The title pretty much says it all. My housemate and I have been dieting (for what feels like forever) and chicken has been our primary protein. It’s cheap and pretty versitile, great for college students like us.
However, we’re running low on recipes. We have a few great ones that I’m afraid we’re growing tired of, one or two “meh” recipes that probably aren’t worth repeating, and a couple taken offline that were immediately shoved back into the internets after trying.
I trust Dopers more than random people on the internets, does anyone here have some good, decently low calorie recipes to share? Something that would be doable by mediocre cooks on a college budget. We’re familiar with spices and have a crockpot, oven, and stove to use. Bonus for low carbs.
Cut a pocket in the breast and stuff it with spinach leaves and feta (maybe tomatoes if you’re feeling randy). Rub it with olive oil and salt+pepper it, then bake for, I dunno, 15 minutes? on 350. Serve with brown rice or, well, just about anything
A wrap that I like to make comes out pretty well. I sautee chicken, bell peppers, and tomatoes in olive oil. When they’re all cooked, I throw in some cilantro and squeeze about a half a lemon into the pan. Wrap it up like that or with lettuce/spinnach and you’ve got a pretty good meal.
For an asian style marinade, some soy sauce and orange juice with ginger and srirachi chilli sauce is dynamite. Works great for a plain ol’ grilled chicken.
Don’t forget chicken fried rice for when you’ve got leftover rice. Make up a marinade of 1/2 mirin and 1/2 soy sauce, then throw in a little sugar. Keep it on low heat for about 5-10 minutes and you’ve got a great teriyaki sauce. Fried rice is very versatile and will take just about anything you throw at it. Personally, I like a little broccoli and bell peppers in mine. I season it with ginger and tamari and it comes out tasting delicious. Just don’t forget the sugar or the butter. They’re critical.
Preheat oven to 350-ish. Place large pot on stove, sautee rice-a-roni bits per package directions. When sauteed, add water & seasoning (per rice-a-roni) and all chicken to pot. Place covered pot in oven for about 30-40 minutes, until chicken is done and water is absorbed. Optionally remove cover for last 10 minutes of cooking.
4 chicken breasts
1 can tomatoes with roasted garlic (I think Hunt’s makes it)
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 box chopped broccoli, thawed
2 cups cooked instant rice
salt
pepper
paprika
garlic powder
olive or vegetable oil
Season chicken breasts and brown on all sides in 1-2 tbs vegetable or olive oil. Set aside. Add tomatoes and soup to skillet, stirring up browned bits. Add broccoli, rice and chicken. Simmer for 10 minutes.
Baked chicken breast are easy to make. Serve with some stir-fried vegetables (broccoli, asparagus, whatever) and little rice, and you’re good to go.
Pound the boneless, skinless breasts so they’re at most 1/2" thick. Season with salt, pepper and rosemary, or your favorite herb(s), place on a baking sheet with a little olive oil. Cook for 6 min/side in a pre-heated 400 deg oven. Do not overcook, or they will be dry.
Stir-fry the vegetables by chopping them into 3" sections. Sautee some garlic for about 30 seconds in olive oil. Add the vegetables, with salt and pepper. Pour in a little water (a tablespoon or two) and cover. Let them steam for no more than 1 min on medium high heat. Remove cover and sitr-fry until the water is gone (about 30-60 seconds. My favorite mixture is equal parts broccolini, asparagus, and scallions. Yummy.
One of my favorite recipes is on my blog - Chicken Basquaise . The title has it listed as a possible repeater - I’ve repeated it multiple times. I also used it as a filling inside tortillas and pitas.
Well, most of my recipes involve chickens that are far from healthy. Dead, even.
Take a Ziploc bag, put in some chicken drumsticks, or wings, or even other parts.
Add a tablespoon of soy sauce, a table spoon of rice wine a teaspoon of sesame oil, a goodly sprinkle of Sesame Seeds, a sprinkle of ground cayenne pepper, and a fairly hefty sprinkle of ground ginger. Adjust the amount of marinade so that every piece of chicken gets covered, but not submerged. Squoosh the air out of the Ziploc, and put it into the refrigerator until you are ready to cook. Before you start the chicken, start some rice, with a pinch of Saffron, and a pinch of salt.
Later, dice a Shallot fairly fine. Heat a fry pan with a touch of sesame oil, add the chicken, reserving the marinade. Cook it hot, until it is crisped all around. Then add the shallot, and as soon as it is beginning to weep, put a top on the pan, and set it on a low temperature. After a few turns of the chicken, put a few tablespoons of water into the Ziploc bag, and dump that into the pan, recover, and let simmer until the sauce thickens just slightly. (it won’t thicken much.)
Serve with the rice. Some steamed veggies with a touch of seasoning is a nice accompaniment.
½ bag baby peeled carrots
8 oz sliced mushrooms
1 15 oz can diced tomatoes
1 15 oz can cannelini beans (white kidney beans)
1 lb boneless skinless chicken breasts or thighs, or boneless pork chops
Salt and pepper
1 tsp poultry seasoning
1 can cream of potato soup (or cream of anything) (you can also add in diced potatoes with the veggies)
2 tbs Dijon mustard
1 tbs tomato paste, or a splash of tomato sauce, or ketchup
3 tbs dry sherry, or any white wine (optional)
Combine carrots, mushrooms, tomatoes and beans in the bottom of a slow cooker. Season with salt and pepper.
Season meat with salt, pepper and poultry seasoning. Place in pot on top of veggies.
In a small bowl, mix together cream soup, Dijon mustard, tomato paste, and sherry. Pour on top of chicken.
Cover and cook on low 6-10 hours. Serve over rice. If sauce is too thin, thicken with a mixture of 2 tbs corn starch and ¼ cup of water.
Bone out the chicken (or buy boneless), cut into strips, and marinade. Then grill with a high-heat/short time method. The advantage of boneless/skinless bits is that everything cooks really fast. Just note that white meat cooks much much faster than dark meat. You should grill in two batches.
Good marinades can be any sort of anything. But mixing it up helps.
Take a cup or two of yogurt, some lemon juice, crushed garlic, ginger, plus indian spices…cumin, turmeric, coriander, cardamom and such. Marinate the chicken for about an hour and grill. Serve with cucumber salad and rice/naan.
Oh, and mango lassi. You can get cans of mango pulp at specialty stores for ~$3.00. Mix a can with a quart of store bought buttermilk. You’re done.
Thanks everyone! A lot of these sound great and right up my alley, I’ll definitely be giving them a try.
Lemur I just made chicken exactly like your recipe this past Monday and I really enjoyed it, it reminded me of chicken tikka masala (my favorite food).
I made these Chicken Soft Tacos from Cooking Light, which came out really good. The idea of eating Granny Smith apples with your chicken and onions may sound strange, but they actually just add a nice hint of tartness without a strong appley flavor. The Cooking Light website is an all-around good resource for you - you can search by ingredient, and most of the recipes are really simple. My super-easy side dish: mix together a can of corn, a can of black beans (drained and rinsed), about 3/4 cup diced red onion, fresh cilantro, salt, pepper and a drizzle of olive oil.
I don’t repeat recipes too often (I like the fun of trying out new stuff) but every so often I crave chicken souvlaki. It’s super simple to make: chop up your chicken breasts into strips or bite-sized chunks and put in a bowl. Squeeze lemon juice and sprinkle oregano, salt and pepper over it, and mix with a clove or two of minced garlic. Marinate for however long you feel like (at least 10 minutes), then brown in a skillet. Serve on pitas with lettuce, onion, etc. You can either put hummus on the pita or make your own super-easy tzatziki: mix together a small container of Greek yogurt (I think they’re something like 5.5-oz), a finely chopped cucumber, a clove or two of minced garlic and some fresh dill.
I nicked this recipe from the detestable (yet very accesible) Jamie Oliver, the basis of which can be used to make loads of different combinations:
1 chicken breast
couple of baby leeks - sliced into 3
handful of spinach
small tin of cannellini beans
half a glass white wine
squeeze of lemon juice
salt
pepper
small crumble of chicken stock
You need to make a packet from tin foil by folding a long length of foil in half (so it’s double thickness) then fold and crimp three sides so you are left with a package sealed on all sides with an open top now mush half the beans in your hand and throw them in with the rest of the ingredients and fold the top over and seal, bake in the oven at about 190 degrees centigrade and serve, it’s almost totally fat free and produces nice fresh flavours with a lovely sauce somewhat thickened by the beans.
You can tweak this recipe by adding anything you like pretty much: torn up mushrooms, sliced chorizo, thinly sliced savoy cabbage etc. I added the stock cube myself as I thought it was a bit too ‘winey’ when I tried it.
The beauty of this is they can be used almost like ready meals, make a load in advance and cook them off together if you have guests (more packages might require extra cooking) or cook them individually for a quick, easy, healthy meal when you can’t be bothered to cook. You could probably freeze them as well.