These gluten free Zucchini Spanish Rice Burrito Bowls with Chicken & Mushrooms give a savory, veggie-full twist to comfort food in a bowl!
As we get closer to summer here, how about some comfort food you can make entirely on the stove top without heating up the whole oven? Even in the spring, I still have some nights where I’m all about the comfort food. Today’s Zucchini Spanish Rice Burrito Bowls with Chicken & Mushrooms recipe slots nicely into that savory sweet spot.
So here’s what inspired this Spanish rice burrito bowls recipe: While searching for something else a while ago, I serendipitously ran across a Spanish rice with zucchini recipe over at Epicurious. Their recipe isn’t really how I make Spanish rice at all, or even what I think of when I think of Spanish rice, but I quite liked the idea of letting some zucchini quick steam cook in at the end to help keep it crisp-tender rather than mushy.
So in today’s recipe, I used their zucchini cooking method along with my own Spanish rice recipe — and then, I also threw on some cheese and cooked up some juicy, flavorful chicken and mushrooms to top everything off. Because burrito bowls, they are always the bomb.
Zucchini Spanish Rice Burrito Bowls with Chicken & Mushrooms
Ingredients
– for the zucchini Spanish rice
1 Tbsp olive oil
3 Tbsp diced yellow onion
2 tsp minced garlic (about 4 cloves)
1 cup uncooked rice
1/2 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp chili powder
1/4 tsp smoked paprika
1 cup chicken broth
1 cup salsa
1 medium zucchini, chopped into small pieces
1 cup shredded cheddar
– for the chicken and mushrooms
2 Tbsp olive oil, divided
2 lbs boneless skinless chicken breast, trimmed & halved lengthwise
1 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp seasoned salt
8 oz baby bella mushrooms, chopped
Directions
– Start the rice cooking
Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat for one minute. Stir in onion and cook for 3 minutes, then add garlic and cook for another 30 seconds. Stir in the rice and spices and continue to cook over medium heat, stirring often, for a couple of minutes until rice begins to brown.
Stir in chicken broth and salsa and bring to a boil. Cover the skillet, reduce heat to medium low, and simmer for 25-30 minutes or until liquid has been mostly absorbed.
– While the rice is cooking
Chop the zucchini into about quarter inch pieces and set it aside.
Prepare your chicken and mushrooms. Trim the chicken and slice it in half lengthwise, then heat 1.5 Tbsp of olive oil in a 12″ cast iron skillet over medium-high heat for one minute.
Season the chicken with chili powder, oregano, cumin, garlic powder, and seasoned salt. Cook the seasoned chicken over medium-high heat for about five minutes a side, or until cooked through. Remove the cooked chicken to a separate cutting board, then cut it into strips once it’s cooled off a bit.
While the chicken is browning, chop your mushrooms.
After removing the chicken from the pan, reduce heat to medium and add 1/2 Tbsp olive oil. Add the chopped mushrooms to that same skillet and cook for seven minutes, stirring occasionally and scraping up browned bits from the bottom, or until mushrooms have browned and softened.
– Once the rice is done
Once the liquid has been absorbed by the rice, remove the lid and stir in zucchini. Spread the rice and zucchini mixture back out across the bottom of the pan.
Top the rice evenly with cheese, replace the lid, and let the pan stand covered off of the heat for five minutes until cheese is melted and zucchini is tender.
Serve your zucchini Spanish rice topped with the cooked chicken strips and mushrooms.
Note: This chicken, by the way? If you’re not feeling burrito bowls today, you can also use the same seasonings & cooking method to make chicken strips for taco salad and more. So flavorful, you guys!
So much chicken burrito bowl yum!
The little bites of zucchini steam up just perfectly at the end of the cooking time, leaving them nicely crisp-tender — and, you get so much flavor from the seasoned chicken on top of the Spanish rice! This is also a great meal prep recipe to divide up for lunches at the beginning of the week; it keeps and reheats quite well (although the zucchini will lose some of its texture on reheating).
Zucchini Spanish rice burrito bowls are naturally gluten free.
Zucchini Spanish Rice Burrito Bowls with Chicken & Mushrooms, printable recipe
Zucchini Spanish Rice Burrito Bowls with Chicken & Mushrooms
Ingredients
– for the zucchini Spanish rice
- 1 Tbsp olive oil
- 3 Tbsp diced yellow onion
- 2 tsp minced garlic about 4 cloves
- 1 cup uncooked rice
- 1/2 tsp cumin
- 1/4 tsp chili powder
- 1/4 tsp smoked paprika
- 1 cup chicken broth
- 1 cup salsa
- 1 medium zucchini chopped into small pieces
- 1 cup shredded cheddar
– for the chicken and mushrooms
- 2 Tbsp olive oil divided
- 2 lbs boneless skinless chicken breast trimmed & halved lengthwise
- 1 tsp chili powder
- 1/2 tsp oregano
- 1/2 tsp cumin
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- 1/2 tsp seasoned salt
- 8 oz baby bella mushrooms chopped
Instructions
– Start the rice cooking
- Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat for one minute. Stir in onion and cook for 3 minutes, then add garlic and cook for another 30 seconds. Stir in the rice and spices and continue to cook over medium heat, stirring often, for a couple of minutes until rice begins to brown.
- Stir in chicken broth and salsa and bring to a boil. Cover the skillet, reduce heat to medium low, and simmer for 25-30 minutes or until liquid has been mostly absorbed.
– While the rice is cooking
- Chop the zucchini into about quarter inch pieces and set it aside.
- Prepare your chicken and mushrooms. Trim the chicken and slice it in half lengthwise, then heat 1.5 Tbsp of olive oil in a 12″ cast iron skillet over medium-high heat for one minute.
- Season the chicken with chili powder, oregano, cumin, garlic powder, and seasoned salt. Cook the seasoned chicken over medium-high heat for about five minutes a side, or until cooked through. Remove the cooked chicken to a separate cutting board, then cut it into strips once it’s cooled off a bit.
- While the chicken is browning, chop your mushrooms.
- After removing the chicken from the pan, reduce heat to medium and add 1/2 Tbsp olive oil. Add the chopped mushrooms to that same skillet and cook for seven minutes, stirring occasionally and scraping up browned bits from the bottom, or until mushrooms have browned and softened.
– Once the rice is done
- Once the liquid has been absorbed by the rice, remove the lid and stir in zucchini. Spread the rice and zucchini mixture back out across the bottom of the pan.
- Top the rice evenly with cheese, replace the lid, and let the pan stand covered off of the heat for five minutes until cheese is melted and zucchini is tender.
- Serve your zucchini Spanish rice topped with the cooked chicken strips and mushrooms.
Notes
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Jolena says
This was one of the most flavorful delicious dinners we’ve had in awhile! Thank you for your weekly meal plans 🙂 We are on week 3 and enjoying them very much!
alex storm says
made it with all ingredients as outlined. It was great and flavorful. However, i did not think the zucchini belonged to the spanish rice, so i added them to the mushrooms. All in all a good dinner, just not so sure if the mushrooms and zucchini would not have been better with an italian flavor profile.(just my opinion). But the recipe was great and i used ingredients at home or from Aldi. looking forward to more inspirations. One thing i am missing is th nutritional analysis per serving, that would be awesome.
Donna Parsons says
How did your mushrooms turn out?
Amanda Cruz says
This is our second meal we’ve tried and we absolutely loved it. Full of flavor and the variety of recipes is amazing!
Leigh says
Loved this recipe! I added a whole diced onion and used two whole diced zucchini, because I like zucchini. I also used two spicy yellow rice packets that already had spices in them because they were in my pantry. So then I added more chicken broth (2 cups) and about 1 1/2 cups of salsa I had in the fridge. After I added the zucchini to the rice mixture, I did add a little water because I didn’t want the rice to stick or get dry. It also helped steam the zucchini so it wasn’t soggy but a bit crunchy. It was so good and fed me for 4 meals. Love your website and love my ALDI! I went last night and got the red specked teapot on sale and thought about your flowered teapot!
Kathleen Eckelberry says
This looks wonderful. How would I sub in Cauliflower rice to cut carbs?
rachel says
You don’t cook up cauliflower rice the same way… you could obviously do the chicken and mushroom toppings and serve over cauliflower rice, though. I have not tried, but would probably saute up the garlic/onion the same way, then stir in the riced cauliflower, spices, and salsa until heated through, then proceed with the zucchini/cheese step? Again, it doesn’t cook up the same way as rice so you might need to play with it a little.
Wendy says
Delicious! I have really been enjoying the variety of dishes! Not sure why but my rice didn’t cook. I let it simmer for more then 35. I added some more water and let it simmer another 20 min. Maybe I should have not turned down the heat so much??