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Simplified September Week 1: Shredded Chicken

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Simplified September Week 1: Shredded Chicken

While there may still be a few weeks of summer left (in the Northern Hemisphere at least), September often signifies a new beginning - sort of a mini New Year.  Kids are back to school and even if you don’t have kids that are in school, it still feels like the end of Summer and the start of a new season. We wanted to provide you with some easy ways to build template compliant recipes while keeping it simple.  

Many of you in the SP community have asked us about the cookbook “Cook once, eat all week”.  This is a great cookbook that you can use to minimize your time in the kitchen, while making healthy meals.  You may need to tweak some recipes to make them template compliant. We wanted to do a spin on the concept of using one protein to make several meals.  This week we are focusing on Shredded Chicken as a protein option. We will show you a few ways to combine this protein to keep things interesting for different meals during the week, while minimizing your time cooking/your food waste.

First step, prepare your shredded chicken.  You may prepare it using a crockpot or stove top - check out the stove top method by CLICKING HERE

For crockpot shredded chicken, you may place 4 chicken breasts (you may do boneless, skinless thighs if you prefer) in the bottom of the container.  Add ½ to 1 cup of low sodium chicken broth and season with salt and pepper to your liking. You may cook on low for 4 hours or high for 2-3 hours. Once it is done, you may shred it using utensils or even a hand mixer!

Here are 3 simple ways to combine the chicken into delicious, template compliant meals.  As with any recipe, you can tweak the proportions of the ingredients to make it work for you.  Use our handy recipe tracker to help you out with this!

1. Buffalo chicken egg muffins

Inspired by “Balanced Bites”

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 60 minutes

Total Time: 70 minutes

Ingredients:

  • 350 grams of cooked shredded chicken

  • 3 tablespoons + 2 tablespoons Frank's Red Hot Sauce, divided

  • 3 tablespoons melted ghee or coconut oil

  • 6 large eggs, whisked

  • 2 tablespoons green onion/scallion, sliced

  • 1/2 tsp garlic powder

  • Sea salt & black pepper to taste

Instructions:

  1. Preheat the oven to 425F.

  2. Place the cooked chicken thighs into a large mixing bowl.  Pour 3 tablespoons hot sauce and melted ghee/coconut oil over the chicken and toss to combine and set it aside.

  3. In a small mixing bowl, whisk the eggs, 2 tablespoons of hot sauce, green onion, sea salt, and black pepper.

  4. Pour the egg mixture into parchment cup lined muffin tins (otherwise they WILL stick to the pan) to fill them approximately halfway. Gently spoon about the shredded chicken into each muffin cup so that it's evenly distributed. Serve any extra chicken alongside the cooked muffins.

  5. Bake for approximately 30 minutes or until the muffins rise and become golden brown around the edges.

Whole recipe serving breakdown:

21 Servings Protein

0 Servings Carb 

5 Servings Fat 

0 Servings Veggies  



2. Greek yogurt chicken salad

Inspired by “Black Iron Nutrition”

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 0 minutes

Total Time: 10 minutes

Ingredients:

  • 115 grams cooked chicken breast, shredded (a rotisserie chicken works too)

  • 100g grapes, quartered

  • 100g celery, chopped

  • 25g red onion, chopped

  • 28g chopped almonds

  • 1/4 tsp garlic powder

  • 1/4 tsp salt (or to taste)

  • 1/4 tsp pepper (or to taste)

  • 100g non-fat plain Greek yogurt

Instructions:

  1. Add all of the ingredients to a large bowl and stir until well combined.

  2. Serve on a bed of lettuce, as a sandwich, or alone as a salad.

Whole recipe serving breakdown:

6.5 Servings Protein

1 Servings Carb 

1 Servings Fat 

1.25 Servings Veggies  

3. Chicken burrito bowl 

Pull together your protein serving according to your template with a serving (or two) of rice, some corn, shredded lettuce and avocado.  Top with some taco seasoning (see below) that you can make at home for a template-compliant “Chipotle” experience at home! No template breakdown here, you can make the servings align with your specific needs.

Seasoning:

  • 2 Tbsps chili powder

  • 1/2 tsp garlic powder

  • 1/2 tsp onion powder

  • 1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes

  • 1/2 tsp dried oregano

  • 1 tsp paprika

  • 3 tsps ground cumin

  • 2 tsps sea salt

  • 2 tsps ground black pepper