need to make this southwest chicken recipe:
Mixing Bowls– make sure to check out my article on Using the Right Mixing Bowl, you’d be surprised how many people aren’t!
9 x 13 Glass Baking Dish– an absolute essential for any kitchen! Use it for baking, marinating or storing. Get one with a lid, you’ll thank me later.
Wood cutting board – wood won’t dull your knives like plastic and if treated properly, has natural antimicrobial properties.
Good knife – Global is my favorite! They are worth the price, I promise. I am kind of obsessed with them and store them tucked away so no one else can use them. Including hubby. Hands off my good stuff!
Colander
Southwest Chicken Casserole Recipe
Equipment
Ingredients
- 2 cups brown rice
- 2 cups chicken broth
- 1/4 cup yellow onion diced
- 1 cup bell peppers diced
- 4 garlic cloves minced
- 15 ounces yellow corn drained and rinsed
- 15 ounces petite diced tomatoes undrained, with green chiles is preferred
- 15 ounces black beans drained and rinsed
- 1 tablespoon chili powder
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1/2 teaspoon paprika
- 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
- 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 2 boneless skinless chicken breasts cut into 1/2 inch thick strips
- Cooking spray
- Avocado optional
- Mexican Blend Cheese optional
- Sour Cream optional
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees and coat a 9×13 baking dish with cooking spray.
- In a small bowl, combine chili powder through dried oregano, stir and set aside.
- In a large bowl, combine rice through black beans. Stir to combine and then add spice blend, stirring to combine again.
- Line the bottom of the baking dish with chicken strips in a single layer. Pour rice and vegetable mixture over chicken. It is important to place the chicken on the bottom against the baking dish and near the heating element of the oven to make sure it is cooked all the way through.
- Cover with aluminum foil, tightly sealing around the edges to create a steamer for rice.
- Bake, covered, for 50 minutes. Remove, uncover and fluff rice with a fork before returning to the oven for an additional 10 minutes.
- Remove and serve. Top with avocado, sour cream and Mexican cheese blend, if desired.
- If you’ve tried this recipe, come back and let us know how it was!
I tried making this but when we took it out of the oven the first time (after the 50 minutes) the rice was hard and very uncooked. We put it back in for the 10 minutes and the rice is still not cooked. Am I supposed to cook the rice before hand? Very confused!
I’m so sorry to hear that! Brown rice is much more dense than regular rice- it feels pretty hard in comparison, was it not cooked at all or just didn’t feel like white rice?
It wasn’t cooked at all unfortunately. Any tips for next time??
What brand of rice did you use? Better yet- send me a pic of the box/bag at jessica@savoryexperiments.com . I’d really like to troubleshoot the issue so no one else has the same problem.
This is definitely going into the meal rotation starting this week, can’t wait to try it! Does it really have 126g of carbs? I’m still going to devour it but I am curious.
Hi Terri, sorry for the delay. We use an automatic software to calculate average nutrition information and I had to do it manually. My calculations gave it a littler lower for “short” brown rice, but overall, yes, it is heavy on the carbs. Not only the brown rice (which is raw so will cook up to about 6 cups total), but the corn, beans and even veggies contain carbs. If you want to cut down considerably, I’d omit the corn- it is actually higher than the rice. Hope that helps!
Hi! Does this recipe call for two chicken breasts, or two pounds?
Hi Danielle! Thanks for pointing that out, seems when I transferred the recipe it output a little wonky. It is 2 chicken breasts. I’ll update it now.
I made this tonight with a bit of a veriation. I used leftover chicken from the night befores dinner.
I also added a can of mexicorn and an extra can of chopped chilis. It was awesome. Thank you
YUMMY! Thanks for coming by to let us know!
This looks wonderfully delicious Jessica and thanks for supporting the Say G’day party! All of your submissions have been pinned!
Thank you, Joanne!
This looks fantastic! I bet this is perfect for summer! So vibrant and colorful, delicious!