Saucy shredded chicken, yellow rice, pickled onions, greens, and cilantro pesto on top. It’s a flavor and color delight!
Crockpot Chicken Bowls with Yellow Rice and Cilantro Pesto
In This Post
Watch How To Make These Chicken Bowls
I’m Going On Six Weeks Straight Of Making These.
Huge props to these crockpot chicken bowls for helping me eat more protein during the week, and for actually tasting so darn good, and for reheating well (you know how reheated chicken can be sometimes).
They’re a combination of yellow rice, saucy shredded chicken, pickled onions, greens, and that cilantro pesto on top, and it’s a flavor and color delight.
I keep trying to NOT write up a recipe for it, because bowl “recipes” are just annoying, ya know? Lots of little parts, lots of components… but you guys keep asking about them, and I keep coming back to them, so let’s make this happen.
The game plan: make these 4 things.
- Crockpot chicken.
- Yellow rice.
- Pickled onions.
- That cilantro pesto I keep talking about.
(Everything you need is in the recipe below.)
I usually throw a little salad on there, either some pre-made bagged salad, or lately a handful of micro greens from Costco!
But the beautiful thing is that prepped chicken, rice, pickled onions, and green sauce are building blocks for all kinds of other deliciousness. So, double whammy. Two for one. You’re your own professional chef right now.
In our family of four, I typically make the amounts as listed for one family dinner + 1-2 lunches of the leftovers for me. And I really do look forward to those leftovers a lot.
Wishing you a week of great eating!
With two adults and two young kids, this amount will get us through one family dinner + 2 lunch leftover servings for me! Double these amounts if you want to feed a big family for dinner and/or have lots of leftovers!
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Crockpot Chicken Bowls with Yellow Rice and Cilantro Pesto
- Total Time: 3 hours 20 minutes
- Yield: 4–5 servings 1x
Description
Ingredients
Units
Scale
Crockpot Chicken:
- 1 lb. chicken breasts
- 8 ounces of a simmer sauce or enchilada sauce that you like (see notes for my recs)
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch whisked into 1–2 tablespoons water
- extra seasoning to taste – I often add a few shakes of chipotle powder, salt, and pepper
Yellow Rice:
- 1 cup white rice
- 1 1/2 cups water
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon chili powder
- 1/8 teaspoon turmeric
Cilantro Pesto
- 1 1/2 cups cilantro leaves
- 1/2 jalapeño, ribs and seeds removed
- 1 clove garlic
- juice and zest of 1 lime
- 1/4 cup olive oil or avocado oil
- 1/2 cup roasted salted pistachios
Other stuff for the bowl:
- Pickled onions (a must for me, every time)
- Sour cream and/or your favorite salsa (see notes)
- A salad mix
Instructions
- For the Crockpot Chicken: Put the chicken in a slow cooker and cover with sauce; cook for 2 1/2 – 3 hours on high. Shred chicken directly in the slow cooker. Add the cornstarch slurry to thicken the sauce. Season to taste.
- For the Rice: Rinse the rice in a fine mesh colander. Add the rice, water, butter, salt, chili powder, and turmeric to a small saucepan. Bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and cook for 15 minutes. Remove the cover, fluff it up, and season to taste.
- For the Cilantro Pesto: Blend everything up in a small chopper or food processor until smooth-ish (I leave some texture in mine)! It’ll be a very thick sauce, which I love – you can add water as desired to thin it out.
- Build Your Bowls: I love the combination of the yellow rice with a scoop of chicken, some salad greens, pickled onions, and a dollop of that cilantro pesto on top!
Notes
Favorite simmer sauces: I love Frontera’s Red Chile Sauce, Somos Al Pastor Sauce, and Siete Enchilada Sauce.
Favorite salsas: Thank you for asking – my favorite salsa, which I am passionate about right now, is the Siete Casera Mild Salsa Roja. It’s smoky and delicious and mild enough for my kids to love it, too. I also love the Mateo’s Salsa.
For meal prep: Store components separately so you can reheat the chicken and rice, while keeping the sauce, pickled onions, and salad greens cold, crispy, and fresh.
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 3 hours
- Category: Dinner
- Method: Crockpot
- Cuisine: Mexican-Inspired
Keywords: chicken bowls, crockpot chicken, slow cooker chicken, rice bowl
Three More Delicious Chicken Recipes
Filed Under: All Recipes Bowls Dairy-Free Dinner Gluten-Free Healthy Meat and Chicken Recipes Rice Slow Cooker
January 24, 2025
Nice to meet you!
I’m Lindsay and I ♡ FOOD. I used to be a teacher, and now making food and writing about it online is my full-time job. I love talking with people about food, and I'm so glad you're here.
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Can’t wait to try this! How long would you do in the instapot?
I think 25 minutes would do the trick!
This looks amazing! Any pesto swap you’d suggest for the cilantro? My husband has that cilantro tastes like soap thing.
I used to make a pesto using spinach instead of basil; I bet it would be a neutral enough flavour here to take the place of the cilantro? You might have to adjust to taste once blended, if you think it needs more flavor.
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Great question. You could try using fresh Italian parsley instead. Or, you could try this magic green sauce, but omit the cilantro and use parsley instead! https://pinchofyum.com/5-minute-magic-green-sauce
Do you have any recommendations for a substitute for the cilantro pesto? (I’m not a cilantro fan)
Great question. All of the sauces that we typically use with these southwest-inspired dishes contain cilantro. You could try this magic green sauce, but omit the cilantro and use parsley instead! https://pinchofyum.com/5-minute-magic-green-sauce
Will chicken thighs work the same and if so, do I need to adjust the cooking time? TIA!
Yes! Chicken thighs will work. You shouldn’t need to adjust the cook time. Enjoy!
Made this for dinner and it was SO delish! Especially love the flavor and texture of the cilantro Pesto! Will be making on repeat!
Made this for dinner and it was SO delish! Especially love the flavor and texture of the cilantro Pesto! Will be making on repeat!
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Made this for dinner and it was soo delicious! You’re right, don’t skip out on the pickled red onions! I did my frozen chicken breasts in the crockpot on low for five hours and the store substituted my enchilada sauce for carne asada marinade and it was actually delicious. I topped it with my preferred greens- arugula. Will definitely be making this again and again!
Can the chicken be made in an instant pot? This recipe sounds delicious!
Yes it can!
Delish! Made these tonight. Love the chunky cilantro sauce!
Wow! Double the cilantro pesto, STAT!! So good. Made the bowls for my neighbors…two thumbs up! Also appreciate the product suggestions.
Absolutely delicious! ❤️
This recipe is amazing! Made it last night, and pesto sauce with a little crunch in it as you suggested is fantastic. Picked onions were perfect too. Thank you for creating recipes I love to cook for my family!
This is so good! I love the flavor combinations and the chicken is so easy! This is a new favorite of mine!
I liked it very much, but I’d prefer it with Pasta instead of the yellow rice.
Delicious!! I can already tell that this is going to become a staple in our house! Thank you for sharing this awesome recipe!
You bet, Katie! So glad you enjoyed it!
This recipe was a hit! The cilantro pesto is now on repeat in my house. Using it for taco salad tonight. Thanks for this recipe!
You’re so welcome! What a great way to use leftover pesto!
This is epic! So easy and the flavors will blow your mind.
Thanks for the comment Amber! Glad you enjoyed the recipe!
This recipe was fantastic, even with a substitution and an error on my part! I replaced the chicken with a pound of cooked chickpeas since that’s what I had available, and used the recommended Somos Al Pastor sauce for the simmer sauce. In this case, the sauce didn’t need to be thickened. Accidentally used 1/3c pistachios instead of 1/2c in the pesto, so mine was a little thinner than expected but no less flavorful. Will definitely be making this one again, and trying with chicken to see if we prefer that to the chickpeas!
What a great idea to use chickpeas! It sounds delicious! Thanks for the comment!
A.MAZ.ING. This meal was so delicious. Our whole family loved it and I can’t wait for leftovers for lunch tomorrow. I used the blender enchilada sauce from your site and didn’t have a lime so used a lemon in the pesto and muah, it was perfect. All the different parts come together beautifully-the pesto and rice were my favorites. I doubled it for my family of 7 and barely have enough to hide in the fridge for lunch tomorrow.
Glad to hear it was a hit with your family, Malinda! Thanks for the comment!
Possibly even better as leftovers! (Keeping hot separate from cold as mentioned)
So glad you enjoyed the recipe, Amanda!
This was sooooo delicious! And it came together pretty easily. Don’t sleep on the pesto — so good!
So glad you enjoyed it, Leah!
Hello – what crockpot do you use? I’m looking for a new non toxic crockpot
Thanks!
Hi Laura! This is the one we currently use!
Can this be made on the stovetop? I don’t have a instapot or slow cooker. And I don’t live in a place where I can find packaged enchilada sauce. Could I make homemade? Do you have a recipe you’d recommend? Thank you! Looks delicious.
Yes, you can make this one the stovetop! I’d simmer the chicken (w/ cornstarch and seasonings) with the lid on for 30-45 minutes until the chicken is fork tender. We have an enchilada sauce that you could try! https://pinchofyum.com/5-minute-blender-enchilada-sauce
To be honest when I first tasted all the elements by themselves I wasn’t impressed. But then I made my bowl and wowza! Together the flavors are amazing!!! Everyone in the family ate it up. Thank you for another easy delicious meal.
This looks fab – I love recipes where you get leftovers for lunch too! How long would the leftovers keep for, if stored separately? That would impact on how much I make in the first place 😀
The leftovers should keep for 3-5 days! Enjoy!