Chicken Wild Rice Bowl - tender seasoned chicken thighs with a delicious nutty wild rice blend, roasted carrot strands, salad with beets and feta.
Anyone else love bowls? and by that I don't mean just a pretty bowl you picked up from a home store. I mean a filling meal with lots of yummy components that are nutritious and healthy.
Bowls like this are a great way to use up some leftovers too, as there really is no right or wrong way to put everything together.
Calories in Chicken Wild Rice Salad Bowl
This recipe serves 2 and is 489 calories per serving.
If you're looking for more recipes by calories, you'll find plenty of options grouped by calorie range here: Slimming Eats Low Calorie Recipes
If you're following a calorie-controlled diet or a healthy eating plan, it's important to calculate your daily calorie needs using a reliable calorie calculator. The calorie counts provided are estimates and can vary depending on the exact ingredients and portion sizes you use. Using your own calculations helps ensure you're meeting your individual needs. A calorie calculator can help you make informed choices and stay on track with your goals.
See the recipe card for full nutritional estimation.
Build a Bowl
When I put together bowls like this Chicken Vegetable Wild Rice Bowl, I always kind of stick to the same kind of template. Which is the following
- Good source of protein - which can be lean meat, beans (legumes like chickpeas), tofu or eggs etc
- A whole grain (wild rice is perfect), but I also like quinoa, brown rice, couscous etc
- Good portion of salad or veggies
- Dairy (usually either with some cheese of my choice or a yoghurt dip) - but this is totally optional, and you of course will want to skip this if you are dairy free, or use a dairy free alternative.
The other thing to remember when building a bowl like this is flavour. Definitely add a good seasoning to your protein, like I have done with the chicken, otherwise your bowl will be a little bland.
I also cook my wholegrains in a little stock for some added flavour and then make your veggies or salad interesting, but add lots of different components. The roasted carrot strands with seasoning are a great example of this.
Ingredients Notes
To make this recipe you will need the following ingredients:
- Chicken thighs: Chicken thighs stay juicy and tender and add lots of flavour to the bowls. Small thighs cook quickly and work perfectly sliced over the salad.
- Seasonings: The thyme, oregano, basil, black pepper, paprika, garlic powder and sea salt give aa simple herby flavour that works really well with the bowl ingredients
- Cooking oil spray: Helps the chicken brown nicely while keeping the recipe lighter. Avocado oil spray works especially well because of its high heat tolerance.
- Wild rice blend: Wild rice adds a lovely nutty flavour and chewy texture to the bowls. Rinsing before cooking helps remove excess starch and improves the texture.
- Chicken stock: Cooking the rice in stock instead of water adds much more flavour.
- Carrots: Slicing into thin sticks helps them roast quickly while still keeping a little bite and sweetness.
- Olive oil: Forms the base of the dressing and adds richness.
- White wine vinegar: Adds freshness and acidity to balance the richer ingredients.
- Dijon mustard: Helps emulsify the dressing while adding a gentle tang.
- Granulated sweetener: Optional, but helps balance the acidity of the vinegar.
- Salt and black pepper: basic seasonings that enchance the flavours in any recipe.
- Feta: Adds a salty creamy element that pairs perfectly with the sweet beets and mustard dressing.
- Baby leaves: Add freshness and crunch to the bowls. Any mixed salad leaves work well.
- Cooked beets: Add sweetness, colour, and earthy flavour that works beautifully with the feta and mustard vinaigrette.
Once you've gathered all the ingredients and prepared them accordingly, you're all set to create this easy and delightful recipe.
See the recipe card for specific quantities and instructions.
Variations and Substitutes
There are plenty of easy ways to adapt these wild rice chicken salad bowls depending on what you have on hand.
- Wild rice blend can be swapped for brown rice, white rice, quinoa, couscous, or farro.
- Chicken thighs can be replaced with chicken breast, salmon, prawns, or tofu.
- Add roasted butternut squash or sweet potato for extra sweetness and a more filling bowl.
- Chickpeas, lentils, white beans, or a spoonful of hummus are great additions for extra fibre and protein.
- Feta can be swapped for goat's cheese, halloumi, blue cheese, or a lighter crumbly cheese.
- Baby leaves can be replaced with spinach, rocket, kale, or chopped romaine lettuce.
- Add extra vegetables like cucumber, avocado, red onion, roasted peppers, or cherry tomatoes.
- Walnuts, pecans, pumpkin seeds, or sunflower seeds add extra crunch and texture.
- Honey or maple syrup can be used instead of granulated sweetener in the dressing.
- Fresh herbs like parsley, coriander, dill, or mint work really well added to the bowls or vinaigrette.
How to make Roasted Carrot Strands
For the carrot strands I use the thick julienne slicer on my mandolin slicer. Mandolin Slicers are great tools for making vegetables more interesting for cooking or using in a salad. I recommend one like this Mandoline Slicer with different blades on Amazon.
(As an Amazon Associate and member of other affiliate programs, I earn from qualifying purchases.)
However you don't need an fancy gadgets, a sharp knife will also do the trick. Just try and slice them a similar size to what I have done, otherwise they will take slightly longer to cook.
More Bowl Recipes
Looking for some more bowl recipes? Check out the follow:
- TACO BREAKFAST BOWL
- HEALTHY CHICKEN QUINOA BOWL
- OATMEAL SMOOTHIE BOWL
- CURRIED CHICKEN RICE SALAD BOWL
- PEARL BARLEY GREEK YOGHURT BREAKFAST BOWL
- CHOCOLATE PEANUT BUTTER OATMEAL BOWL
- PEANUT CHICKEN NOODLE SALAD BOWL
or if you would like more recipe ideas - head on over to the FULL RECIPE INDEX where you will find over 900 delicious recipes with calories and you can search by meal type, ingredients, course, diet and more.
All recipes on Slimming Eats have estimated nutritional information for your convenience.
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Recipe Card
Chicken Wild Rice Bowl
Chicken Wild Rice Bowl - tender seasoned chicken thighs with a delicious nutty wild rice blend, roasted carrot strands, salad with beets and feta.
Ingredients
For the chicken:
- 240g (8.4oz) Boneless Skinless Chicken Thighs, uncooked (trimmed of visible fat)
- pinch of each of the following (dried thyme, dried oregano, dried basil. black pepper and coarse sea salt)
- cooking oil spray (I used avocado)
For the rice:
- ⅓ cup (60g) of wild rice blend (or you can use brown rice), rinsed
- 1 cup (240ml) of chicken stock
For the carrots:
- 2 medium carrots, sliced into thin sticks
- 1.5 teaspoons of paprika
For the mustard vinaigrette:
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 tablespoon of white wine vinegar
- 1 teaspoon of dijon mustard
- ¼ teaspoon of garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon of granulated sweetener (optional)
- pinch of salt and black pepper
For the bowls:
- 50g of feta, crumbled
- 2 handfuls of baby leaves
- 2 cooked beets, chopped
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 200c, 180c fan, 400f or gas mark 6
- Season the carrots with the paprika.
- Place on a. baking tray line with parchment, spray over the top with cooking oil spray and bake until lightly golden (approx 15-20 minutes)
- Add the rinsed rice to a saucepan, add in the stock, bring to a boil, reduce heat to low simmer, cover and cook until stock is absorbed, then turn off heat but leave untouched and with lid on for 12 minutes. See notes
- Place the chicken thighs on a plate and add a pinch of dried thyme, dried oregano, dried basil, black pepper and coarse sea salt the top of each thigh.
- Heat a frying pan over a medium high heat with cooking oil spray. Once pan is hot, add the chicken thighs seasoned side down and cook until golden. Spray the uncooked side with more cooking oil spray, then flip and cook the other side until golden. Approx 6 minutes each side. Remove and slice into strips.
- Whisk the ingredients for the vinaigrette together in a small bowl.
- Then you are ready to build your bowl. Add half the chicken to each bowl, half the rice, half the carrots, handful of mixed baby leaves, chopped cooked beets, then crumble half the feta over the baby leaves in each bowl and drizzle with the vinaigrette.
- Dig in and enjoy!!!
Notes
Please see below for full nutritional info and additional details about recipe:
- Calories - scroll down to nutritional info box
- WW Points and other Slimming or Weight Loss programs - due to plans regularly changing and updating, we recommend calculating with the official tools you get as a member to those plans to ensure accuracy of values.
- Gluten Free Friendly - use gluten free stock
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Nutrition Information
Yield
2Serving Size
1 BOWLAmount Per Serving Calories 489Total Fat 22gSaturated Fat 7gTrans Fat 0gCholesterol 229mgSodium 919mgCarbohydrates 41gFiber 7gSugar 10gProtein 32g
Nutritional information, values, points etc are an estimate and is to be used for informational purposes only. Ingredients can vary greatly from brand to brand and therefore it would be impossible to give accurate information. It is always advised that you calculate by the ingredients you use.
Carol says
Love the sound of this. I have 3 different kinds of paprika hot, sweet or smokey, I never know which one to use when it just says “paprika” what do you recommend?
Han says
Hello! Just made this, it was delicious!
Nicola says
Just made this for Dinner and it was lovely, so easy to do! Will definitely be making again!
Verity says
One of my favourites 🙂