2 Easy, Healthy, and Tasty Chicken Recipes
- 4 Minutes Read
- Jul 12, 2016
Instead of spending a ton of money on take-out and restaurant food, learn how to make a few tasty options at home. These are fast and easy chicken recipes that have been modified to be a bit healthier and lower in calories.
It's hard to commit to eating healthier meals at home when tasty food is already prepared and available near us every day of the week. To combat this problem, I decided to learn how to make a few quick and easy meals that satisfy my craving for comfort food yet still meet my goals for calories and nutrition. The two recipes listed here are so easy that even my non-cooking husband can make them without complaint. Both of these recipes do well with meat swaps - lean pork tenderloin is an easy swap in both recipes and the calories will stay low.
This is a simple recipe that makes great use of either leftover chicken or supermarket rotisserie chicken. I modified Cooking Light's Tofu Fried Rice to get the flavor and nutrient content the way I wanted it. Note that the original recipe is delicious too so try that one as well.
Yield = 4 servings
1 cup uncooked brown rice (or 2 cups of cooked brown rice)Nutrition per serving: 310 Calories, 8 g total fat (1 g saturated fat), 31 grams total carbs (4 g fiber), 27 grams protein, 514 mg Sodium, and is a good source of Vitamins A, B6, and K, iron, and magnesium.
Note: Pair with a large garden salad to have a satisfying meal. If you want to extend the volume it makes without increasing calories very much, you can add more non-starchy veggies (e.g. broccoli, peppers, spinach, etc.). But even if you eat 2 servings for a meal, the caloric intake (620 kcal) would still be about half as many calories as the typical restaurant version (about 1200 kcal).
I love enchiladas but ordering them from a restaurant was throwing my calories intake way over budget. Instead of giving them up, I decided to find a lower caloric version I could make at home. You can find the original recipe (Cortez Chicken Enchiladas) in this book: The Best of Simply Colorado Cookbook.
Yield = 6 servings or 12 tortillas
1 cup chopped raw onion
1 cup chopped sweet pepper (any color)
4 oz canned or jarred chopped green chilies
1 tsp Sodium-free chicken bouillon powder (or broth)
2 cups prepared green chili enchilada sauce (or green chili sauce)
1 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp chipotle chili powder
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
2 cloves chopped raw garlic (1 tsp garlic paste works fine)
1 lb (16 oz) of chopped, skinned chicken breast
12 corn tortillas
1 cup shredded part skim low moisture mozzarella cheese
Spray oil
Nutrition 2 tortilla Serving: 330 Calories, 8.5 g total fat (3 g saturated fat), 33 grams total carbs (5 g fiber), 32 grams protein, 544 mg Sodium, and is a great source of Vitamins C, B6, B12, iron, magnesium, and zinc.
Tips for this recipe:
Both of these recipes can be copied from me, "Dietitian" in MyNetDiary. Login to MyNetDiary via web, go to Community, and then search "Dietitian" with "People" chosen in the drop down box. Scroll down the page until you find Dietitian in blue font, and click on that name. Scroll down Dietitian Personal Page and find Custom Catalog. You will find both recipes in that list: "KAI Chicken Veggie Fried Rice" and "KAI Modified Cortez Chicken Enchiladas." Copy each recipe by clicking "copy" link on the right side of the screen. Once you do that, you can use those recipes in your own log without having to enter it yourself. It is easy to search for those copied recipes if you use "from dietitian" in your name search.
Premium membership benefit: you can copy and customize recipes or foods. Bring up recipe in web program (Food tab), tap "Food Details" (top middle bar), and then choose "copy & customize" option. You can then modify any field to fully customize the recipe (ingredients, yield, name, etc.).
Enjoy these fast, easy, and healthy chicken recipes. Leftovers reheat well for either lunch or dinner on another day.
Foods & Recipes->Chicken & Turkey Meal Planning & Diets->Dinner