Healthy Chicken Taco Bake (Easy One Dish with Mexican Flavours)

An amazingly easy delicious chicken bake made with Mexican flavours and plenty of juicy, saucy black beans and veggies. This oven baked one dish recipe only needs minimal prep time and your oven does the hard work!

Why You’ll Love This Healthy Chicken Taco Bake

There are some days where you want to act like a pro chef…and there are other days when you need to get a meal on the table, stat. But you still want it to be dang tasty and tick all the boxes! Here’s why this healthy chicken taco bake ticks all the boxes:

• Prep this recipe in ten minutes and then let the oven do it all. Besides slice some onion and capsicum there’s really not much to do at all here.
• Take advantage of pantry staples. This recipe leans on long-life pantry items including tinned tomatoes, tinned beans and taco seasoning.
• Quality lean protein and tonnes of veggies. Simple and nutritious, it really is possible, this recipe provides both animal and plant based protein, plus fibre and antioxidants – it’s a win all round!
• It’s healthy, yes – but it’s also a bit of fun. Top this dish off with melted cheese and if you really want to go all out, tuck some of your favourite tortilla chips around the edges. You won’t regret it!

Ingredients Needed for A One-Dish Chicken Taco Bake

• Skinless chicken breast or chicken thigh meat. Chicken thigh tends to stay a little more juicy when you bake it, though chicken breast is a slightly leaner cut and will give you bigger, chunkier pieces. Either work!
• Capsicum
• Onion
• Grated cheese (tasty or cheddar are what I usually use)
• Canned black beans or 3 bean mix (okay, or 4 bean mix since that seems to be a thing as well?!)
• Canned tomatoes (diced tomatoes, not whole)
• Your favourite taco seasoning
• Salt and pepper
• Extra virgin olive oil
• Tortilla chips or corn chips for serving, optional (but also, kind of essential?!)

How to Serve this Chicken Taco Bake for a Perfectly Balanced Meal

Serve with brown rice and avocado. This is a very saucy, beany dish so the rice is perfect to soak it all up.

A wholesome, balanced and nourishing bowl that is delicious and comforting too.

How to Make Chicken Taco Bake in One Dish

Step 1. Preheat the oven to 180C. Finely dice the onion and capsicum. It is important to finely slice these items as the cooking time isn’t super long, and you want the vegetables to be tender at the end – no one likes a big raw chunk of onion!

Step 2. Drain and rinse the canned bean mix. Add the bean mix, sliced veggies, canned tomatoes and seasoning to a large baking dish and combine. Season with salt and pepper.

Step 3. Add the chicken to the baking dish and spoon some of the mixture over the top to cover the chicken. Cover the whole dish with foil, and bake for approximately 20 minutes.

Step 4. Remove the dish carefully from the oven and discard the foil. Sprinkle over a generous amount of cheese and return to the oven for approximately 10 minutes or until the cheese has melted, the chicken is cooked through and the vegetables tender.

Step 5. Serve that chicken piping hot – ladle over some brown rice and tuck in a few tortilla chips. Top with a chunk of avocado.

Tips for Freezing and Storing Chicken Taco Bake

You can absolutely freeze this chicken taco bake, it’s got a lot of sauce so it won’t dry out. Simply pop into a freezer safe container and it will keep for up to three months. The only part that doesn’t freeze well is tortilla chips – please only add them right before you want to eat!

If you’re simply saving it for a few days, leftovers can be stored in the fridge for up to three days.

Ingredient Substitutions for Taco Baked Chicken

This is a really simple recipe that mostly relies on pantry staples like tinned tomatoes and dried seasonings so hopefully you won’t need to make too many ingredient substitutions. However a couple of quick tips:

• Any canned beans will work in this recipe – so if you don’t have black beans or a bean mix, you can add in chickpeas, lentils, butter beans, white beans, whatever;
• You can throw in some extra vegetables if you want – diced zucchini would be my pick;
• You can use a vegan cheese if you need to keep this recipe dairy-free.

Let me know if you make this dish and leave me a comment with your feedback, suggestions and swaps if you make any! Or, take a snap and tag me on Instagram, I’m @nourish.everyday!

If you love this chicken recipe you may also like:

• Roast Chicken with Pumpkin, Sage and Red Onion
• Simple Mediterranean Fish Tray Bake with Vegetables
• Lemon, Chilli & Garlic Roast Chicken
• Slow Cooker Soy Braised Chicken Thighs