Here is one of my go to recipes for a high protein, low calorie meal. One of the most challenging things that a lot of people just starting on higher protein diets face, is that’s actually quite difficult to eat enough protein. A lot of people end up relying on protein shakes to get enough protein. Others find themselves choking down dry, tasteless chicken breast. When I first started flexible dieting, I was supposed to eat 160g of protein and often found it hard to get enough protein in while enjoying it, until I came up with this solution.
Here’s a recipe that makes a large amount of chicken breast taste amazing and features a large amount of vegetables in an equally satisfying format. For a little while I was eating this every single day. The main reason I stopped is that it takes a while to prep, and personally, I like it fresh—not left over. I still eat this once or twice a week, but I’ve switched to Taco Shredded Chicken for my daily protein intake due to its easier prep.
Recipe Ingredients
- Chicken breast (variable amounts; depending on what else I’m eating that day, it’s usually 300 – 450 g raw)
- Coconut oil (1 tsp)
- Garlic powder to taste
- Assorted Vegetables (some common choice for me
- Onion
- Bell peppers of various colors
- Broccoli
- Zucchini
- Cucumber
- Carrots
- Celery
- Sauces of choice (some fun choices
- Teriyaki
- Soy Sauce (with or without honey)
- Sriracha
- Lime juice and lemongrass
Directions
- Chop the vegetables and weigh each one (for logging in myfitnesspal).
- Cut the chicken into small pieces or strips and season with a small amount of salt
- Heat a 1/2 teaspoon of coconut oil over medium heat and saute the chicken with as much garlic as you like.
- Just before the chicken is completely done, hit it with some sauce.
- Put the chicken in a bowl and set aside
- Add another 1/2 teaspoon of coconut oil to the pan and saute the vegetables.
- When the vegetables are still al dente but almost ready, hit them with some sauce.
- Return the chicken to the pan and stir.
- Plate and eat.
That’s pretty much it. You can eat it as is or serve it over rice if you want to up your carb/calorie count. I usually use about 3/4 cups (cooked) of jasmine rice. If you want to kick the flavor up a notch, add the rice to veggies.
Chicken Stir Fry for the Whole Family
Macronutrients for this meal.
A typical meal of say 400g of chicken, 150g of zucchini, and 100g of carrots (with the coconut oil) is:
- 560 calories
- 97g protein
- 14g carbs
- 9g fat
The same meal with 3/4 cups of cooked jasmine rice is
- 710 calories
- 100g protein
- 48g carbs
- 10g fat
That meal will satisfy you for several hours and set you up very nicely to have a whatever you want for dinner and have 300 caloaries left for dessert. (Well, that’s what it does for me anyway.)
What if I need to cook for my whole family?
No problem. You do everything the same except that you need to do some 7th grade math (ratios and proportions). Say that you’re going to cook 800g of chicken for the whole family, and you need to eat 300g of chicken. That gives you a ratio of 300:800 or 3:8. You just apply that ratio to each ingredient to log it in myfitnesspal. To figure out your total serving, when the whole dish is done, weigh the entire amount of food, and apply the same ratio to the total weight.
If that explanation was too difficult, I’ve created a spreadsheet that you can just fill out. Fill in the total weight for each ingredient, the total weight, and your desired serving of chicken (raw), and it will automagically calculate everything for you.
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