If you’re like me, your meal planning evolves with the seasons. Even though we live in a motorhome and you might think that we grill all the time in the campground, I rarely used our grills this winter. Instead, I cooked a lot of one-pot meals on the stove and in the Instant Pot.
Since the days are getting longer and the weather is much nicer to be outside in the evenings, I’m using our grills to cook outside a lot more. But grilling takes time. When you travel full-time, it takes time to pull out and set up the grill. And, of course, more time for it to come to temperature. So while I enjoy grilling at this time of the year, it’s not always practical if we’ve had a long travel day or been out on a long day’s adventure.
Not only does our meal planning evolve with the seasons, so does our travel pace. In the winter, when you’re limited to how many places in the country you can be and enjoy warm days, we tend to slow our pace and stay in a single location for a longer period of time. With the arrival of spring, we have been moving at a little faster pace. Not only are we changing our home’s location more frequently; we are out exploring more as well.
Our plans for this summer have us going to places that we have never been to. I know that will come with less time for me to spend in the kitchen. We have also been trying to watch our budget and eat out a little less frequently. With all of these things in mind, I started thinking about meals that could be prepared in advance and eaten cold or at room temperature. I wanted these things to pack a full meal into one dish with protein and complex carbohydrates, and vegetables. And, of course, I wanted the dish to be something that we would actually enjoy eating. I hope that you’ll enjoy it too!
Mexican Chicken Rice Salad
This salad makes a great lunch or dinner for weekend camping trips, travel days, adventure days, or just to change up your weekly meal prep. Full of flavor, gluten free, and easily adapted by leaving out the chicken and adding some additional beans for vegetarians/vegans, this salad is great for almost everyone! We ate it on its own in a bowl for one meal and with a few tortilla chips for a little extra crunch another day.
- 2 cups White or Brown Rice (leftover or cooked & cooled)
- 2 cups Chicken Breasts (cooked from rotisserie chicken, poached, or grilled, cut or shredded)
- 1 can Black Beans (15 ounce, drained and rinsed)
- 1 1/2 cup Corn (fresh cooked or frozen (thawed and drained))
- 1 large Tomato (seeded and chopped (about 1 cup))
- 1 small Red Onion (diced (about 1 cup))
- 1 Jalapeno Pepper (seeded and diced)
- 1 Bell Pepper (diced (yellow, red, or orange))
- 1/2 cup Sliced Green Olives with Pimiento
- 1/2 cup Cilantro (chopped fresh, plus some for serving)
- 1/4 cup Olive Oil
- 2 Limes (juiced)
- 1 tbsp Chili Powder
- 2 tsp Cumin (ground)
- 1 tsp Kosher Salt
- 1/2 tsp Crushed Red Pepper
- 1/4 tsp Garlic Powder
- 1/4 tsp Onion Powder
- 1/2 tsp Oregano
- 1/2 tsp Smoked Paprika
- 1/2 tsp Black Pepper (ground)
- 1 Avocado (diced (optional))
- 1/3 cup Cotija Cheese (crumbled (optional))
- 1-2 tsp Cholula Hot Sauce ((optional))
Place rice, chicken, black beans, corn, tomato, red onion, jalapeno, bell pepper, cilantro, and green olives in a large bowl.
In a separate bowl, stir together olive oil, lime juice, all spices, salt, and pepper.
Pour the olive oil and spice blend over the other ingredients and gently fold ingredient together from the bottom to the top taking care not to mash the ingredients.
Serve topped with avocado, cotija, cilantro, and cholula hot sauce.
