Remember those green beans we put in the freezer earlier this week?
Now they’re dinner.
These Harvest Chicken & Green Bean Rice Bowls are a simple example of why I like preserving ingredients instead of only preserving finished meals. A portion of frozen green beans, some cooked chicken, rice, and a handful of pantry staples come together in a warm, satisfying bowl.
It’s not complicated.
It’s not fancy.
It’s just a good meal waiting in the freezer.
And that’s exactly what we’re after this September.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- Uses frozen green beans, making it a great follow-up to our Put a Little Back feature.
- A practical way to use leftover or meal-prepped chicken.
- Makes just 2 servings, perfect for a small household.
- Uses inexpensive pantry staples.
- The vegetables, protein, and grain are all in one bowl.
- Easy to customize with whatever vegetables you have available.
- A good example of turning preserved ingredients into an actual meal.
🥣 Build Your Bowl
Base
Cooked brown or white rice.
Protein
Cooked chicken, shredded or chopped.
Vegetables
Frozen green beans, plus optional additional vegetables such as carrots, corn, or bell peppers.
Sauce
A simple savory garlic-soy sauce.
Fresh Finish
Fresh parsley or sliced green onion adds a little brightness.
Optional Toppings
- Sesame seeds
- Sliced green onion
- A small sprinkle of shredded Parmesan
- A squeeze of lemon
Make It Your Own
This is a bowl, not a rulebook.
Use whatever rice you have. Swap the chicken for cooked turkey. Add another vegetable. Change the sauce.
The important part is the basic formula:
Grain + protein + vegetables + sauce = dinner.
Harvest Chicken & Green Bean Rice Bowls
Ingredients
Method
- If you don’t already have cooked rice available, prepare enough for about 1 1/2 cups cooked rice.
- Leftover rice is perfect for this recipe.
- If you’re using refrigerated leftover rice, make sure it has been stored properly and reheat it thoroughly before serving.
- In a small bowl, whisk together the soy sauce, chicken broth or water, honey, rice vinegar or lemon juice, and garlic powder.
- Set aside.
- Heat the olive oil in a 10-inch skillet over medium heat.
- Add the carrots and bell pepper. Cook for about 3–4 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Add the frozen green beans.
- Cook for another 4–5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are hot and tender-crisp.
- If the green beans are already fully cooked from a previous preparation, they only need enough time to heat through.
- Add the cooked chicken to the skillet.
- Sprinkle with the garlic powder, thyme, black pepper, and salt.
- Stir everything together and cook until the chicken is heated through.
- Pour the sauce over the chicken and vegetables.
- Stir gently and cook for another 1–2 minutes, just long enough for the sauce to coat everything.
- Taste and adjust the seasoning if needed.
- Divide the warm rice between two bowls.
- Top each with half of the chicken and vegetable mixture.
- Finish with fresh parsley or green onion and sesame seeds, if desired.
- Serve warm.
Notes
A Very Good Use for Frozen Green Beans
This is exactly why I like freezing vegetables in meal-sized portions. The green beans don’t have to become a recipe all by themselves. They can simply become part of a recipe. On Wednesday, they’re a package in the freezer. On Friday, they’re vegetables in dinner. That’s a pretty good return on a little bit of preservation work.Use What You Have
The basic combination here is chicken, green beans, and rice, but you can easily adjust it.
Swap the Protein
Try:
- Cooked turkey
- Leftover pork
- Rotisserie chicken
- Cooked shrimp
Change the Vegetables
Use what needs to be used.
Try:
- Corn
- Peas
- Broccoli
- Cauliflower
- Zucchini
- Mushrooms
- Extra carrots
- Frozen mixed vegetables
Change the Grain
Rice is inexpensive and versatile, but you could also use:
- Brown rice
- Wild rice blend
- Quinoa
- Barley
- Farro
Or skip the grain and serve the chicken and vegetables over mashed potatoes.
A Simple Sauce Goes a Long Way
You don’t need a complicated sauce to make a good bowl.
The combination of a little low-sodium soy sauce, honey, acid, and garlic gives the chicken and vegetables plenty of flavor without making the meal heavily seasoned.
If you prefer a different direction, try a simple lemon-herb sauce instead.
Or use a spoonful of your favorite prepared sauce from the refrigerator.
This is one of the advantages of bowl meals:
the basic ingredients can stay the same while the flavor changes.
Stretch Every Grocery Dollar
This is a particularly economical meal because several of the ingredients can do double duty.
Cook a little extra chicken for another meal.
Make extra rice and refrigerate or freeze it in useful portions.
Buy green beans when they’re plentiful and preserve some for later.
Use the last carrot or bell pepper in the refrigerator instead of letting it become waste.
You’re not trying to make an elaborate meal from expensive ingredients.
You’re combining inexpensive ingredients that you already know how to use.
Waste Not, Want Not
This recipe is practically designed for leftovers.
Have half a bell pepper?
Use it.
A lonely carrot?
Dice it up.
A little leftover chicken?
Perfect.
Some cooked rice from yesterday?
Even better.
That’s one of my favorite kinds of cooking—looking at what you already have and figuring out how to make it into something worth eating.
Cooking for One or Two
This recipe makes 2 servings, but it’s easy to adjust.
Cooking for one?
Make one bowl and refrigerate the remaining ingredients separately for another meal.
Cooking for two?
Make both bowls and enjoy dinner together.
If you’re planning ahead, you can also prepare the chicken, vegetables, and rice separately and assemble the bowls when you’re ready to eat.
Meal Prep Note
This recipe works especially well as a small meal-prep project.
Prepare the chicken, rice, and vegetables ahead of time and refrigerate them separately.
When you’re ready for dinner, reheat what you need and add the sauce.
You can also portion the cooked components into two meal containers for easy lunches.
The key is keeping the components useful enough that you’re not locked into eating exactly the same meal twice.
Storage & Freezing
Refrigerate leftovers promptly in a covered container.
For best quality, enjoy refrigerated leftovers within 3–4 days.
If you’re using previously frozen green beans, thaw them safely and keep them refrigerated until you’re ready to cook them.
I don’t recommend refreezing the completed rice bowl. Instead, freeze the individual ingredients when appropriate and assemble fresh bowls when you’re ready to eat.
For current food-storage and food-safety recommendations, the USDA’s guidance on Freezing and Food Safety is a useful reference.
Recipe Information
Yield: About 4 cups, 2 servings
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 10 minutes
Total Time: About 20 minutes
Equipment: 10-inch skillet, small mixing bowl
Today’s Harvest, Tomorrow’s Dinner
This bowl is really the whole September preservation idea in miniature.
You bought or harvested the green beans while they were plentiful.
You prepared and froze them.
You labeled them and put them away.
And now you’ve pulled them back out and made dinner.
That’s the point of putting food back.
Not a freezer full of food you never use.
Not a collection of containers that eventually become mystery packages.
Just good ingredients, saved at the right time, ready when you need them.
Today’s harvest really can become tomorrow’s dinner.
