When I’ve had a long day or week, I want something simple, hearty and comforting like these Slow Cooker Chicken Burrito Bowls. Every bite is just as good as the last!
Who doesn’t love a burrito bowl! All the toppings you could imagine, customized to your taste. Yes, please! These Slow Cooker Chicken Burrito bowls have been on rotation for weeks in our house. The best part to me is the chicken itself. All you do it place chicken breasts (you could also use boneless, skinless thighs) in a slow cooker with tons of spices and in just a few hours you’ll have chicken you can pull into pieces that soak up the delicious juice from the crock pot.
One new year’s eve, I wanted to make something special to eat for our friends that were coming over to celebrate with us, but their son had specific food restrictions. The idea of a DIY build your own burrito bowl sounded like the perfect solution. Start with a big bowl for yourself with quinoa (you could also start with a base of brown rice) and top it with this tender, juicy chicken, guacamole, salsa, black beans, a good handful of chopped cilantro or whatever else you enjoy. DIY meals like DIY: Taco Buffet, DIY Hot Dog Bar, DIY: Oatmeal Buffet are great when you’re feeding a crowd so everyone can build their own favorite flavor combinations!
The best part about making this Slow Cooker Chicken is that this can (and should be) doubled so you have tons of leftovers for days to come to turn into burritos, tostada salad, nachos and more. My beloved Slow Cooker Chicken Burrito Bowls have become a bi-weekly rotation that we can’t get enough of!
I love a slow cooker recipe because you can put all the ingredients in there and forget about it for a few hours while it cooks itself! If you’re looking for more slow cooker recipes, try out my Slow Cooker Chicken Chili, Slow Cooker 12 Layer Lasagna and Slow Cooker Chicken Noodle Soup to name a few!
Are you making burrito bowls this week? Let me know what you think by tagging me on social media!
Slow Cooker Chicken Burrito Bowls
Ingredients
- 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
- 1 1/2 teaspoons cumin
- 1 1/2 teaspoons paprika
- 1/4 teaspoon chili powder
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 yellow onion, diced
- 2 cups cooked quinoa
- 2 cups cooked black beans
- 1 cup weelicious guacamole (recipe linked below)
- 1 cup salsa
- 1/2 cup chopped cilantro
Instructions
- Place chicken breasts in a slow cooker and sprinkle with all of the seasonings and diced onion.
- Toss and coat the chicken breasts with the spices.
- Turn on the slow cooker to low and cook for 2 hours.
- Shred the chicken with 2 forks.
- In each bowl place a scoop of quinoa and top with chicken, beans and remaining toppings as desired.
How many pounds in 4 boneless skinless chicken breasts? My local store the last package I bought had three breasts and was over 3 pounds.
[…] eat once a week. We omitted the red pepper flakes so R could eat it too. Justin made Weelicious’s crockpot pulled chicken while I was at work. He turned the slow cooker on high and it took an hour and a half. […]
So glad this was a hit!
I used a whole chicken but cut it up into quarters. I cooked it for 7 hours after dredging it through the spices. I tasted it after 7 and found that it wasn’t flavorfull enough for me. So I cooked it another 7, deboned. Absolutely delicious. The fluid from the chicken and their spices, I used to warm up the beans for 4 hours, delicious, as well. Thank you for this recipe. I have all kinds of food restrictions but this hit the spot.
Yes! I would add something like black beans or sauteed tofu for added protein!
Can I make vegetarian and not using the chicken?
Made this tonight and it was soon good. I ended up using leftover chicken from a roast and just warming it up in a pan with some chicken stock and all of the spices. It turned out great!
About 1 cup!
Hi Catherine,
How much dry quinoa do I need to make 2 C of cooked quinoa?
Sounds delicious!
Looking forward to trying the quinoa burrito bowl this evening!
4 breasts is about 2 pounds!
do you use about 1lb of chicken breast?
Making these tonight, thanks!!
Next time you are up in Santa Rosa, check out Oliver’s Market, it’s a great Whole Foods alternative with awesome prepared foods and all the same organic and local options.
Fantastic! We’re totally obsessed with these. Whoever created the slow cooker gave a great gift to moms!
Yum! We love enchilada bowls! And I especially love it when the slow cooker does all the work for me!
The reason for the low and short cooking time is the boneless skinless chicken breasts. I tested this 5 times before posting. When I cooked the chicken breasts for 3 hours they became a bit too dry (although the added liquid helped making the shredded pieces a bit more juicy). Let me know if you try it!
I am planning on making these tomorrow but it seems like something is missing from the recipe instructions. Really just put chicken, spices and onions in and only cook for 2 hours on low???
Great idea Wendy!
Just a note about slow cooker safety. I have a 2 year old and have been looking into more slow cooker recipes and how to use them best. I have read that you have to cook frozen foods longer in a slow cooker so it reaches a minimum of 165 degrees to kill bacteria. It says it’s always preferable to use thawed food.
I would search weelicious for another one of Catherine’s “crockpot chicken” recipes and use that as your baseline for cooking time. Just sub out the spices for this recipe. I’ve done a “busy working mama” version of this- take 3 lbs of frozen chicken breasts & fit them in crockpot as best you can. (This can be harder than you think since frozen breasts don’t bend!) Take 1 jar of your favorite salsa and mix with 1/2 envelope reduced sodium taco seasoning. Pour salsa spice mixture over frozen chicken breasts, cover, cook on “low” for 8-9 hours. When you get home from work, shred the breasts and serve in tacos, burrito bowls, quesadillas, or whatever. My 3 yr old, 18m old & hubby all love this & it’s so easy for the work week.
OMG! These bowls look fantastic!!!
You can follow this recipe and use the same spices in the Chicken Burrito Bowls 🙂 https://weelicious.com/2015/03/27/herbed-chicken-in-the-crock-pot-recipe/
Would like to know how to adapt this with a whole chicken instead, as I find they are much more economical.
No liquid necessary! I know it seems crazy, but the chicken naturally releases plenty of liquid for the recipe.
I’m just curious because I’ve just started using a slow cooker, but I thought there needed to be some liquid in the bottom so the meats (or veggies or whatever) do not burn. I don’t see this in this recipe, or many others for that matter. Thanks!
Fantastic!!
I am currently obsessed with these and have been making them for weeks. They’re delicious!