Chicken is Flexible

Chicken

For my post today, I thought I would visit the topic of nutrition and food for those who are interested in eating well, but remaining healthy in the process. I have often joked about starting a 24 hour health food restaurant (not too bad of an idea eh?). I have about 20 different recipes that fall into this category, healthy and tasty! I also have a plethora of quick simple recipes, such as an alternative to pizza that can be made in any kitchen, in a quarter of the time with 50% more taste. I will admit that I tend to stay away from carbohydrates as often as possible, but I will include those recipes in my posts because let's face it, who doesn't like pasta and bread?

During my creative spurts at which point in time I try a new thing, or create a new meal, I have discovered ways to make the most boring foods taste great! Chicken breast is a great example, so I will begin with that for my post today. Chicken breast can be battered and fried, coated and pan fried, roasted, stewed, grilled, or boiled (there are other ways to cook, but these are the most common, and they also happen to be in order of health. Boiling chicken is one method of cooking breast that I have not attempted up to this point in time, because I far prefer grilling (George Foreman helps me with that).

First, let's get some facts. Chicken breast (skinless, boneless) contains about 220 (varies) calories per half breast when stewed, boiled, or grilled. The major nutrient you receive from chicken breast is protein, which makes it appealing for those who weight train, or want to avoid red meats (which have more fat per serving). East breast half has between 25-30 grams of protein, which is about 50% of the needed protein per day, based on daily values and 2000 calorie diets. In my case, 25 grams of protein is about 25% of the daily protein I want to intake (normal body builders take approximately 1 gram of protein per kilogram of weight). Okay, so with the boring stuff out of the way, lets talk about different methods to eat chicken that are so tasty, and keep your diet.

Obviously frying chicken, or battering and frying chicken are amongst the tastiest ways to eat this awesome meat. Think about chicken fingers, and wings, and other fried foods. Fried foods have been proven to be unhealthy for people because of the higher levels of fat within this food. But there are great alternatives to this.

When I use the George Foreman grill to cook my chicken, I am relying on old Georgie to eliminate some of the fat from my chicken (the juice that drips from the grill is fat and water). I usually always start with either Montreal Steak Seasoning, or some other type of seasoning for this meal. Of course this adds salt to the dish, but since we will eliminate salt in other parts of the diet, this is OKAY (salt dehydrates you, and your muscles). The first step for all these dishes I will be enlightening my readers with, require you to cook your half-breast (please butterfly it to increase its surface area) in whatever way you want, again boiled, roasted, or grilled are the healthiest options.

On top of the breast:

#1 Put cheddar cheese, or your favorite cheese on top of the breast half (about 1/4-1/2 cup). On top of that you can put grilled or steamed vegetables, which gives you dairy, meat, and vegetable servings for a meal.

#2 Put Frank's Red Hot Sauce on top of the breast half, and parmigiana or regiano cheese on top. This makes it have a little kick, and it tastes fantastic.

#3 Put a few scoops of your favorite salsa on top of this breast, adding cheese once again adds flavor (and cholesterol).

Chicken Bowl (By slicing the chicken into 1/4-1/2 inch slices, you can then add ingredients to make the breast taste scrumptious, put the ingredients in a bowl, and stir!):

Add a cheese: parm, cheddar, mozzarella, Swiss (any cheese really, make sure its shredded)

Add some vegetables: peppers, tomatoes, broccoli, pretty much any vegetable that you like (add as many as your heart desired)(make sure you slice your vegetables very thin so it mixes well with the other ingredients, mixed frozen vegetables that you steam are also a great option, cost affordable and nutrient-rich)

Add a sauce: My mom makes pesto sauce, one of my favorite options; Frank's Red Hot Sauce; marinara sauce; salsa; humus (soooo good) or any sauce you feel would compliment the breast, use your imagination, but keep it healthy, no ranch, mayonnaise or other white sauces (make sure the sauce you use matches well with your cheese and your vegetables)

Optional: put this "Chicken Bowl" between two slices of bread then back on the George Foreman grill for a slammin tasting panini, or add some noodles, pasta or rice to this dish depending on the sauce you decide to use.

You can determine the health of the dish you make, no cheese reduces fat, no Frank's Red Hot reduces the salt amount, no vegetables reduces the nutrients you intake. It really is up to you. There are a hundred different combinations for this dish. I'll supply two examples that I made:

1) Breast, cheddar cheese (1/4 cup), pesto sauce (2 tablespoons), 1 small Italian pepper sliced thin, 1/8 green pepper sliced thin, half a small red onion sliced thin, 1 medium garlic clove sliced thin.

2) Breast, parm cheese (1/8 cup), humus (2 tablespoons), 1 half small red onion sliced thin, 1 tomato diced into 1/2 inch pieces, 1/2 cup mixed vegetables (carrots, string beans, corn, peas) steamed.

You can really do anything, and get many nutrients, less carbohydrates, less fat, and still make it taste spectacular. Of course if you are trying to eliminate fat and carbs completely, I suggest the breast, and vegetables only, with humus or salsa as your choice sauce. I would like to mention that this should be made immediately after cooking the breast because it lends the heat required to avoid a cold dish (unless that is your thing).

I hope you enjoyed this, because it will allow you to eat grilled chicken breast daily without getting tired of it. I have at least 100 different ways to cook chicken, but I will cover many of them on Tasty Thursdays, and I have already given you a few today. I hope you enjoyed this post, and if you took anything from it, or have more to add please post some comments! We can all learn from each other! Happy Tuesday!