Pollo Loco takes you South of the border with southwest marinated grilled chicken breasts served on a bed of Mexican rice and topped with avocado and sour cream.
It has only been in the last year or so that I have begun to grill chicken, because up till then I guess I just assumed that it was too hard, even though I don’t have any problems grilling steak. I hate tough, dry chicken and I wasn’t confident in my ability to keep it moist and tender on the grill. Turns out it’s not any more difficult than steak, and I have even developed my own base marinade recipe for grilled chicken, but you’ll hear more about that in a minute.
Now that I have opened the door to the world of moist, tender grilled chicken, I have added several delicious recipes to my repertoire that include that particular ingredient and one of my favorites is Pollo Loco.
Start by marinating a couple of chicken breasts.
While the chicken marinates make your hot and fluffy, flavor packed Mexican rice. The rice takes a little while to cook, so hold off on grilling the chicken until it’s almost done or your chicken will either be dry or cold.
When everything is done layer the chicken on top of a generous scoop of rice, sprinkle with cheese, and top with avocado and sour cream.
- 2 boneless skinless chicken breasts
- 3 tbsp taco mix divided
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1/2 cup uncooked brown rice
- 4 tbsp tomato sauce
- 2/3 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese
- 1 avocado
- Sour cream
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Prepare the marinade by combining 1tbsp taco mix with the lemon juice and olive oil*. Pour over the chicken breasts and turn to coat, then cover and let marinate for about 30 minutes. In the mean time, start cooking the rice according to the package instructions. When the rice has about 10 minutes left to cook, go ahead and throw the chicken on the grill. Remove the cooked rice from the heat and stir in the tomato sauce and remaining 2 tbsp of taco mix. Divide between two plates and go ahead and slice the avocado. If you care about the aesthetics of your food you won’t want to do that much earlier in the process or your slices will start to turn brown. It doesn't affect the taste but it won’t look as pretty. Place the chicken on top of the rice and sprinkle the cheese over the chicken/rice. Top with avocado slices and generous dollops of sour cream.
* 1tbsp lemon juice and 1 tbsp olive oil is my go-to base chicken marinade recipe, to which you then add 1 tbsp of a dry ingredient, depending on what flavors would compliment the recipe the you are making. This is the one I use for all Mexican dishes like Pollo Loco, Taco Salad, etc, but for a Cesar Salad I substitute dry Italian dressing mix for the taco mix. The options are endless!
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