Slow Cooker Fiesta Chicken and Rice

This slow cooker fiesta chicken and rice recipe is a simple weeknight dinner that the whole family will love. You can use this recipe for taco night or burrito night, for an easy meal prep recipe, or for homemade nachos at a family gathering or football party. It’s full of flavor, perfectly cheesy, and gets in some vegetables with green peppers and onions. With under 30 minutes of hands-on time and only one dish, you will love this set it and forget it meal!

Slow Cooker Fiesta Chicken and Rice Ingredients

Aside from being ridiculously delicious, this recipe is also incredibly easy to make. The ingredient list isn’t long, and you won’t need to spend much hands-on time prepping or cooking. For the fresh ingredients, you’ll need 1.5 pounds of boneless, skinless chicken breasts, one diced onion, and one diced green pepper. You’ll also need a half cup of sour cream and two cups of shredded cheddar cheese.

For the shelf stable, or pantry ingredients, this slow cooker fiesta chicken recipe calls for one can of corn, one can of diced tomatoes and one can of cream of chicken soup. A few spices are required, including garlic powder, cumin, paprika and chili powder.

Finally, you’ll need Spanish rice. Because there’s so many brands and options for Spanish rice and they come in varying sizes, any package that’s between 6-8 ounces is just fine. Typically Spanish rice can be purchased in a box and require boiling to cook, or it can be purchased in the 90-second microwave packages. I find it easier to grab a bag of the steam-in-bag microwave Spanish rice. It really streamlines the process, along with cutting down on prep and dishes. Either option works just the same though.

Two optional, additional ingredients that I enjoy adding from time to time are a can of drained and rinsed black beans, and/or a small can of diced green chiles. Both of these add great flavor, and bulk it up if you’re wanting to make a larger quantity.

Step by Step Slow Cooker Instructions

Cooking your slow cooker fiesta chicken and rice is really simple and straightforward. You’ll first start by adding the chicken into your slow cooker, and then seasoning it with the spices. Next, you’ll add the cream of chicken soup by layering it over the chicken breasts.

Then the diced onion, green peppers, tomatoes and corn will get dumped in over the top of the cream of chicken. You don’t really need to stir it, everything will cook really well as is. Place the lid on your slow cooker and let it cook for 6 to 7 hours on low, or for 3 hours on high.

About 30 minutes prior to the fiesta chicken being done, or prior to the time you’re ready to eat, you’ll want to make your rice as directed on the package. If you’re using a boxed option instead of a 90-second package, make sure to plan accordingly if that brand you’re using takes longer to cook on the stovetop.

While the rice is cooking, shred the chicken breasts with two forks and add in the sour cream and 1 cup of the cheese. Once the rice is finished, add that into the slow cooker as well. Stir everything to combine the rice, cheese and sour cream in with the chicken and vegetables.

Layer the remaining 1 cup of cheese over the top of the slow cooker, and place the cover back on once more. If your slow cooker was cooking on low, go ahead and switch it to high heat. Let it cook undisturbed for the remaining 10 to 20 minutes until the cheese on the top has melted.

Serving and Storing Fiesta Chicken

What is so great about this recipe is how flexible it is and how many ways there are to serve and enjoy it. No matter what you’re in the mood for or what your family likes best, this recipe is a good fit! You can serve it as burrito filling, wrapped up in large burrito tortillas. It can go in hard or soft shells for tacos, or over tortilla chips to make nachos.

You can also leave the rice out instead of mixing it into the slow cooker at the end of cooking, and serve the fiesta chicken over the top of the rice. This then can be like a burrito bowl with rice on the bottom, the fiesta chicken over the rice, and then toppings such as avocado, pico or fresh tomato, chopped green or white onion, cilantro or black olives over the top of that.

To store the fiesta chicken and rice, first allow it the time to cool in the slow cooker. Once completely cooled, you can transfer it to a container with an air-tight lid, or individual meal prep containers. You can also wrap the leftovers up in burrito tortillas, wrap in foil, and then refrigerate for easy grab-and-go burritos you can reheat later.

Other Chicken Recipes You’ll Love:

Garlic Chicken Gnocchi Skillet

Instant Pot Chicken Fried Rice

Slow Cooker Cashew Chicken

Slow Cooker Chicken & Chickpea Tikka Masala

Chicken Wild Rice Casserole

Print

This slow cooker fiesta chicken and rice post may contain some links that are affiliate links, though products are ones I use personally and recommend. When you purchase anything using my links, it costs you absolutely nothing extra, but it does give healthyheartyrecipes.com a little financial support which helps to keep this blog running. Thank you for your continued support, both with your dollars and your interest.