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Tender, spicy bites of chicken are tossed with fresh sauteed vegetables and plenty of Mexican spices to create this easy skillet meal.
Southwest Chicken Skillet
While it isn’t a time-intensive recipe, I like to cook this at night, or on the weekend, and reheat through the week for easy lunches. We typically serve this southwest chicken skillet over rice or tucked into warm tortillas.
A squeeze of lime keeps the flavors here fresh, along with a sprinkling of cilantro. My kids like a dollop or sour cream or maybe some extra cheese in their tacos and sometimes a bit of hot sauce for heat.
The key to stress-free stir-fry recipes is prepping every ingredient before you begin cooking. Make sure that all of the ingredients are lined up next to the stove before you turn on the heat. The bulk of the prep time for this recipe is spent slicing and dicing the meat and vegetables, so give yourself about 20 minutes for prep time.
Once everything is assembled and ready to cook, the actual cooking time is just a few minutes. And if you plan to serve this with rice, start the rice cooking before you prep the ingredients for this recipe.
Easy Skillet Meals
My favorite stir-fries are salty, savory, sweet, and just a little bit spicy. And this ground beef and broccoli stir fry nails all of those things.
Juicy, salty kielbasa sausage and tender-crisp cabbage is a match made in food heaven. With the addition of some chopped onions and garlic, this sausage stir fry becomes a simple one-pan dinner the whole family loves.
This stir fry chicken with zucchini is an easy Asian-inspired dinner that delivers a whole lot of great flavor. Served on its own or over rice or noodles, this is a meal that always satisfies.
Thinly sliced flank steak in a garlicky ginger sauce makes for a delicious weeknight steak and pepper stir fry. While tender chunks of savory chicken dance with crisp green beans in a sauce that’s the perfect blend of savory and spice in this chicken and green beans stir fry.
Every bite of this shrimp and zucchini stir fry is pure shrimp-loving heaven – and you can make it start to finish in under 15 minutes. Garlic butter shrimp is one of my top 5 favorite foods. So naturally, when I had the idea to pair some shrimp with perfectly tender-crisp zucchini and toss it in a mouthwatering lemon garlic butter sauce, that had to happen immediately.
Tender broccoli florets and chunks of spicy sausage are scattered through every bite of this hearty, satisfying broccoli sausage pasta. When you’re craving pasta comfort food, but still want to enjoy a generous serving of vegetables (without messing around with a salad), this is the answer.
Southwest Chicken with Corn and Zucchini
Ingredients
Chicken Ingredients
- 1½ pounds boneless skinless chicken thighs or breasts cut into ½-inch wide strips
- 2 teaspoons light olive oil divided
- 1½ tablespoons chili powder
- 1½ teaspoons cumin
- ¾ teaspoon kosher salt
- ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- ½ teaspoon smoked paprika
- ¼ teaspoon oregano leaves
- ¼ teaspoon granulated garlic or garlic powder
- ¼ teaspoon granulated onion or onion powder
- ⅛ teaspoon red pepper flakes
Vegetable Ingredients
- 1½ pounds Italian zucchini sliced very thin, approximately ⅛-inch, about 4 cups
- 1 cup fresh or frozen corn
- 1 large red pepper sliced into thin matchsticks, about 1 cup
- 2 garlic cloves minced
- ½ teaspoon chili powder
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 1 large lime about 2 tbsps fresh lime juice
- 2 tablespoons fresh cilantro chopped
- 2-3 tablespoons cotija cheese crumbled (optional)
Instructions
- Place the chicken in a medium-size bowl. Drizzle with 1 tsp of oil. Sprinkle with chili powder, cumin, salt, black pepper, paprika, oregano, garlic, onion, and red pepper.
- Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add 1 tsp oil to the skillet. Add the chicken and toss to coat. Cook for 3-4 minutes, constantly stirring, until the chicken has browned and is cooked through. Transfer the cooked chicken to a plate and tent with foil to keep warm.
- Add the zucchini, peppers, corn, and garlic to the empty skillet. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Continue cooking over medium-high heat, stirring frequently, until the zucchini and the peppers wilt just slightly and everything is warm, about 4 minutes.
- Add the chicken back to the skillet. Add the lime juice and scrape all the browned bits off the bottom of the skillet, stirring and mixing the juices over the chicken and vegetables. Remove from the heat. Sprinkle cilantro and cotija over the skillet, if desired.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
