Black bean avocado chicken bowls

Packed with fiber and protein, these Black Bean Avocado Chicken Bowls are a fast and simple healthy meal prep-friendly lunch that you can put together in no time. They are not only tasty and filling but are also among our favorite low-GI recipes, solid for keeping your blood sugar stable.

These Black Bean Avocado Chicken Bowls are especially fast when you use leftover or pre-cooked chicken. We used our already cooked spicy garlic chicken bites to make them last time, and it took us no more than 15 minutes to assemble a balanced, healthy meal for lunch. As you can tell we're proud of that one. Give us that Oscar, already.

Black Bean Avocado Chicken Bowls

Can’t believe it, but we first named these Green Goddess Chicken Bowls…we are officially a hippie. And also, this perfectly describes this chicken recipe – it’s full of greens, tasty, gluten-free, dairy-free, simple to meal prep and to make low carb (simply leave out the beans!).

We don’t know who the Goddess is, but it sounds better than Green Medusa Chicken Bowls, we're telling you. Those titles always remind us of spending hours with our mom in a car. She loves Greek mythology and loves talking about it. We know, like, nothing about Greek or any mythology and our attention always goes away somewhere when she’s telling us those stories. We usually think about what we're gonna eat for lunch or dinner. Which reminds us – Black Bean Avocado Chicken Bowls.

Surprisingly, this is what we crave now that it’s colder and there aren’t plenty of fresh vegetables around. We found myself starving for salads a week ago. Like, actually, craving a salad. And we made this. We used all the greens we had – which was lettuce, broccoli and arugula and then added some fresh cilantro. So satisfying and such a needed change from all those hot meals.

What Goes Into These Black Bean Avocado Chicken Bowls

Leafy Greens. Use whatever you have. Sometimes we do a base of lettuce and arugula, other times it might be spinach or cabbage – whatever you like. Leafy greens are packed with antioxidants and fiber, water and surprisingly – protein. This makes them the solid base for our bowls!

Cooked Chicken. You can either use the chicken recipe in the notes of the recipe card, or add whatever type of cooked chicken you have. Rotisserie or grilled chicken work too. As mentioned, this time we used the spicy garlic chicken bites.

Avocado. You want a good ripe avocado.

Black Beans. Originally, we made these with canned black beans. But last time we had cooked some giant beans two days before and this is why they look huge in the photos.

Sauteed Broccoli or Cauliflower. Either is fine, be sure to not overcook, so that the veggoes can keep some of their crunch.

Olives and optional toppings. We like both green and Kalamata olives and we added some peppers for crunch and extra vitamin C.

Your Favorite Sauce. You can use any dressing, sauce or dip you like! We usually like tzatziki with everything, but this is entirely up to you!

Sauces

We don’t know what we were thinking the first time we made these, but we had decided to make a mustard-based dressing. It was actually good. You can also try this avocado dill sauce, this garlic yogurt dill sauce, the spicy dressing from this salad, or add some hummus.

with broccoli, canned black beans, and the mustard-based sauce from the notes in the recipe card.with spicy chicken bites, Kalamata olives, cauliflower, chopped peppers and garlic dill sauce

So whatever sauce, dip or spread you like – these can handle it.

If you want to make this chicken recipe low-carb or paleo, you easily can. Simply add more olives and skip the beans. Use this low carb hummus, if you decide to make this with hummus (which we think you should, but it will take more time!) and you’re done.

Meal Prep

This recipe makes 3 lunch bowls. We know, so not-typical for us to make a recipe for three – us, myself and I. Also we tried serving this to others too, they liked it, but we want to stay humble.

So to meal prep, keep ingredients in separate containers and the dressing / sauces separately.

Years Ago…

We've been needing someone to hold things for us when we take food photos. It’s been tough holding these lentil wraps with one hand while shooting the picture with our other hand. We don’t know why we always think of the dirtiest jokes, when we say something about someone only using one hand for something. Okay, let’s make this kid-friendly and non-disgusting.

So we finally found a hand model to help us out. It’s our 2-year-old nephew. He’s the solid assistant – he’s pointing at special ingredients he likes about the recipe, gives us advice and also feeds us olives off the plate we're trying to photograph while being extremely hungry. We're hoping to teach him how to wash the dishes after we’ve mastered doing our laundry and hair.

Originally published in October 2019, last updated in December 2025.

• Yield: 3
• Prep: 10 minutes
• Cook: 10 minutes
• Total: 20 minutes

Ingredients

• 1 pound/450g cooked chicken
• 2/3 cup black beans, canned, rinsed and drained
• 1 1/2 avocado, chopped
• 1/2 cup Kalamata or green Spanish olives
• 2 cups broccoli florets
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tsp crushed red pepper
• 1 tsp oregano

Salad base

• 1 cup arugula
• 3 cups lettuce (or a mix of spinach and lettuce)
• 1 scallion, finely chopped
• 3 cilantro sprigs, chopped (or other herbs)

Method

1. Stir-fry the broccoli or cauliflower florets with some olive oil and a bit of crushed red pepper and oregano (optional) for a few minutes.
2. For the salad, mix the greens with scallions and a little bit of lemon juice and salt.
3. Prepare the sauce (see notes for options).
4. Rinse and drain the black beans, the olives, chop lettuce, arugula and cilantro (or dill and spinach - whatever you have).
5. Arrange the bowls with the salad on the bottom, then olives, beans, chicken, broccoli, and sauces on top.
6. Serve immediately or...
7. Make ahead for the next few days by keeping individual ingredients separate and do not add the dressing/sauces yet.

Notes

Chicken: The chicken recipe you see in the photo is for these garlic chicken bites.

Originally in 2019, this is the chicken we made: Marinate 1 pound/ 450g chopped chicken with 1 tsp coriander, 1 tsp cumin, 1 tsp crushed red pepper, 1 tsp black pepper, salt and olive oil for 30 minutes. Or if you don't have time - just rub the chicken with the spices and cook it at medium-high, stirring until it's done (around 10 mins).

Next time we make these bowls, we'll use this avocado dill sauce, garlic dill yogurt sauce or hummus, and we highly recommend you try it as well.

If you'd like to make the original dairy-free mustard-based dressing we made:

Mix 1 tbsp cashew butter, 1 tsp vinegar, 1 tsp mustard, 3 tsp water, 1 minced garlic clove, 1 Tbsp chopped cilantro, salt and black pepper to taste.

For a low-carb/paleo version, use no black beans and more olives and make this paleo low carb hummus.