Low Calorie Chipotle Style Bowl

By making this bowl at home you can shave off 356 calories instead of ordering . The best part? you can customize the sizes of everything you want in the bowl and adjust the calories in however you want. The calories in this recipe are written for: a burrito bowl with: White Rice, Chicken, Black Beans, Guacamole, Tomato Salsa, Fajita Veggies, Sour Cream and Cheese. When I make this for myself at home I generally use a little less rice (50 calories less), Half the beans (65 calories less), and a little less guac (50 calories less) and when I use guac I don’t use any sour cream (35 calories less) making my home bowl only 464 calories. Thats 556 less than if I had ordered it at chipotle! More than half the calories erased and the craving is satisfied!

** Your chicken will need to be marinated for a minimum of 3 hours**

Chicken: In a blender or food processor mix together 1/2th medium red onion, 2 minced garlic cloves, 1/2 can of chipotle peppers in adobo sauce (throw out the peppers and just use the sauce they sit in. No really. I know you don’t want to waste food. Don’t do it. Do not use the peppers. Your tastebuds will thank me later.), 1 tbsp chilli powder, 1 tsp cumin, 1 tsp dried oregano (or fresh if you have it!), 1 tsp black pepper, after blending together add in ½ a cup of water and blend again to thin out the mixture

I recommend leaving the chicken as whole breasts and cutting them up AFTER cooking. These can be made on the grill or a stovetop.

Put 1lbs of boneless skinless chicken breast into a gallon size zip lock and pour your mixture in. Let this sit in the fridge for 3-8 hours (whatever works better for your life) You can cut this recipe down if you are just feeding yourself or two people,  I like to premake a large batch of chipotle chicken and use the leftovers throughout the week in chicken tacos, wraps and whatever else I can throw it into to up my protein a little bit.

Once marinated you’ll grill on medium heat until cooked through or on a stovetop until cooked through.

Rice: Wash your rice. No really. Wash your rice. It’ll reduce the chances of it burning to the bottom of the pan because washing rice removes excess starches. You should rinse the rice until the water no longer looks milky.

Add Rice, water and salt to a saucepan and bring to a boil. When the water level is low enough that it appears just above the rice you’re going to reduce the heat to low and cover the pot for 18-20 minutes, Covering the rice will lock in all that moisture giving the rice a “sticky” texture. Turn off the heat and keep the rice covered for 5 more minutes – Once the rice is done cooking mix together fresh lime juice, chopped cilantro and rice in a medium sized bowl. Toss until rice has been thoroughly coated. Fluff with a fork.

If you are using a rice cooker, cook your rice normally, once rice is “done” add in cilantro and lime into the cooker and let it steam for 5 minutes on the “Keep Warm” setting

Guac: Chop up two medium avocado and half a red onion, add in cilantro and salt and chop in the food processor to the consistency of your liking. This should yield at least four healthy servings of guac. 

Fajita Veggies: Slice up your bell peppers (remember to remove the seeds) and slice up your onion. I recommend using the skillet you cooked your chicken in to cook the fajita veggies- Why? Chicken has some fat, fat melts and slightly coats the pan, because you’ll be using the fat from your chicken as oil you don’t need to add oil to the veggies. Saute for 7-10 minutes. 

Tomato Salsa: Dice roma tomato, white onion, jalapeno and cilantro. Mix together and set aside. If you don’t feel like making your own tomato salsa just use store bought. It’s the same calories as if you made it at home and really makes no difference in this recipe.

Beans: Okay Okay Okay now we get to get a little bit lazy because no one needs a 400 step recipe of everything made from scratch. Beans come in cans for a reason people. 

If you want to make your beans yourself I recommend adding in onion, garlic, bay leaf (remove before serving), salt, chilli powder, cumin, pepper, oregano and lime juice or just use a heat and eat package of black beans. This recipe is a lot of work and we don’t like doing extra work if we don’t have to. Personally I like using: Gran Luchito Mexican Cantina Black Beans, I was able to find these at Walmart and were in and out of the microwave in 2 ½ minutes. 

Sour Cream: I use Daisy Light Sour cream – The calorie difference is insane! 35 calories per serving instead of 110. Bonus tip: buy the squeeze bottle, it’s easier to weigh when adding onto your bowl. 

Cheese: I use 1 serving of fat free cheese, this comes in at 45 calories a serving and easily coats the entire top of the bowl. If you want more cheese you can have 2 servings and it’ll still be less calories than chipotle cheese!

Lettuce: Shred lettuce.

@lowcalkristen You can cut the calories of a burrito bowl in half making this at home! Recipe link in Instagram bio! #weightloss #caloriedeficit #cico #recipe #1200calories #loseweight #diet #lowcalorierecipes #loseweighteatpizza ♬ Bread – Antonio Griggs