Chicken meal prep with brown rice is one of the easiest, healthy, budget friendly meal prep recipe. Buttery-lemony-herbed chicken with stir fried crunchy vegetables and cilantro lemon brown rice all fixed in 30 minutes. Yes, you read it right, all in 30 minutes!
Why does this recipe work?
Put in all the work for one day, and have a meal ready for the entire week.
Easy to customize as per your choice – feel free to use any vegetable of your choice. You can swap brown rice with super grains like quinoa.
How to make
Meal prepping chicken and rice is all about time management and multi-tasking with some amount of planning ahead. Work out on chicken meal prep ideas ahead and get them all ready the day before.
I usually plan everything on Saturday, get my grocery shopping done the same day so I’m all set. Sunday evening is my favorite time to get into the kitchen and get my chicken meal prep done for the entire week.
Also I aim at getting my meal prep chicken and rice done in less time, usually 30 minutes is my target time.
How to do it all in 30 minutes?
- Cook rice first, as that takes the longest time. I recommend pressure cooker for rice as it’s fast and fuss free to cook rice.
- Choose vegetables of your choice. Go for easy cuts of vegetables like simple slicing, cutting in halves or quarters. Chop them in bunches.
- While rice is cooking, roast or stir fry vegetables and chicken all in one pan. You can quickly saute one vegetable after another or simply throw in all vegetables in and do a quick stir fry.
- Make sure you marinated chicken before. All you need next is about 20 minutes to cook chicken.
- Use boxes like these boxes* that have air tight lids, refrigerator friendly and microwaveable
. The idea is to store the meals in a box that you can carry and eat from the same box after microwave heating. - Again, I do not recommend storing them in the freezer.
. The idea is to store the meals in a box that you can carry and eat from the same box after microwave heating.
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Chicken Brown Rice Meal Prep
Ingredients
- 4 chicken breasts
- 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
- 21/2 teaspoon olive oil
- 2 medium broccoli (cut into small florets)
- 1 cup zucchini (round slices)
- 1 cup baby tomatoes (halved)
- 3 lemons (freshly squeezed juice)
- 1 tablespoon pepper powder
- 1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
- 10 cloves garlic (minced)
- 2 cups brown rice (cooked)
- ½ cup cilantro
- 4 lemon(or lime) wedges
- salt to taste
Instructions
- Cook brown rice until nice and fluffy. Check out how to cook rice in instant pot. Once cooked keep aside to cool.
- Add juice of 1 lemon, salt to taste and ½ cup chopped cilantro into rice. Give it a gentle mix.
- Marinate chicken breasts with lemon juice, salt to taste, pepper powder, Italian seasoning. Mix well and let it sit in fridge until use.
- In a pan heat an teaspoon oil. Stir fry broccoli florets seasoned with little salt for about 2 minutes or so. Remove from pan on to a plate.
- Stir fry zucchini slices in the same pan for a minute or so. Remove zucchini on to a plate.
- Throw in the baby tomatoes and let it blister in the pan, takes about a minute depending on the heat of the pan.
- Add the butter and remaining olive oil. Arrange marinated chicken breasts in the pan. Add minced garlic on sides of the pan. Cook chicken on both sides until seared well. Remove from pan once cooked, let it cool. Slice.
- Portion chicken, rice, vegetables between 4 storage containers. Top it with some more cilantro leaves.
- Serve immediately, or cover tightly with lids and refrigerate for up to 4 days.
Video
Notes
- Make sure you marinated chicken before. That way all you need next is about 20 minutes to cook chicken.
- Use boxes that have air tight lids and the boxes have to be refrigerator friendly and microwaveable. The idea is to store the meals in a box that you can carry and eat from the same box after microwave heating.
- Again, I do not recommend storing them in freezer.
Comments & Reviews
Supriya Kutty says
This is a fantastic recipe which is very easy to make and sounds yummy as well, I will surely try making this recipe and ask my husband to share his feedback on how it tasted, I will also share this with my friends and family as well for their future reference.
Jyothi Rajesh says
So glad you liked the recipe Supriya. Do let us know how it turns out for you
Lauren says
Sorry if I’m being dumb here, ,is the 895Kcal per meal or per 4 meals? So around 223kcal each? Thanks
jyothirajesh says
Yes, that’s for the 4 meal servings. I haven’t updated the information after I moved to recipe card. Will correct it soon
Vicky @ AvocadoPesto says
I’m the worst with meal prepping but seriously need to get on board! Can definitely make lunches for the whole week a total breeze when you have this recipe !
jyothirajesh says
Trust me Vicky if I could do it, you definitely could. I love to have that little relaxing time during lunch time not worrying about what to cook. I spend on blogging ideas instead 😀
Sues says
I love this idea! There’s nothing better than getting your meal planning done for smooth sailing the rest of the week 🙂 Plus, this is a lunch to look forward to!
jyothirajesh says
Absolutely Sues. Easy to prep, healthy meals and all delicious in one box. It’s just perfect meal for me.
Julia says
What a perfect recipe for meal prep! Love how you can actually get this done in 30 minutes!
jyothirajesh says
Thanks Julia. Yes it is fast, easy meal prep. Gives all reason why we should be spending little time on Sunday for this meal prep so you still have time to relax on Sunday plus have your next week’s meal prepped. So it’s definitely all good!
Rebecca says
This looks so yummy!
jyothirajesh says
Thank you Rebecca
Sonal says
Such a helpful post! I am sure I can do the similar prep with vegetarian protein!!
jyothirajesh says
Thank you Sonal. Yes can easily substitute Paneer or tofu with chicken for vegetarian/vegan option