Delicious high protein Buffalo Chicken Rice Bowls are made with chicken breast, black beans, brown rice, cheese and smothered in hot sauce. Perfect for meal prep!
Buffalo Chicken Rice Bowls
These healthy Buffalo Chicken Bowls are high protein and high in fiber and so delicious I crave them! They’re great for lunch, an easy weeknight dinner, or meal prep. If you want to add some veggies, serve them with some avocado on top or a salad on the side. More easy meal prep recipes are this Taco Salad, Greek Chicken Rice Bowls, and Honey Sriracha Chicken and Broccoli Bowls.
Buffalo Chicken Bowls Ingredients
- Chicken: Cut three boneless, skinless chicken breasts into half-inch cubes.
- Onions: Dice a half cup of red onion. Feel free to use yellow onion if you don’t have red.
- Seasoning: Paprika, cumin, salt
- Black Beans: Rinse and drain one can of low-sodium black beans.
- Buffalo Sauce: You can buy it premade or make a fast homemade buffalo sauce with Frank’s Red Hot, melted butter, and garlic powder.
- Brown Rice: Swap it with white rice, quinoa, or cauliflower rice if you prefer.
- Cheese: You’ll need half a cup of shredded cheddar cheese.
- Scallions for garnish
How to Make Buffalo Chicken Rice Bowls
- Onions and Black Beans: Heat the oil in a medium pot over medium-low heat, add the onions, and cook until they’ve slightly caramelized. Stir in the beans, spices, and salt, and cook for a few minutes.
- Chicken: Season the chicken with salt and pepper. Next, heat a large skillet over high heat, and spray it with oil when hot. Cook the chicken for about five minutes, flipping it so it browns on all sides. Transfer the chicken to a bowl and toss with hot sauce.
- Assemble the Bowls: Put rice in each bowl and top with the bean mixture, cheese, and chicken. If you’re eating the bowls right away, I like to microwave them for 30 seconds to melt with cheese. Then top with scallions.
How to Meal Prep Buffalo Chicken Bowls
You can make ahead these buffalo chicken bowls and eat for quick meals over the next few days. Layer all the ingredients in small glass containers and store them in the fridge for up to four days. When you’re ready to eat, reheat them in the microwave until warm.
More Buffalo Chicken Recipes You’ll Love:
- Stuffed Buffalo Chicken Breasts
- Buffalo Chicken Meatballs
- Buffalo Chicken Dip
- Baked Buffalo Chicken Nuggets
- Buffalo Chicken and Bean Chili
Your comments are helpful! If you’ve tried this healthy Buffalo Chicken Rice Bowl recipe or any other on Skinnytaste, don’t forget to rate the recipe and leave me a comment below. And if you took a photo of it, share it with me on Instagram so I can reshare it on my Stories!
Buffalo Chicken Rice Bowls
Ingredients
- 3 8 ounce boneless skinless chicken breasts, diced into 1/2 inch cubes
- 1 teaspoon olive or canola oil
- 1/2 cup diced red onion
- 1/2 tsp paprika
- 1/2 tsp cumin
- 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 cup canned low sodium black beans, rinsed and drained
- 1/2 cup buffalo sauce, Franks
- 3 cups cooked brown rice
- 1/2 cup part-skim cheddar cheese, or dairy-free cheddar
- 1/4 cup chopped scallions
Instructions
- Heat oil in a medium pot over medium-low heat. Add onions and cook until they have caramelized slightly, about 5 minutes.
- Add black beans, paprika, cumin and salt; stir to combine and heat through, 3 to 4 minutes.
- While that cooks, heat a large skillet over high heat, when hot spray with oil and add the chicken.
- Cook until browned and cooked through in the center, about 5 minutes, flipping so it cooks on each side.
- Set aside in a medium bowl and toss with the hot sauce.
To serve
- Pour 3/4 cup rice in each bowl, top each with 1/4 cup beans and cheese, divide the chicken over the bowls.
- If eating right away, I like to melt the cheese by putting it in the microwave 30 seconds. Top with scallions.
For meal prep
- Refrigerate up to 4 days. To reheat, microwave about 3 minutes or until heated through.
Forgot to rate!
This is my most favorite lunch meal prep. The heat is perfect as well as the flavors. It’s so easy to put together.
I use riced cauliflower instead of brown rice for extra veggies and fewer points.
I could eat this every day!
Made this tonight for dinner, it was pretty good needs a bit more sauce, it eats a little dry. I added fresh sliced jalapeño from my garden, next time I may top it off with a little avocado, sour cream & cilantro. It came out to 9 points on WW because I used medium sharp cheddar cheese. It’s a keeper for sure!
Family fave. I add other veg and guacamole and kids just devour as a weeknight meal.
I’m on WW. I get 23 pts. I see this is 6pts. What is a bowl measurement to you? A cup? 1.5 cups?
This was such a great recipe for a friday night! My son, who is 13, devoured it! The chicken was nice and golden and melted cheese on top elevated the meal. I swapped the brown rice for quinoa and it was delish! 10 out of 10, recommend. Super easy to make! My new go to meal when I want a buffalo chicken meal prep!
Keeper!
I’ve made this once and will make it again tonight. I’ve added green beans or dilly beans for a bit of a bite
This was easy and delicious! I will definitely make this again.
Such a easy recipe with great flavor! It’s in my binder of meals we like. So it gets added into the rotation often.
Amazing!! We’re not a depict family so I just added 1/4 of buffalo sauce and it was perfect!
Delicious and so easy to make!
Made them exactly as the recipe! They were great. East, healthy, great for meal prep.
How many points did you count it for with cauliflower rice?
Perfect lunch meal prep! Love this recipe and will sleep adding it to my rotation.
This is one of my favorite recipes to meal prep for lunches! I drizzle about a tablespoon of light ranch dressing on top…sooo good!
Very good recipe! Made great meal prep for the week. I added extra Frank’s to give it a little more kick.
Delicious! Loved the beans so much I’m going to make a double batch to keep on hand as a side dish for other meals.
It was good but I needed some crunch so I added some chopped celery before serving and a blue cheese salad dressing drizzled over.
I love this recipe! So good! The only thing I did was switch out the cheddar cheese for blue cheese. Adds so much flavor!
Both my husband and I loved this dish. Easy to prepare and tasted great. I’ll make it again for sure!
Hi Gina! In the video you added chili powder in addition to the other spices. Chili powder is not listed in your ingredients or instructions …how much to add to the bean/onion mixture?
when do you put the buffalo sauce in. on>
Step number 5- I kept missing it too. Had to read it 3-4 times before I saw it.
another fabulous, delicious, easy to make recipe!!
Made this for dinner this evening and it was delicious! My husband and I both are already looking forward to eating the leftovers for lunch later this week!
Perfect!
Hi Jennifer! How many meals do you think this makes for the two of you? Thank you for this wonder recipe Gina! It’s going on my meal plan for next week!
What can I replace with Frank’s Buffalo Sauce as my 9 year old can’t take spicy sauce.
BBQ sauce?
Thanks for asking this question. BBQ sauce seems to be a good alternative which I’m thinking of replacing.
An easy go to recipe, that is full of flavor and lots of protein! I have made this recipe numerous times!
This is amazing!!! Easy to put together, has a ton of flavor, and definitely is enough to keep you full. This will be a recipe that I will use again in the future.
Loved this recipe as meal prep. Tasted great every day!!!
So simple. Love the combination of flavors. We use blend of brown rice and cauliflower rice to reduce the calories. Serve with a drizzle of Bolthouse Blue Cheese dressing. We make this every other weekend as lunch/dinner meal meal prep. So yummy!
Bolthouse blue cheese dressing is great! It makes a perfect replacement for the cheddar cheese.
Looks so yummy! Do you have your recipes saved in my Fitness pal?
appreciated the simplicity. had some beans and rice i needed to use up and u can never go wrong w buffalo chicken! …but i feel like the buffalo chicken didn’t meet my expectations. will try again after marinating for a couple of hours, making sure i don’t overcook the chicken, and planning to remove the chicken and cook down the sauce so that it clings to the chicken more.
I made these for meal prep this week. The recipe is very easy. It is really good. I will be adding these to our rotation. I serve mine with a slice of avocado. Thank you Gina!
This meal was delicious and easy to make! Can’t wait to make it again!
Did not want my meal to end! SOOOOO good. We made these for meal prep for our lunches this week and top winner in our books. I’ll probably switch to bleu cheese in the future just to give it a more chicken wing flavor, but so impressed with how filling this was and how much protein.
Glad you enjoyed it!
best dish!! entire family loved!
This was super tasty and easy to make! I added a few veggies as well – corn cooked in with the beans and onions, and I roasted the chicken breast so added sweet potato and kale to the pan too. Totally forgot to add some sharp cheddar, but it wasn’t even missed!
This recipe is a repeat of mine for weight loss. So easy for prepped lunch and dinners!!!! Absolutely love it.
Made this for lunches this week and it will definitely be on repeat! So good! (Added bell pepper with the onion.)
This is my 17 year-old son’s favorite school lunch! He is lucky enough to have a microwave at school and has been requesting this for a few weeks now. When I try to take a break, he always wants this one back. 🙂
I made this tonight with quinoa and it was yummy! Very filling too. Thank you Gina for your delicious recipes.
Easy, flavorful and delicious! Not a leftover girl, but can’t wait to eat it again tomorrow. Thanks for sharing this healthy Buffalo chicken option!
My husband loves Buffalo anything. I’ll eat it but it’s not always my favorite. But I made this for Sunday football and we both really enjoyed it. The mix of beans and rice helped even out the heat. Will definitely make this again.
How many servings? Doesn’t say!!
Right above the ingredients it says “Yield: 4 Servings”
Delicious! Thank you !
This is the second time I have made this recipe and it has become a favorite for meal prep. I make it exactly as written, it’s delicious and it reheats great, perfect for a quick dinner or lunch.
Great recipe! I seasoned the chicken a bit as the recipe didnt call for it- pinch of sea salt, pepper, garlic & onion powder & chili powder.
Noticed only 1 teaspoon of oil to caramelize the onion wasnt quite enough (bottom of pot was burning a little).
Also used Trader Joes pre packaged frozen brown rice in microwave. Easy and quick!
The rice is listed as an ingredient but not in the instructions??
It says cooked rice.
Rice is in step 1 in the “To Serve” section
Another winner. I made thus moments ago. It was relatively effortless too make. Lol, I’ve made a number of Gina’s recipes and they never look as visually pleasing as Gina’s, but by God they taste delicious. This one was really good. I used the amount of seasoning as a preference. The flavors meshed together so well. For the rice I used Cilantro Lime Right Rice, it’s 90% vegetable base. Yum.
so good and very filling!
I made these yesterday and we both thought they were delicious. – we had the leftovers tonight! I used half the amount of Frank’s Buffalo Sauce, fearing they would be too hot, but found that using the whole amount would be fine. We added a bit of sour cream on top.
The prep takes some time, so I plan to try this as a freezer meal. I’ll pre-cook rice, bean mixture and chicken, and freeze each of them separately. We’ll definitely have this again!
Made this for first time tonight, big hit! Will be making again (and sgain!). Delicious!
Very easy to make and delicious!
Made as directed and it is delicious. This will be in regular rotation!
Meal prepped this for work this week and came out delicious!! Will be a repeat in the future 😁
Perfect!
I made this for dinner last night. It was quite tasty. I pretty much followed the recipe other than seasoning the chicken when I cooked it.
Its truly simple and delicious… we’ll be making again for sure. Couple of notes…
1. In the article above the recipe it mentions making your own buffalo sauce with garlic powder, butter and Frank’s. There is no mention of the butter or garlic powder in the recipe. I’d be curious to the amounts when you fix that – we just used straight Frank’s and it turned out great.
2. Crumbled Blue Cheese and a touch of diced celery completely works for this recipe – so much so you should add it to the article above under “fixins” or something like that. We also diced some red bell pepper and threw that in.. easy way to up the veggies.
Great job as always.
We thought it was amazing (and so easy to make)
As with many of your recipes we thought how to make it even healthier and I think red peppers and jalapeños diced up would be amazing.
But we loved it We’ll make it again and again!,
It was good. I had to add a splash of broth to the beans because they were dry and burning. I also add salt and pepper to the chicken. I made a home made honey mustard for my child and skipped the Buffalo for his portion. So everyone was happy
Unbelievably delicious! Wow, thoroughly enjoyed this. Very filling and satisfying.
This was just okay for me. Didn’t have a ton of flavor considering the high sodium count. The portion was generous, I couldn’t finish it.
So easy and soooo good!
Can this meal be frozen after it’s cooked?
I’ve been making a lot of meal prep bowls and things – and freezing them. This should freeze well. The scallions will wilt when frozen. Leave them out or don’t worry about it. They’ll still taste fine.
Could I barbeque the chicken breasts, cut into bite size pieces and then cover in the hot sauce? Thanks!
I think that would be amazing!!
I made this for the first time tonight for lunch for the week. My husband tasted it and we both loved it so much, we ended up eating it for supper. Very easy to make and delicious. Can’t wait to try other recipes.
Made this for dinner tonight and it was absolutely delicious. I’ll be adding these bowls in to regular rotation. *Followed the recipe except I used a brown wild rice blend.
Great!!
Making this now and excited to try! Noticed that chili powder is in video but not in recipe. How much? Also. Paprika is listed as an ingredient but not in the directions. Thanks!
If you want to add, you can add 1/4 teaspoon but I omitted because it didn’t make a difference.
I made this tonight for dinner…I was so happy how good it turned out! I made it exactly and it was soooooooooo good!!!!! Definitely making this again! YUMMMMM
I just made this as part of my meal prep for the week. It looks delicious, I can’t wait for dinner tomorrow!
We did this for lunch yesterday. It was quick and easy. We also noted it would be easy to swap out the sauce if Buffalo isn’t your jam (like my husband).
That is what I did for my son. I made him and quick honey mustard.
This was very good but the hot sauce was a little too much for me.
Could i offset with low fat sour cream or ranch to reduce the heat?
Any other suggestions would be appreciated
Sure
My daughter is a huge fan of all things buffalo flavored so I knew we had to try this one. It was a hit with the whole house! We made exactly as directed and loved it.
Perfect!
This recipe is for sure a KEEPER! Easy, healthy and very flavorful! Way to go!
I’ve enjoyed your recipes for quite some time now but now am using them as I am back doing WW, although the ‘Old Weight Watchers ‘ from 2009. My question…when I put the calories, fat and fibre into the Healthi app it comes out as 10 points and not 6 as you have noted. Am I doing something wrong?
Really good recipe and my husband also enjoyed it..thank you!
I think chicken had points in 2009 but now chicken breast is 0. I would think that’s why.
I would argue letting chicken touch a heat source without seasoning is a bit of a cardinal cooking sin. I recommend getting at least a hearty pinch of salt on your chicken before the pan here.
The rice and bean mixture is tasty, but the rest of the dish is a bit bland. I would heavily modify the chicken strategy here before cooking again. Salting the chicken first for sure, and perhaps getting a bit of the rub from the bean step on it. I also think buffalo could be replaced with basic cayenne or Cholula to just go full-send on the Central America vibe. And while I know we’re going “skinny,” thigh works better here and is very little caloric difference, while also having better nutrients in some categories.
Feel free to alter to your taste, since hot sauce is high is sodium, I didn’t want to add more salt as it didn’t need it.
Just made the franks Chicken, black Bean and Brown Rice Bowl. AWESOME!l I will surely make it again. I did my own black beans (from dry) in the instant pot. Brown rice In Instant Pot. I only had Chili Lime Franks sauce……perfect! Thank you! Lila Gattinger
How much chili powder?
You can add 1/4 tsp.
Quick, easy and good!
Mr. Picky at my house loves this! Really good!!
This was awesome! I made my own Buffalo chicken sauce which was very easy. Rather than cooking the onions, I made some pickled onions and also added some wilted spinach. Otherwise exactly as described. It is definitely a keeper and looking forward to the next time we have it!!
Made this for dinner tonight and it is really delicious! Perfectly balanced flavors. I followed the recipe exactly although we did add a little crumbled blue cheese on top. I will definitely make this again.
This looks delicious. Will it freeze well? I would love to make a bunch of them and put them in the freezer for future meals.
Not sure, let us know if you try it!
Am I missing something? I can’t find the recipe for the Buffalo Sauce anywhere. I know it says butter, garlic powder and Frank’s Red Hot but how much of each?
This was so delicious and such an easy recipe for meal prep. I ended up with 5 servings from this meal but you could have 4 very hearty portions as well. My new years resolution was to do more meal prepping so this was perfect. Next time will probably use a bit less buffalo sauce!
Sounds good except for the buffalo sauce….too spicy for my husband. Any suggestions I can use in its place?
Try BBQ sauce
I would like to use chicken tenderloins instead of breasts and I’m wondering how many I should use! Any suggestions?
Wonderful! Where can I get the glass storage containers that can go fridge to micro? Thanks for all the amazing recipes!!!
I just added the link in the recipe card.
Looks amazing but I’m just not a fan of spice. Is there any thing I can add to the buffalo sauce to tame it down?
You can do half buffalo half BBQ sauce
Could I substitute zoodles for the brown rice?
Does the blue dot 6 mean 6 Weight Watcher points?
Yes, and if you click on the orange WW personal points box on the recipe, you can see exactly where all the points come from, and make any adjustments. I Love that! That way I can lower my points if I want to switch any ingredients. Thank you Gina for doing this!!!!
Can’t wait to try this. Just as a “buffalo chicken snob” that I think it needs some blue cheese. I will probably sub reduced fat blue cheese for the cheddar, and add some finely diced celery for some freshness and crunch.
go for it!
Do you know if there is a way to see the WW points in Canada? This links to the US website and I’m not sure how to see it without creating the whole recipe as an entry in WW.
Do you see the points in the blue circle? It’s 6. I add points now!
How much chili powder do you use? Don’t see it here. Thanks!
There’s no chili powder in this recipe.
I had the same question. She said no chili powder. She deleted it from the directions
Making this recipe now and I think it will be delicious! I did want to let you know that the instructions say to add chili powder but it is not listed as an ingredient.
Yes, so sorry I omitted it! So glad you like it!!
The directions say to add chili powder but so don’t see it in the ingredients. How much chili powder do we add? Also is just Franks red hot sauce ok or does it have to be Buffalo sauce?
Sorry about that, I omitted the chili powder and I just used Franks Hot Sauce.
Looks good – I’m pescatarian so I might try this with shrimp or tofu!
Hi there! Excited to make this but was also hoping to try your homemade sauce. I believe your link is set to go to another recipe where you suggest to use Franks. Or maybe I’m missing it somewhere? Thank you! Love your site.
I just use Franks!
These look great! I would add some chopped celery or cucumber after heating for some crunch.