Creamy salsa verde chicken with rice and veggies all cooked at once in a foil packet! No need to pre-cook the rice or chicken. This dish takes no more than 10 minutes to assemble and is bursting with delicious Mexican flavor.
How crazy fun is this dinner?! Chicken, rice, veggies all done in one delicious foil packet. BAM. Dinner’s ready and you spent like a minute preparing it.
Majorly crushing on tin foil dinners these days. And I hope you love them too because I already have two other tin foil dinners all ready to post! We may or may not have had tin foil dinners for lunch and dinner every single day this week and last. Although, in all honesty, not every meal has been served in foil…I’ve gotten a little creative in re-purposing the dishes into something else. Like making the fillings of these packets into TACOS. Talk about so delicious and SO easy. (More details on that in the next section of text).
I’ve wanted to test all different sizes of chicken and to make sure these cook well in the oven. I’ve tried 4, 5, 6, and 7 ounce pieces of chicken (I highly recommend getting a food scale if you don’t already have one! It’s a lifesaver for baking AND cooking.) The best size for these packets is a 7-ounce piece. 6 ounces work too but is done in 5-10 minutes less time. For the 4 and 5 ounce pieces I found the chicken to be a little dry by the time the rice is all done. All the testing aside, it’s impossible for me to give an exact cooking time as the size of your chicken (if you don’t have a scale) and the heat of your oven will vary so much from person to person and even from my oven. My best recommendation is to make sure that your chicken is pounded to 1/2 inch thick and exactly 7 ounces. But be prepared to be flexible on timing as it could be anywhere from 30-50 minutes depending on the heat of your oven and size of your chicken. In my oven with a 7 ounce chicken it was completely cooked through at about 37 minutes. To be safe, check your chicken with a thermometer at about 35 minutes (it is done when it registers 165 degrees F) And if you have a smaller piece, start checking at 25 minutes.
I know it’s hard to tell from pictures, but to give you a general idea I weighed the chicken breast in the below GIF and it was exactly 7 ounces and pounded to 1/2 inch thickness.
Also since we’ve made these so many times, I’ve gotten a little creative and made tacos out of them. I’ve just taken out all the fillings (rice, black beans, corn), tossed it all together and put that filling on a taco shell. Then slice or shred the chicken, put on top, add plenty of shredded pepper-jack cheese and enjoy with some sour cream. It seriously makes for delicious and super quick tacos!
Since we’ve been making foil dinners like crazy here are a few tips I’ve learned along the experimental journey:
- ✔ NUMBER 1 TIP: Make sure the chicken pieces are trimmed and pounded to even thickness. 1/2 inch and 7 ounces is the best for these.
- ✔ Make sure the foil is completely 100% sealed off. This will not only keep juices from seeping out (juices that you need for things to cook evenly) and making a mess all over your pan, but it also keeps the chicken ultra moist. Without a tight seal your chicken will likely taste dry. Seal these tightly!
- ✔ When baking, place an extra piece of foil over a pan and put these on top of that pan. The pan just ensures that you won’t get any mess in your oven *just in case* something does seep out. The foil on top of that pan? It is just to ensure there is no extra mess on your pan. We don’t want to do dishes with foil dinners am I right?!
- ✔ Before putting ANYTHING in the foil, grease the foil super, super well with nonstick spray. You do not want the rice to stick to the bottom!
- ✔ After pulling these out of the oven make sure to give all the ingredients a good mix to get those delicious juices that have seeped below. You’ll also notice the cream cheese hasn’t quite melted so just spread that around with your fork and it will meld nicely with the chicken.
- ✔ Use heavy duty foil.
- ✔ Adjust your oven rack to the middle of your oven.
- ✔ TOPPINGS: these are key! This meal is pretty good as is, but it is spectacular with the “toppings.” The most important topping that is totally not optional is the cheese! Tons of melty pepper-jack cheese over this dish is insanely delicious. The other toppings are optional and since this is supposed to be an easy foil dinner, don’t worry too much about them. That said, they do give the dish some extra “wow factor” and don’t take too long. Our favorite additions: cilantro, fresh lime, sliced avocado, and sour cream. YUM. Also some extra salsa verde if you are really feeling that!
Foil Pack: Salsa Verde Chicken & Rice
Ingredients
- 1 cup Instant white rice
- 1 and 1/2 cups water
- 2 (7 ounces each) large boneless skinless chicken breasts
- 1/2 teaspoon each: cumin, garlic powder, salt and pepper
- 1 teaspoon chili powder
- 1/8 teaspoon paprika optional
- 1 ounce full fat cream cheese
- 6 tablespoons salsa verde
- 1/2 cup roasted corn
- 1/2 cup black beans
- 1/2 cup pepperjack cheese
- Optional: roasted green chiles lime, cilantro, sour cream, red bell pepper
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
- Generously grease with cooking spray 2 large sheets of heavy duty tin foil.
- Weigh your chicken to get (2) 7-ounce pieces. Pound or slice the pieces to 1/2 inch thickness.
- Toss together the instant rice and water and let stand for 5 minutes.
- In a bowl, toss together all of the seasonings: cumin, garlic powder, salt, pepper, chili powder, and paprika. Dredge each chicken breast evenly in the seasonings (both sides).
- Divide the rice and water mixture evenly among the 2 foil packets.
- Place the seasoned chicken on top.
- Slice the cream cheese into 4 equal pieces and place 2 pieces on top of each chicken breast.
- Pour 3 tablespoons of salsa verde on top of each chicken breast.
- Put 1/4 cup corn and 1/4 cup black beans next to each chicken breast. If desired add a few pieces of thinly sliced red pepper to each packet.
- Seal the packet allowing for expansion and make sure it is 100% sealed.
- Bake for 30-50 minutes** or until the chicken is completely cooked through (registers 165 degrees F)
- Mix everything around in your foil pack and top each with pepperjack cheese.
- Add other optional toppings as desired.
- TO GRILL: Preheat the grill to medium-high heat and allow to heat for 10-15 minutes. Place completely sealed foil packets on grill for 25-35 minutes (or until chicken registers 165 degrees F) flipping once in between at about 10-15 minutes
Video
Recipe Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Hi if this is a duplicate I apologize. I’m looking for the nutritional information on this recipe please. I see where you said you added it at the end of the recipe but I’ve looked everywhere and can’t find it. TIA
I just added them! Thanks Carla! 🙂
These taste exactly like Chipotle but even better. We ate these this week and I’m making them again as we speak. Seriously my mouth waters just thinking about them. Thank you for sharing!!!!
Ahh I am thrilled to hear this! Thanks so much Jamie! 🙂
This is an amazing and simple dinner. I made this two weeks ago and it back on my list for Sunday. The flavors are so good and the chicken is tender. Absolute best!
Yay! I’m so happy to hear Sara! Thanks for your comment! 🙂
Loved it so easy too!
Thanks Heidi! 🙂
I made this tonight for dinner. Used salsa I had on hand. Frozen corn. Costco chicken tenderloins (frozen, but I thawed them in the fridge first). Cooked regular rice in the microwave (about 1 cup of rice and 1 1/4 cups water for about 7 mins) and then added it. Topped with avocado and LOVED IT!!! Delicious and easy. Thank you!!
I am so happy to hear this! Way to work with what you had! Sounds delicious, thanks for your comment! 🙂
Is the 1 ounce of full fat cream cheese necessary in this recipe? I always use plain nonfat Greek yogurt in place of cream cheese in recipes, but I am thinking that would not work in this recipe. So, I am wondering if I could leave the cream cheese ingredient out and still have the recipe turn out good. Thank you.
Is the 1 ounce of full fat cream cheese absolutely necessary in this recipe? I always use plain nonfat Greek yogurt in place of cream cheese in recipes, but I am thinking that would not work in this recipe. So, I am wondering if I could leave the cream cheese ingredient out and still have the recipe turn out good. Thank you.
You can leave it out, but it will taste different for sure! I don’t think the Greek yogurt would work either. You could use Neufchâtel cheese instead
Do you think it would work to instead add an additional tablespoon of salsa verde to each chicken and a half teaspoon of extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) to each chicken?
Leaving out the cheese won’t make the dish not work, it just won’t have the same flavor and creaminess. If you leave it out, you don’t need to change anything else unless you’d like to.
Don’t have instant rice, if I make the rice separate, will the foil packet still turn out the same, without the added moisture from the water and rice?
I haven’t made it without the rice and water, so I’m not entirely sure, but I think it should be okay without it!
I have made these once before and they were absolutely amazing. However, with the size of my family foil pack dinners are just not a convenient option for me. It’s so time consuming. I’m also not sure we’d love them as much in your taco idea as we do this version. Have you tried doing a version that was like a bake for multiple people at one time? Do think this would even be possible?
So happy you’ve enjoyed the recipe! I totally get what you’re thinking, and I’m sure a bake of this recipe would be delicious. I can’t give exact recommendations without personally testing, but I would think if you complied it all together in a 9 x 13 pan and baked until chicken was cooked through it would be great!
Ahh I was wondering how you cooked the rice in the foil packs! I can’t wait to try and add some instant rice to some foil packs for our next camping trip!
You’ll love it! It’s sooo simple! Thanks! 🙂