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I have to tell you – I know this recipe is two years old but I just ran across it the other day – and your roasted tomatillo sauce is AH-MAZING! I’ve tried other recipes and absolutely NOTHING compares. THANK YOU!!! This is a keeper for sure. Tomorrow night we’re using it for chicken enchiladas verde!
PKParker
Roasted Tomatillo Chicken and Rice Bowls! I’ve been waiting for uuuuuu.
Let’s just cut right to it –> the main idea here is that you eat a big bowl of savory, spicy, tangy AND creamy chicken with tomatillo sauce piled on rice and topped with colorful and crunchy things, and you feel really good about it. It’s one of my best ideas ever, which isn’t really one of my ideas, which is how all my ideas are – but this one was inspired by something I saw on the menu at a place called Sammy’s Bistro in Salt Lake City. Have you been? Have you ordered the Savory Chicken Bowl? You win! That’s what I was trying to recreate here.
It starts with pile of shredded chicken is taken in by a big bowl of homemade roasted tomatillo sauce with jalapeños, poblanos, roasted garlic, a huge mess of cilantro, and a touch of cream – and the saucy tomatillo chicken mixture is heaped over steaming rice and topped with just about anything you want: limes, cilantro, sour cream, or homemade fried tortilla strips.
Or homemade fried tortilla strips.
Or homemade fried tortilla strips.
Yuhhguys! The homemade fried tortilla strips.
I wanted to post about these bowls the nanosecond after I made them, which was last week sometime (last week x5, because, ummmyeah), but did I mention? I got knocked down with a Minnesota winter sick bug instead and started spending all my time watching trashy TV and eating very safe, extra mild, ultra healing things like the Inner Goddess Raspberry Breakfast bowls in wiser moments and Cup o’ Noodles in moments of weakness.
I was SO not thinking anywhere near the Roasted Tomatillo Chicken Bowls section of my brain and it was a sad time.
But the good news (like, good enough news that every time I remember it I get a little excited buzz running through my body) is that my old friend The Appetite is back and I can 1 – EAT! Oh the pure joy. and 2 – actually talk about these Roasted Tomatillo Chicken Bowls and tell you why they’re so super delicious.
Which is because of that roasted tomatillo sauce.
Roasted tomatillos, poblanos, and jalapeños + roasted garlic and shallots + cilantro, cream, salt… oh me oh my. It’s super easy and it’s really, really, reeeeeeally good. It’s the kind of good where I think about how to incorporate it into just about every spicy, flavor-kicked recipe between now and forever.
Also – the sauce-simmering-smells in your house are not a bad thing. At all.
So in a weird twist of events (or maybe just a weird blogger move) I’m actually bringing you this post this morning from the road somewhere between Orlando and Charleston! It’s a beautiful thing, technology – to be in a tiny little red rental car barreling along down the highway with an Americano in hand, sunglasses on, and my blog in my lap. Just… seriously. Weird life moment and I like it.
We’ve had such a great time these last few days taking Orlando by storm – Bjork experienced Disney for the first time, I ate five hundred mini shrimp toasts with pickled kumquats at the event brunch, we led a session at the Food Blog Forum conference, and both of us met and adored all the incredible food bloggers who were a part of the weekend. Wows.
Since we’ve made it this far on our journey and we are, in fact, ON OUR WAY TO CHARLESTON AS WE SPEAK, I would like to issue a final (potentially obnoxious? shameless?) call for any Charleston recommendations right here and now – we’re literally on the road as I type, I’ve literally written down all your recommendations to date and have them in a very Type A style notebook/calendar format so we can hit as many as possible, and you are literally the best ever for talking us through this charming foodie city. Lit-er-al-ly.
Next time we meet, I shall be in Charleston and you shall be eating one of these Roasted Tomatillo Chicken and Rice bowls and there will be good vibes alllll around.
Roasted Tomatillo Chicken and Rice Bowls
- Total Time: 1 hour 15 minutes
- Yield: 4 1x
Description
Roasted Tomatillo Chicken and Rice Bowls – shredded chicken with homemade Roasted Tomatillo sauce on rice with cilantro, sour cream, and tortilla strips.
Ingredients
For the Roasted Tomatillo Sauce:
- 20 tomatillos
- 3 poblanos
- 2 jalapeños
- 2 shallots
- olive oil
- 5 cloves garlic
- 1 1/2 cups chicken broth
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 bunch cilantro
- 1/2 cup half and half
- 1/2 cup water
For the Chicken and Rice Bowls
- 1 1/4 lbs. boneless skinless chicken breasts
- 1 cup white rice
- 10 corn tortillas
- oil for frying
- salt to taste
- additional cilantro, sour cream, and limes for topping
Instructions
- For the sauce: Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Peel the paper off of the tomatillos, shallots, and garlic cloves. Place the tomatillos, poblanos, jalapeños, and shallots on a baking sheet and drizzle with olive oil. Place the garlic on a piece of foil, drizzle with oil, and wrap into a little packet. Place on the baking sheet. Roast everything for 40 minutes, stirring halfway through to prevent burning. Pulse all the roasted ingredients in a food processor with the broth, salt, and cilantro.
- For the chicken and rice: Cook the rice according to package directions. Meanwhile, heat a little bit of oil in a large skillet and add the chicken. Sprinkle with salt and pepper; flip once when chicken is lightly browned on the outside. Add the tomatillo sauce to the chicken and let it gently simmer over very low heat for 15-20 minutes to finish cooking. Remove the chicken, shred with two forks, and return to pan. Stir in the half and half and extra water if necessary. (I’ve also added sour cream which is delicious!)
- For the Tortilla Strips: In a heavy skillet, heat oil over medium low heat (oil should be about one inch deep). Cut the tortillas into small strips. Test the oil with by letting a drop of water fall in the pan – if it sizzles, the oil is ready. Add the tortilla strips in batches, flipping or stirring occasionally to prevent burning. When the tortilla strips are crispy and golden, remove and set on a paper towel lined plate. Sprinkle with salt. Repeat until all tortillas are done.
- Assemble the bowls with rice, chicken, tortilla strips, cilantro, sour cream, and lime juice. Yum!
Notes
I’ve also made this by cooking the chicken separately while the sauce ingredients are roasting – I just simmer in a pot of water on low heat for about 15 minutes until cooked through, and then shred and toss the cooked chicken in the sauce at the end.
- Prep Time: 15 mins
- Cook Time: 1 hour
- Category: Dinner
- Cuisine: Mexican
Keywords: tomatillo chicken, chicken and rice bowls, chicken bowls
This Roasted Tomatillo Chicken and Rice Bowl recipe is absolutely delicious! I love the flavors and how easy it is to prepare. The roasted tomatillos add such a unique twist. Can’t wait to try this for dinner this week! Thanks for sharing!
Question. I’m a wuss heat wise. Is this real spicy? Thanks. Looks wonderful I want to try. Love tomatillo’s
It has a little bit of heat, but you could always cut the jalapeno amount in half and deseed the jalapenos to reduce the spice.
I’m fashionably late to this party but this green sauce is delicious. Don’t let the large quantity of peppers fool you – the roasting takes away most of the bite. Another yummy rice bowl!
I have 16 CSA tomatillos the size of a ping ping ball or smaller. I’m assuming your recipe is assuming a more grocery store-sized tomatillo. Any suggestions on how to adjust the sauce recipe for my smaller and fewer tomatillos? Thanks in advance!
Good question, Jenn! Since this recipe requires 20 tomatillos, you could always add in a couple extra smaller-sized tomatillos if you’d like. Enjoy these bowls!
Can I roast all the ingredients for this sauce and then can it in a water bath? i’m looking to make some sauce in advance and can it for whenever i need it
We haven’t tried canning it. But let us know if you give it a try!
I will probably have a large quantity of green tomatoes at the end of the season, and I know they can be used in place of tomatillos. but they are much larger. Do you know the approximate weight you used?
Hi Brenna! Unfortunately, we don’t have the weight of the tomatillos. I did a quick search and it looks like a small tomatillo weighs about 1 ounce, but that seems really light to me.
Wow! That was the most delicious sauce I have ever tasted. Also even though my chicken was thawed from frozen, it came out perfectly tender. Thank you for this amazing recipe!
I made this, fairly simple and so good!!!
Made this tonight for dinner, my husband loved it. I did cheat and use a rotisserie chicken. My husband added Mexican cheese to his. This is a must try.
Do you remove the skin from peppers and tomatillos or include them in the food processor please?
We include them in the food processor! Enjoy!
Made this last night and it was delicious!! It makes a ton of sauce. I only ended using half or less mixed in with the chicken. I also used chicken thighs instead of breasts because that’s what I had on hand. Topped with diced tomato, red onion, lime juice, sour cream, and the homemade tortilla strips. Best part – I was able to use some of the leftover sauce and tortilla strips to make migas in the morning!
Oh, also when my rice was done, I mixed in a pat of butter, lime zest, and chopped cilantro. So yummy. 😋
YUM YUM YUM! Good idea to use leftover sauce for migas!
I just saw this tomatillo sauce recipe. I’m wondering if it’s newer than the recipe for tomatillo chicken enchilada casserole. Again, what would the weight be for the tomatillos?
Hi, Kathy! This recipe was published in 2015 and our roasted tomatillo chicken enchilada casserole was published in late 2014. We’re not totally sure about the weight of the tomatillos unfortunately. We just used about 20 medium-sized tomatillos here.
Lindsay,
Do you remove the seeds from peppers prior to roasting?
You actually don’t have to here, Linda. It’s okay to just toss the poblanos and jalapeño peppers on a baking sheet with a little olive oil and roast them whole. Enjoy!
This was delicious! My kids gobbled it up.
Can you make this in the instant pot? If so, how would you make the chicken? Cooking chicken on the stove for me lately has not been successful 🙁
This is a definite short list recipe to which I find myself routinely coming back. I’ve made it at least 10 times over the last two years but recently I decided to cut back on animal proteins and it hasn’t made the menu as a result. Any thoughts for vegetarian substitutions? I was thinking chickpeas, black beans or cannellini beans.
I experimented with various vegetarian alternatives to the chicken and found chickpeas (garbanzo beans) work very well. I substituted the chicken for 4 cups chickpeas and was overwhelming delighted with the results. I used dried chickpeas, soaked them overnight and then cooked them for 1 hour on a low simmer. This created a firmer bean (compared to canned beans) that I then added to the simmering Verde sauce. When paired with short grain brown rice, this is one of the rare 10/10 meals for me. I’m back to enjoying this excellent recipe on a monthly basis.
This does look amazing. I would also love to read what others actually thought of this after they made it. Seems that the comments get off track quite a bit. And also , any suggestions to lower the sodium per serving? Its off the charts – couldn’t feed that to the kids!
Can you freeze this?
Hi Donna! We’ve never frozen this one, but I think the sauce and chicken would freeze beautifully.
I really want to make this recipe, but I feel like I need more direction about the actual volume or weight of the various ingredients. Like 20 tomatillos seems like a LOT for a 4-serving recipe, so approximately what WEIGHT did you use for those? Online sources say that 1 pound of tomatillos could be anywhere from 12 to 25 of them! About how much sauce is left over from these 4 servings, for possible use in other recipes? Also, after roasting, the jalapenos are blended WHOLE without cutting open and removing the seeds to reduce the heat? And approx what weight for 1 bunch of cilantro since I see a varied range on that, too? It says 1 cup of white rice for 4 servings, but did it means 1 cup per serving, for 4 cups total? THANKS FOR THE INFO!
Hi Lara! Happy to help. For the tomatillos, we don’t have a specific weight – I’d just be sure to choose 20 medium-sizes ones (no huge ones or tiny ones). For the jalapenos, it’s up to you! If you don’t like too much heat, I would remove the seeds before roasting. Unfortunately we don’t have a specific weight for the cilantro, but it’s pretty forgiving. The 1 cup rice is for all four bowls – when cooked, it’s much more than 1 cup.
I have to tell you – I know this recipe is two years old but I just ran across it the other day – and your roasted tomatillo sauce is AH-MAZING! I’ve tried other recipes and absolutely NOTHING compares. THANK YOU!!! This is a keeper for sure. Tomorrow night we’re using it for chicken enchiladas verde!
I’m SO making this but since I’m a total weirdo and hate rice, I’m kicking it up with quinoa! But you get the credit for that, too because of all of your amazing recipes using it! Thanks for keeping me fat n’ happy. 😉
Sounds like a yummy substitution, Kara! Enjoy!
Just made these for my family and I last night and they were SO GOOOOOOOD. My 5 year old son said he wanted to fill a trash can with it and dive in and eat it all. haha!! I agree with him!
And yes the homemade tortilla strips were a must! (Side note, we seasoned them with lime and salt and dipped them in a bowl of the tomatillo salsa too)
Thanks you Lindsay!
LOL to the comment about the trash can! Too cute!
Just made this for dinner tonight and we absolutely LOVED it! I did remove the seeds from the peppers because we’re kind of wimps when it comes to heat, but otherwise followed the recipe and it was DELICIOUS. Honestly didn’t think we would love it as much as we did. My husband and I were standing over the stove, eating out of the pan for a couple of minutes before we came up for air and decided to at least sit at the table. We may or may not have continued to eat straight out of the pan, though…
Thanks for the comment – I’m so glad to hear that you liked it Lisa! 🙂
This looks so good! I’m going to pin this and make it later either for dinner or lunch. Thanks for sharing this! Can’t wait to make it!
This rice bowl idea is love for me. I like spicy dishes and hassle-free eating hahaha. I’ll try to make this recipe of yours this weekend.