These Sweet Chili Chicken Meal Prep Bowls are a delicious make-ahead lunch idea. Serve with jasmine rice and your choice of toppings!
Ingredients and substitutions
Chicken
- Chicken breasts – boneless skinless chicken thighs would also be good in this recipe.
- Egg – use a bit of milk instead to help the cornstarch stick to the chicken.
- Cornstarch – potato starch, arrowroot or flour would also help coat the chicken.
- Olive oil – or any other neutral cooking oil like canola or grapeseed oil.
- Salt – to taste.
- Sweet chili sauce – a mixture of hot sauce and honey will provide a similar flavour.
- Sriracha – Sambal Oelek would be a good substitute here or you can leave it out entirely.
Rice and veggies
- Jasmine rice – substitute for any type of rice or rice noodles. Leave this out altogether for a low-carb option.
- Olive oil – or any other neutral cooking oil like canola or grapeseed oil.
- Matchstick carrots – feel free to substitute for another julienned veggie of your choice like cucumber.
- Red pepper – use any colour bell pepper or another veggie of your choice.
- Shredded red cabbage – swap out for another veggie like raw lettuce instead.
- Soy sauce – coconut aminos or tamari are the best substitutes for soy sauce.
How to make sweet chili chicken
Step 1: Coat the chicken in cornstarch.
Step 2: Sauté the chicken.
Cook the chicken until browned.
Step 3: Make the rice.
While the chicken is browning, cook the rice in a rice cooker or in a pot on the stovetop.
Step 4: Toss the chicken in the sauce.
Add the sweet chili sauce and sriracha to the pan with the chicken, and cook until the chicken is fully cooked.
Step 5: Sauté the veggies.
Remove the chicken from the pan, then sauté the carrots, red pepper and red cabbage with the soy sauce until cooked through.
Step 6: Assemble your bowls.
Divide the rice amongst the meal prep bowls. Top with the sautéed veggies, then add the chicken and any toppings of your choice.
Variations of these meal prep bowls
Customize these sweet chili chicken meal prep bowls to your liking! Here are some customization options:
- Protein: Swap out the chicken breast for chicken thighs, shrimp or tofu.
- Vegetables: Add in any veggies of your choice like cucumber, zucchini, mushrooms, bok choy and more.
- Rice: Substitute the Jasmine rice for brown rice or even cauliflower rice for a low-carb option.
Frequently Asked Questions
This recipe doesn’t require marinating the chicken. Just brown the chicken then add in the sauce and it’ll be plenty flavourful already! That being said, you can definitely marinate it if you want to.
I like serving this sweet chili chicken with some Jasmine rice but you can use any kind of rice you want (like white or brown rice) or even rice noodles. It would also taste good on its own for a low-carb option.
These meal prep bowls would be delicious with shrimp instead of chicken! Just keep in mind that the shrimp won't need to cook for as long – cook until the shrimp are no longer translucent. Shrimp also doesn't last in the fridge as long as chicken, so you should plan to eat your meal prep bowls within 3 days.
Definitely! You can swap out the chicken breasts for pretty much any protein of your choice like boneless skinless chicken thighs, shrimp or tofu.
You can enjoy these bowls cold or pop them in the microwave for 1 to 2 minutes. I'd suggest sprinkling some water over top before microwaving to ensure the chicken and rice don't dry out.
Storing and reheating
You can store these sweet chili chicken bowls in the fridge for up to 5 days. To reheat, sprinkle some water overtop so that the chicken doesn't dry out, then microwave for 2 to 3 minutes. You can also leave the toppings off and add them fresh after reheating to ensure an extra bit of crunch, but that's optional.
Freezing this recipe
You can freeze the rice and chicken separately, but unfortunately, the veggies won't hold up in the freezer as they’ll get soggy when they defrost. Freeze the chicken and rice for up to 3 months in airtight glass containers. Defrost in the fridge overnight then reheat as per the instructions above.
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More chicken meal prep recipes
Meal Prep Tools
- A rice cooker makes meal prep so much easier! This is the one I use.
- Get your square glass meal prep bowls here.
- Here's the sweet chili sauce I use.
- And of course I get all my free-range chicken breasts from Butcher Box.
- If you run out of sriracha, buy some here.
- **Get my full list of tools here**
Sweet Chili Chicken Meal Prep Bowls
Ingredients
Chicken
- 1 lb chicken breasts, cubed
- 1/3 cup cornstarch
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 pinch salt
- 3/4 cup sweet chili sauce
- 1 tbsp Sriracha
Jasmine rice
- 1 1/4 cups water
- 1 cup jasmine rice
- 1 tsp butter
- 1 pinch salt
Vegetables
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 cup matchstick carrots
- 1 red pepper, sliced
- 1 cup Shredded red cabbage
- 1 tbsp soy sauce
Topping ideas (all of these are optional to top your bowls with after)
- 1/2 cup bean sprouts
- 4 scallions, sliced
- 2 tbsp peanut pieces
- 2 tbsp sesame seeds
- 1/2 cup cilantro, chopped
Instructions
- In a large bowl, mix chicken with cornstarch. Heat 1 tbsp olive oil in a large skillet over med-high heat. Add chicken and season with salt, then saute for 5-6 min until browned. Add sweet chili sauce and sriracha and cook another 3-4 min until chicken is fully cooked.
- Meanwhile, cook jasmine rice according to package directions on the stove or in a rice cooker.
- Remove chicken from pan and move to a bowl, setting aside. Add another tbsp olive oil and sautee carrots, red pepper and red cabbage together with soy sauce for 5 minutes until cooked through.
- Divide rice among four glass meal prep bowls and top with veggie mixture. Add chicken and your choice of optional toppings. Serve and enjoy!
Comments & Reviews
Miranda says
Did your recipe used to have an egg in it? This is one of my favorite recipes and I always mix an egg in with the cornstarch to coat the chicken in.
Taylor Stinson says
Hi Miranda! Yes it did, but I’ve found after making this recipe several times that it doesn’t need it and actually doesn’t help the breading stick better. I’ve updated the recipe to include one less ingredient, cut down on the prep time and in my opinion, make the recipe better.
Toad says
So good! I personally don’t find all Sweet Chilli Sauces the same. Most like VH are really one note, and very sweet. If I’m in a generic grocery store I tend to grab Blue Dragon’s. It has a good tang to it.
Thanks again for the tasty recipe!
Taylor Stinson says
I’m so happy you enjoyed!
Christina says
I made this with the VH Sweet Chili Thai sauce and it turned out delicious! I’m not fond of cabbage so I used extra bell pepper, matchstick carrots, and bean sprouts to make up for that. Some of the directions were a little tricky to follow (the video calls for breadcrumbs but the directions don’t, and there’s no direction on how long to sauté the veggies for so I guessed). Makes a lot and quite filling. Next time I think I’ll make a little more rice and stretch it to 5-6 servings instead of 4. I’ll definitely make this again in the future for my meal prep rotation.
Taylor Stinson says
Hi Christina – so happy you enjoyed! I just added timing to the veggies, my apologies for that omission. The video needs updating as the recipe was retested and reshot recently but the print recipe as published is correct.
Emily brobeck says
Could you use shrimp instead of chicken? If so.. what would you change?
Taylor Stinson says
Hi Emily – you can totally do shrimp! I wouldn’t bread it, and shrimp will cook up in 2-3 minutes so be sure to adjust the cooking time there. Hope that helps!