Salsa chicken bowls.

I love tacos in any form, especially because it’s a reason to cook with avocado and cilantro – two things I could eat daily if it wasn’t ridiculous. Last year I made a version of Salsa Chicken for the first time in the slow cooker, and it was so easy and tasty it has turned into a regular weekday dinner for us ever since.

I adapted this recipe to take out a few ingredients, and usually make it in the oven instead of the slow cooker:

Salsa Chicken Bowls
1 pound skinless, boneless chicken breasts
3/4 jar of your favorite salsa
1 jar black beans
1/2 cup cherry tomatoes, sliced
1/2 an avocado, chopped
2 tablespoons cilantro, torn or chopped
1/4 teaspoon black pepper

How to: Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Pour the salsa over the chicken and mix. Bake for 25-30 minutes if chicken is thawed; add 5-10 minutes if frozen. While the chicken is baking, heat your black beans and cherry tomatoes on medium low.

Notice how there are very little ‘extras’ in this recipe? My favorite thing on a busy night. I don’t think leaving most of the spices out affects the taste at all, and leaving out salt and taco seasoning makes this much healthier. The flavor you get from cooking the chicken in salsa really brings things together.

I paired my dinner with roasted vegetables {brussel sprouts and cauliflower} and mixed everything up, but for my husband I made a smaller version of cilantro lime rice from Iowa Girl Eats awesome recipe:

For this dinner, I cooked 1/2 cup of jasmine rice and mixed in 1/2 a squeezed lime, several torn bunches of cilantro, and a slender pat of butter once it was done cooking.