Tarragon chicken with creamy white beans
Tender chicken in a creamy white bean sauce with fresh tarragon.
About 30 min · 375 kcal · 43 g protein per serving
One pan
Instant Pot Mexican shredded chicken with black beans
Spiced chicken breasts cooked in tomato in an Instant Pot or slow cooker, shredded, and folded through black beans with lime. A bowl that suits a family dinner and still works on a small appetite, because the beans and chicken carry the meal and the rice is a measured portion.
By The foodose editorial team. Nutrition calculated from USDA FoodData Central. Checked on paper on 16 October 2026; not yet cooked in a test kitchen or photographed, so the times and yield are estimates. How we develop our recipes
What still needs a real kitchen
- Confirm 200 g chicken breasts reach 74°C after 10 minutes at high pressure and a 10 minute natural release
- Confirm the slow cooker times on LOW and HIGH
- Photograph the finished bowl
- Time
- About 55 min
- estimated
- Serves
- 4
- see below
- Energy
- 520 kcal
- per serving
- Protein
- 51 g
- per serving
Ingredients for 4 servings
Check off ingredients as you go.
Contains milk. Check the labels on packaged ingredients:
- chicken stock. Stock often contains celery, and sometimes gluten or soya; check the label.
- chopped tomatoes. Tinned tomatoes vary in added salt; the sodium figure uses a standard salted tin.
- black beans. The record is for a reduced-salt tin. Standard tins carry more sodium; rinsing removes some of it.
Cooking steps
Mix the cumin, chilli powder, smoked paprika and oregano, and rub half of the mix over the chicken breasts. Slice the onion and the red pepper and grate the garlic.
Pressure cooker: pour the stock into the pot, scatter in the onion, red pepper and garlic, and lay the chicken on top in one layer. Sprinkle over the rest of the spice mix and pour the tomatoes over without stirring. Seal, cook at high pressure for 10 minutes, let the pressure release naturally for 10 minutes, then quick release the rest. The thickest breast should read 74°C.
Cooked when: 74°C / 165°F in the thickest part. A food thermometer is the reliable way to tell.
Slow cooker: layer everything in the same order, cover and cook on LOW for 4 to 5 hours or HIGH for 2 to 3 hours, until the thickest breast reads 74°C.
Cooked when: 74°C / 165°F in the thickest part. A food thermometer is the reliable way to tell.
Lift the chicken onto a board and shred it with two forks. Stir the black beans into the sauce and let it bubble for 5 to 10 minutes, on Sauté in the pressure cooker or with the lid off on HIGH in the slow cooker, until it has thickened. Return the chicken and stir in the lime juice.
Warm the cooked brown rice and the drained sweetcorn. Serve the chicken and beans over the rice with the sweetcorn, a spoonful of the Greek yoghurt and the chopped coriander.
The useful detail
The black beans go in after the chicken is cooked, not before. Tinned beans are already cooked, and ten minutes at pressure or five hours on LOW splits them into a grey paste. Added at the end, they heat through in the minutes the sauce needs to thicken, and the shredded chicken soaks up that sauce as it sits.
Make it work for you
One serving is A quarter of the chicken and beans over 100 g of cooked brown rice, with sweetcorn and yoghurt. You can switch to a smaller portion in the ingredients above; it is three quarters of this, and it contains correspondingly less energy and protein. It is an option, not a goal.
Pinto beans instead of black beans
Softer and creamier. Add them at the same point.
Per serving: about 30 kcal more, about 1 g more protein, about 1 g more fat.
Turkey breast instead of chicken
Leaner and a little drier; shred it into the sauce straight away.
Per serving: about 10 kcal less, about 2 g more protein, about 2 g less fat.
Shredded romaine instead of the rice
A cold, crisp base that makes it a salad bowl. Much lighter in energy.
Per serving: about 115 kcal less, about 2 g less protein, about 1 g less fat.
Estimated nutrition
Per standard serving, calculated from the ingredients above. Nutrition changes with substitutions, brands and how much oil stays in the pan.
Two protein sources in one pot, chicken and black beans, with the beans and sweetcorn bringing most of the fibre.
| Energy | 520 kcal |
|---|---|
| Protein | 51 g |
| Fat | 7 g |
| of which saturates | 1 g |
| Carbohydrate | 65 g |
| of which sugars | 10 g |
| Fibre | 15 g |
| Sodium | 610 mg |
Show calculation notes
Each ingredient’s weight is multiplied by its USDA FoodData Central values per 100 g. The whole recipe is added up and divided by 4. Raw weights are used for meat, fish and vegetables; beans and lentils are drained weights. All of the oil is counted as eaten. Added salt is not included; sodium from stock, bread, cheese and tinned food is.
| Ingredient | Weight used | Source | Energy | Protein |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| chicken breast | 600 g | FDC 171077Chicken, broiler or fryers, breast, skinless, boneless, meat only, raw | 720 kcal | 135.0 g |
| ground cumin | 4 g | FDC 170923Spices, cumin seedFoodData Central records cumin seed; ground cumin is the same seed, milled. | 16 kcal | 0.7 g |
| chilli powder | 5.5 g | FDC 171319Spices, chili powderFoodData Central's chili powder is a seasoning blend that includes salt, which is why its sodium is high. | 15 kcal | 0.7 g |
| smoked paprika | 2.5 g | FDC 171329Spices, paprikaCalculated with FoodData Central's paprika record, which does not separate smoked paprika from sweet. | 6 kcal | 0.3 g |
| dried oregano | 1 g | FDC 171328Spices, oregano, dried | 3 kcal | 0.1 g |
| onion | 150 g | FDC 170000Onions, raw | 60 kcal | 1.7 g |
| red pepper | 150 g | FDC 170108Peppers, sweet, red, raw | 39 kcal | 1.5 g |
| garlic | 10 g | FDC 169230Garlic, raw | 15 kcal | 0.6 g |
| chicken stock | 125 g | FDC 174536Soup, chicken broth, ready-to-serve | 8 kcal | 0.8 g |
| chopped tomatoes | 400 g | FDC 170051Tomatoes, red, ripe, canned, packed in tomato juice | 64 kcal | 3.2 g |
| black beans | 480 g | FDC 175238Beans, black, mature seeds, canned, low sodium | 437 kcal | 28.9 g |
| lime juice | 30 g | FDC 168156Lime juice, raw | 8 kcal | 0.1 g |
| cooked brown rice | 400 g | FDC 169704Rice, brown, long-grain, cooked (Includes foods for USDA's Food Distribution Program) | 492 kcal | 11.0 g |
| sweetcorn | 150 g | FDC 169214Corn, sweet, yellow, canned, whole kernel, drained solids | 101 kcal | 3.4 g |
| Greek yoghurt | 150 g | FDC 170894Yogurt, Greek, plain, nonfat (Includes foods for USDA's Food Distribution Program) | 89 kcal | 15.3 g |
| fresh coriander | 15 g | FDC 169997Coriander (cilantro) leaves, raw | 3 kcal | 0.3 g |
| Whole recipe | Divided by 4 | 2074 kcal | 203.7 g |
Per serving the energy is rounded to the nearest 5 kcal, grams to the nearest whole gram and sodium to the nearest 10 mg. Calculation method 1.0, September 2026. How the calculation works.
Storage and reheating
- In the fridge
- Cool, cover and refrigerate within 2 hours of cooking. Eat within 3 to 4 days. Keep the yoghurt and coriander separate.
- In the freezer
- The FDA chart gives cooked poultry dishes 4 to 6 months in the freezer for best quality. Freeze the chicken and beans in their sauce, without the rice, yoghurt or coriander.
- Reheating
- Reheat until it reaches 74°C / 165°F, steaming hot throughout.
Checked against US Food and Drug Administration, Refrigerator and Freezer Storage Chart, USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service, Leftovers and Food Safety, FoodSafety.gov, Safe Minimum Internal Temperatures and FoodSafety.gov, Cold Food Storage Chart. UK guidance from the Food Standards Agency is shorter, at two days for most leftovers.
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