LUNCH! Week 6: Black Beans + Chicken + Jalapeno

Let’s do LUNCH!. With chapters built around three main ingredients, the LUNCH! cookbook demonstrates how to make 10 weeks of exciting lunches (50 recipes in all) with fresh ingredients and healthy variety.

Monday Fish Taco Bowl
Tuesday Chicken Chili Verde with Avocado
Wednesday Chicken Chili Verde with Black Beans and Spicy Slaw
Thursday Kale Salad with Chicken and Roasted Carrots
Friday Crunchy Tuna Salad with Roasted Carrots

This week starts off with a few more Sunday prep tasks than usual—but that’s a good thing! Making these simple recipes will lead to a week when the lunches almost make themselves. You’ll have all your ingredients and elements prepped and waiting for you in the refrigerator, ready to be layered into your bowls. The Chicken Chili Verde is bound to become a repeat in your recipe rotation. All the cooking happens in one pot, and the result is a savory stew that’s just asking to be topped with avocado, yogurt, and pepitas. The base for a crunchy green slaw this week is a creamy, bright, and spicy jalapeño dressing, which I promise is so good you’ll want to make more salads just so you can use it again. If your knife skills are lacking and you can’t cut the jalapeño into small enough pieces, feel free to give the dressing a whirl in a blender or food processor.

Grocery List

Pantry

Avocado oil
2 tablespoons mayonnaise
1 (14-ounce) can black beans, rinsed and drained
2½ cups brown rice
3/4 cup pepitas
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1 (5-ounce) can olive oil–packed tuna

Produce

5 garlic cloves
3 limes
5 jalapeños
1 pound tomatillos
1 small white onion
1 poblano pepper
1 bunch cilantro
1 small head green cabbage
1 bunch scallions
4 large carrots
1 ripe avocado
4 radishes
1 (5-ounce) container baby kale

Dairy

½ cup full-fat Greek yogurt
2 tablespoons butter

Meat

5 bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs (about 1½ pounds)
1 (¼ pound) fillet firm white fish (halibut, cod, or sea bass)