Chicken, Rice, & Chickpea Bowl with a Zaatar Lemon Dressing

You know what's so funny... I made this dinner with 3 different leftovers. I had the cucumber tomato salad from the night before, the rice from the night before, and the chickpeas boiled 3 days before hand. I grabbed them all out of the fridge and made perfect balanced and nutritious, "Chicken, Rice, & Chickpea Bowl with a Zaatar Lemon Dressing." This is why I encourage you guys to meal prep/make extras.

So you can make quick meals like this one throughout your week! So, if you like the sound of Aleppo peppered chickpeas, sauté chicken breast, mint cucumber tomato salad, basmati rice, arugula, and kalamata olives, let me show you how to make this delicious recipe!

Yields: 1

Prep time: 15 minutes

Total time: 30 minutes

This recipe is dairy free and gluten free.

My vegetarians - opt out on the chicken and add some feta cheese and extra chickpeas.

My vegans - opt out of the chicken and add more chickpeas to the bowl if you'd like! It's always easy to vegan-ize my dishes.

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Ingredients:

1. Chickpeas (boiled or canned is fine - if canned make sure to drain and wash)

2. 1 chicken breast (paillard - flattened with a mallet)

3. 1 cup of cooked basmati rice

4. Handful of arugula

5. 5-6 kalamata olives

6. 1 cucumber

7. 2 plum tomatoes

8. Extra virgin olive oil

9. 2 lemons

10. Salt, black pepper, garlic powder, Aleppo pepper, zaatar

11. 2 cloves of fresh garlic, minced

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Instructions:

1. First, grab a serving bowl and add in a handful of arugula.

2. Grab a saucepan and cook 1 cup of basmati rice. In the saucepan, add in 1 ½ TBSPs of olive oil and the rice. Once you can smell the olive oil add in 1 ½ cups of boiling water. Salt and cover until the rice soaks up the water completely. Don't forget it, it can burn!

3. As you're waiting on the rice, have your chickpeas cooked/ready, your cucumber and tomato finely diced. In a separate bowl: add in the cucumber and tomato. Season with the juice of ½ lemon and ¼ TSP of dried mint. Mix well and leave on the side.

4. Next, grab a small frying pan, drizzle in 1 TBSP of olive oil, and add in ¼ cup of the chickpeas. Season with salt, black pepper, garlic powder, and a ½ TSP of Aleppo pepper. Sauté for 5 minutes on medium-high heat.

5. Now, grab your paillard chicken (seasoned with 1/2 lemon, salt and black pepper on both sides) and a different frying pan. In the frying pan on medium-high heat, add in 2 TBSPs of olive oil and the minced garlic. Once you can smell the garlic, add in chicken. Sauté evenly on both sides. Cook through, make sure the center is completely white. Cover the pan if need be to avoid splatter.

6. Let's put this all together: add on the chicken breast (you can pre-slice it), the sautéd chickpeas, the ¼-½ cup of cooked rice, the cucumber tomato salad, and the kalamata olives. In a small bowl, pour in 2 TBSPs of olive oil, juice of ½ lemon, dash of salt, and ½ TSP zaatar. Mix very well, and pour onto the salad.

7. Enjoy!

When you're salting everything, make sure you are being gentle because since multiple foods are being salted, you don't want it to be too salty of a dinner. Be cautious!

xoxo,

#averagearabgirl