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Short-Order Kitchen

Chipotle-Style Burrito Bowl at Home

A burrito bowl with black beans, fajita peppers, guacamole, corn salsa, cheese and tortilla chips over rice.
Recipe card
Servings
1
Prep
10 to 15 minutes
Cook
None (assembly only)
Method
No-bake
Difficulty
Easy
Jump to ingredients & directions ↓

Part 3 of the thread Drive-thru copycats, lightened up

THE SHORT VERSION4 points
  • It's an assembly job, not a cooking job, if the parts are ready.
  • Greek yogurt takes the place of sour cream.
  • Swap in cauliflower rice for a lighter base.
  • Store the parts separately and build it fresh.
THE RECIPE · CHIPOTLE-STYLE BURRITO BOWL AT HOME

Ingredients

The base

On top

You'll need

  • Serving bowl
  • Measuring cups and spoons

Directions

  1. Make sure the protein, rice and beans are cooked and warm (or cold, if that's how you like it) and the vegetables are chopped.
  2. Start with the rice or cauliflower rice in the bottom of the bowl.
  3. Add the protein, the vegetables and the beans.
  4. Finish with a spoonful of Greek yogurt and the avocado, plus salsa or dressing if you want it.
  5. Eat it right away.
Notes Keep each part in its own container in the fridge and assemble when you're hungry. Warm the protein and rice first if you like, then add the cold toppings. Roughly 400 calories and 41 g protein per serving, give or take.

wesellis.com/blog/chipotle-copycat-bowl/

The line at the counter works because everything is already cooked and sitting in its own pan. Copy that part and the bowl takes about as long to make as it does to decide what goes in it.

Prep the parts, not the bowl

The trick is keeping the pieces separate until the last minute. A cooked protein, a container of rice or cauliflower riceCauliflower chopped into rice-sized bits. It cooks in a couple of minutes and stands in for rice under a saucy topping.More: Air Fryer Teriyaki Salmon Bowl, a can of rinsed beans and a tub of chopped vegetables will cover several lunches. Build one bowl at a time and nothing gets soggy.

That also means you can warm the hot stuff and leave the cold stuff cold. A quick trip through the microwave for the chicken and rice, then lettuce, salsa and yogurt on top. For how long each of those parts holds up, How Long Food Keeps has the numbers.

Tip

Greek yogurt with a squeeze of lime tastes a lot more like sour cream than plain yogurt does.

Making it your own

Nothing here is fixed. Swap the protein, skip the beans, go heavy on the peppers. If you want the same flavors with less assembly, the One Pan Burrito Bowl cooks everything together. The High Protein Mexican Chicken Salad takes the same flavors cold, bound with a chili-lime yogurt sauce.

Note

The numbers swing a lot depending on what you pick. Steak and white rice land very differently than chicken and cauliflower rice.