Bang Bang Chicken Bowls make a quick and easy weeknight dinner. Flavorful marinated chicken and rice are topped with a sweet and spicy homemade bang bang sauce and crunchy fresh veggies, like cabbage, cucumbers, and green onions for a hearty and satisfying meal all in one bowl!

A white bowl of a serving of Bang bang chicken.

The hardest part of this recipe is waiting for your chicken to marinate! Ha. But seriously, if you’re looking for a healthy-ish meal prep recipe, you’ll love these Bang Bang Chicken and Rice Bowls.

Easy Meal Prep Recipe

One of the best parts about making bang bang chicken is that all of the prep work can be done ahead of time, even up to a day or two ahead of time, then when it’s time to do the cooking, dinner is on the table in no time flat.

There are 2 secrets that make this recipe amazing.

A piece of chicken is taken from the bowl with a fork.

#1 The marinade. It makes your chicken so juicy and flavorful.

# 2 Is the homemade bang bang sauce. If you’ve never had bang bang sauce before, let me tell you, even though it’s only 3 ingredients it’s a real stunner. Creamy, sweet, savory, spicy! You’ll find yourself putting it on everything! It obviously tastes great on chicken but it also pairs well with salmon and shrimp. Feel free to switch up your protein and toppings and bam, you’ve got a whole new meal!

These bang bang bowls might look simply like chicken, rice, and veggies, but when you get all the bits and pieces put together, its really wonderful!

A hand holding a fork, takes a bite of chicken and rice from the bowl.

I like to add the bang bang sauce to my bowls last. This allows each person to adjust to their tastes, if you like spicy, then add a lot. If you want it to be less spicy or for your serving to be a bit lower calories, add less. It also ensures that if you’re meal prepping you have plenty of sauce for each serving and that your leftovers don’t get all dried out! I hate it when that happens.

Here’s what you’ll need to make your bang bang bowls:

The ingredients are separated out into individual glass bowls.

For the sauce:

Mayonnaise
Sweet Chili sauce
Sriracha sauce

For the Chicken:

Chicken breasts
¼ cup water or chicken broth
2 Tablespoons soy sauce
1 Tablespoon brown sugar
1 Tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon onion powder
½ teaspoon ginger
½ teaspoon black pepper
½ teaspoon rice vinegar
¼ teaspoon red chili flakes
Salt if needed

Additional Ingredients for the bowls:

Rice (white rice, brown rice or even riced cauliflower work well for this dish)
Shredded cabbage
Sliced Cucumber
Sliced spring onions
Other topping ideas include:
Chopped cilantro
Sliced avocado
Bean sprouts
Mushrooms
Shredded carrots
Lime juice
Sesame seeds
Chopped Broccoli
Wonton strips
or whatever sounds good to you!

Step by step instructions:

Step 1: Make your bang bang sauce by whisking together the mayonnaise, sweet chili and sriracha sauce. Start with one Tablespoon of Sriracha sauce and then increase to your desired level of spiciness. Remember, you can always add more, but once it’s in you can’t take it back out! If you find you like your sauce a bit sweeter, add just a touch of honey to increase the sweetness. This sauce can be made 3-4 days ahead of time.

The chicken breasts are in a Ziploc bag with the marinade mixture.

Step 2: Add the ingredients for the marinade to a large Ziploc bac and then add the chicken. Seal the bag and turn it over several times to make sure all the pieces of chicken are well coated. Store it in the fridge for at least 20-30 minutes, but up to a day ahead of time.

The cooked chicken is browned and cooked with oil in the skillet.

Step 3: When you’re ready to cook the chicken, heat a tablespoon of olive oil in a large skillet or saute pan over medium heat. Add the chicken breasts to the skillet and cook for about 8 minutes without flipping (5 minutes for thin-cut breasts). Flip the chicken and then cook on the second side until well browned and cooked through (internal temperature of 165ºF).

The complete bang bang chicken bowl is served with all the toppings in a white bowl.

Step 4: Allow the chicken to rest for 3-5 minutes. Then slice each breast across the grain of the meat and assemble the bowls. Rice first, then chicken and veggies, followed by the bang bang sauce.

When storing leftovers, or if you are meal prepping this dish, keep the rice and chicken separate from the veggies and sauce. This will prevent the veggies from becoming limp and soggy when reheating. I like to put the chicken and rice in heat proof container and keep the veggies in a separate Ziploc bag so they stay fresher.

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