This Green Chile Chicken and Rice is an easy, flavor-packed one-pan dinner that’s perfect for busy weeknights! Tender, juicy chicken thighs cook right on top of seasoned rice with green enchilada sauce, poblano peppers, garlic, and cumin. Everything simmers together in one skillet, giving the rice tons of flavor while keeping the chicken moist and delicious. It’s hearty, comforting, and made with simple ingredients you can find at any grocery store. You can easily adjust the spice level to suit your family’s tastes. If you want zero heat at all, just skip the poblanos all together!
Ingredients Needed
This is just a quick glance for your grocery list- keep scrolling for full printable recipe
- Chicken Thighs
- Onion
- Poblano chiles – poblanos can vary from spicy to not spicy at all. Feel free to skip if you’re nervous about it.
- Garlic
- Cumin, salt, pepper
- Green Enchilada Sauce – if you happen to only have a small can enchilada sauce, just make up the difference with some extra water
- Long-grain rice
- Fresh Cilantro
How to Make Green Chile Chicken & Rice
- Start off by searing your chicken thighs in a little oil. When they are browned, but not yet cooked through, you’ll pull them out and set them aside while you build the rest of the meal.
- Onions and peppers get a quick sauté, then you’ll add some fresh garlic and cumin. In goes some green enchilada sauce, water, rice, and the seared chicken.
- You’ll cook this for at least 20 minutes, stirring every few minutes to make sure the rice doesn’t scorch on the bottom of the pan.
- As soon as the chicken is cooked through and the rice is soft, you’ll finish it off with a little cilantro and serve!
Storing and Other Tips
- Store cooled leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge and enjoy within 3-4 days for best results.
- This meal should freeze well! Freeze individual portions for an easy meal on busy days. You may need to add a little chicken broth when you reheat it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Stick to thighs for this one! Chicken thighs are much more forgiving with the variable cooking time, plus they’re more flavorful! If you really want to use chicken breasts, I would add cooked shredded chicken breasts at the end of the cooking time, stir, and allow to heat through before serving. Another option with a similar flavor profile is this Green Chili Chicken Bake that uses chicken breasts!
Yes. Poblano peppers can vary quite a bit in heat, so start with just half a pepper or substitute a green bell pepper for a milder dish. Make sure you’re getting mild enchilada sauce as well!
Brown rice takes significantly longer to cook and requires more liquid that white rice. For best results I’d stick with white rice on this one!
Green Chile Chicken and Rice
Equipment
Ingredients
- 24 ounces boneless skinless chicken thighs trimmed of fat
- kosher salt and coarsely ground black pepper
- 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 onion, medium finely chopped
- 2 poblano chiles stemmed, seeded, and chopped (see notes)
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 14 ounces green enchilada sauce I like Herdez Mexican Cooking sauces, which is in a jar, and Frontera, which is in a pouch
- 1 cup water high elevations should add an additional ¼ cup
- 1 cup long-grain rice
- ½ cup cilantro fresh, chopped
Instructions
- Pat the chicken dry with paper towels and season both sides with salt and pepper.
- Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a 12″ skillet over medium-high heat. When very hot, add the chicken thighs and cook for about 5 minutes or until golden and crispy on one side. Transfer the chicken to a plate and set aside.
- Add the remaining 1 tablespoon of oil to the pan and allow to heat for about a minute. Add the chopped onions and peppers and cook for about 5 minutes or until the onions are translucent.
- Add the garlic and cumin and cook for about 1 more minute. Add the enchilada sauce, water, and rice and bring to a boil. Place the chicken, brown side up, on top of the rice. Reduce heat and cover.
- Cook for at least 20 minutes, stirring about every 5 minutes to prevent the rice from scorching. When the rice and chicken are cooked through, it’s done (higher elevations will take longer, maybe even twice as long, so plan accordingly.)
- Add the cilantro and stir to combine.
Questions & Reviews
I just made this tonight for dinner and it was easy and so very tasty. I didn’t buy the correct peppers, since they didn’t have them at my grocer, but I did use a spicy kind and a lot of green bell peppers to compensate. It was so yummy and just the right amount of spice. A keeper.
Mmmm, this is gonna be dinner tonight. I’ll try anything with green chile in the title. For the green chile sauce I gotta stay close to my New Mexico roots. You should try this with New Mexican green chile sauce. You basically make a chicken gravy but add in sautéd onions and New Mexican roasted green chile’s. At the end top it of with a bit of half and half… to die for! Thanks for the recipe!
We just came back from New Mexico from vacation and the food there is to die for. We really loved the stuffed sopapeas would like a recipe for those if you have one. Could ou please tell me more about the green chile sauce.
Morningstar Farms makes a good chicken substitute (it comes in a freezer package in strips with a separate package of teriyaki sauce), so if you ever wanted to try a vegetarian version for your daughter, it would work. My family is vegetarian and I’ve adapted many recipes found here and other online sites with products from Morningstar and Gardein. Most of their products are quite good. 🙂
Ok, I admit, I was skeptical about this one. But. I made this tonight and it is DIVINE. Homey, comforting, so creamy. You guys have to make this ASAP. Seriously, it was so, so good that I kept sneaking back to the skillet to spoon one more scoop of the creamy rice and tasty chicken. I made it with a can of El Paso mild green enchilada sauce and used chicken broth instead of water. SO GOOD!! I served it with a sliced avocado and a squeeze of lime juice and it was delicious! Chicken thighs are a must for this dish! Thanks, Kate, for another winner, winner chicken dinner!
Oh yeah, I chickened out and used just a plain bell pepper instead of poblanos, and it was super tasty but no heat. 🙂
I’m a sissy when it comes to spicy so I was planning on using a bell pepper, too. Glad to know it still tasted good with the substitute! 🙂
This looks delicious and easy to do. When do you add the cilantro, just at the end?
I have this recipe on my radar….I plan on fire roasting and peeling my poblano peppers first though!
This sounds really good. I want to try it with quinoa!
Looks yummy! I have been looking for a good recipe to use up some of the poblano peppers we have growing in our garden. Thanks sharing:)
Oh yum. Cannot wait to make this.
You want to hear about peppers varying in heat? The reason I’m up this early is because my hands and face have been burning all night long: last night: we got some ” cherry bomb peppers” for canning. My sister tried one and says ” oh they are pretty mild”, so I take a massive bite out of the hottest pepper I’ve ever eaten. It’s been 12 hours and my throat still is aching.
Side point: anyone have a need for 5 pounds of cherry bomb peppers or ring of fire peppers?!?! Because I am done.
This sounds delicious. And I love that it’s one dish. I can tell it’s destined to become a new family favorite.