Chicken breast and keto?
Teneko
Posts: 314 Member
Hey folks.
I know, I know. Why chicken breasts and not fatty delicious thighs? Well, strangely enough, the breasts are on sale here a lot, and thighs are pretty much ALWAYS more expensive for me. Plus, they have the "structure" to deal with - bones, ligaments, etc. (waste for me because...I suck at making things out of that stuff. It still creeps me out a bit.)
So I picked up a big ol' pack of boneless skinless chicken breasts, and figured I'd just fatty them up a bit. I guess I need to get a meat tenderizer or something...or how do you make a flat piece of chicken that you can roll stuff up in?
Any suggestions for nice (preferably simple) fatty keto-friendly things to do with these guys- er, gals?? (heh)
I'm thinking:
Coat in mayo and parmesan cheese and bake.
Pound and roll up with cream cheese and spinach. Coat in butter and bake.
Fry in butter or bacon grease.
Wrap in bacon and bake.
Keeping in mind that I was seafood vegetarian for 26 years and haven't cooked chicken since uhh...probably mid-1980's...
You'll have to be pretty specific with replies. Feel free to send me a message if you'd prefer not to post here.
-T.
I know, I know. Why chicken breasts and not fatty delicious thighs? Well, strangely enough, the breasts are on sale here a lot, and thighs are pretty much ALWAYS more expensive for me. Plus, they have the "structure" to deal with - bones, ligaments, etc. (waste for me because...I suck at making things out of that stuff. It still creeps me out a bit.)
So I picked up a big ol' pack of boneless skinless chicken breasts, and figured I'd just fatty them up a bit. I guess I need to get a meat tenderizer or something...or how do you make a flat piece of chicken that you can roll stuff up in?
Any suggestions for nice (preferably simple) fatty keto-friendly things to do with these guys- er, gals?? (heh)
I'm thinking:
Coat in mayo and parmesan cheese and bake.
Pound and roll up with cream cheese and spinach. Coat in butter and bake.
Fry in butter or bacon grease.
Wrap in bacon and bake.
Keeping in mind that I was seafood vegetarian for 26 years and haven't cooked chicken since uhh...probably mid-1980's...
You'll have to be pretty specific with replies. Feel free to send me a message if you'd prefer not to post here.
-T.
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Replies
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Your ideas above sound great. You can always add extra fat to the leaner cuts of meat, if that's all you have. You can pound out the breasts with a meat pounder of some sort to get it flatter. I have stuffed breasts with ground pork, rolled it up and wrapped with bacon. Just google some recipes.
We also like to make a Thai chicken curry with chicken breasts. Cut the chicken into bite sized pieces, and brown in coconut oil (or bacon fat ). You could add onions or a bit of red pepper if you want a bit of carbs. Add a can of full fat coconut milk and however much red or green curry paste you like, garlic, salt and pepper to your taste...and let it simmer. Serve over cauliflower, riced or not....or zucchini noodles....yummy0 -
Heavy cream, butter, little salt and pepper (just a hint), and some Parmesan cheese to thicken. Heat over low heat until you get a quickie white sauce. Pour over the chicken and/or dip the chicken into it.0
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You can easily google a good Keto alfredo sauce made with full fat cream cheese and whole cream, pour over some fried in bacon fat or coconut oil chicken breast strips and eat! Add broccoli if you want, or put on shiritake noodles.
Wrap them in bacon and grill/broil/roast/bake them and then dip them in a mayo/mustard mixture. Made a lime chicken last night. Broiled some chicken breasts in 1/2 cup lime juice, a little bit of minced onion and garlic, 1/2 cup coconut oil, but can substitute olive or avocado oil and taragon and broil them for about 12 mins, take them out and baste them with the lime mixture and broil for another 12, repeating once more if necessary. Very good.
Stuff the chicken breasts with cream cheese mixed with onion and garlic, then wrap in bacon and bake or broil them till done.0 -
One of my favourite lunch's is diced avocado, diced fried bacon and half a small tin of sweetcorn. I can imagine if you throw some some diced chicken in there it'd be even better. It's like a savoury fruit salad.0
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You can flatten it with a meat pounder until they're very thin, stuff it with whatever you want. I like to do creamed spinach with cheddar and heavy cream, add some mushrooms and bacon and roll into chicken. You can fry it in butter and olive oil or bake it in the oven until tender. Top it with garlic and Parmesan and you're good to go. I buy tons of chicken breaststs, thighs and drumsticks, there are tons of delicious recipes
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I have plain chicken breast daily. What is super easy for me is to rub some thai green curry paste on it and marinate it for a few hours. I have it cut into bite sized pieces.
I then fry it in butter and add in about 15g of cashew nuts. I cook some spinach in another pan or the microwave quickly.
I get a large dollop of cream cheese and cover the cooked chicken and nuts with it and eat it along side the spinach. Basic but works.0 -
Me? I am a thigh gal. Cheap and fat.
I love chicken salad made with mayo. Add a little celery, some slivered almonds.
I love a slice of chicken and a slather of CAINS mayo. Forget Hellmans. Sugar.
Wow to minties 82 . That sounds like a lovely dish.0 -
Awesome ideas! Thanks so much, everybody! And yeah...oh man, I loves me some curry. That sounds like it'd hit the spot.
Hmm! Yes! I can use these to make my chicken salad, too. I make it with rosemary marcona almonds and mayo (also sugar free) from Trader Joe's and celery as well. Great minds think alike. I usually use leftover rotisserie chicken for the chicken salad. I didn't even think of this.
Also, you can tell how out of practice I am - I didn't even think of "making a sauce" to pour on it. I was dairy free for the past 10+ years, too, so...no creamy sauces for me! Thank you, @FIT_Goat! I was sitting here trying to think of how to thicken creamy sauces without flour or corn starch. Parmesan cheese it is. MMmmmm.
I just Googled some instructions on how to flatten chicken breasts. I'll have to get one of those meat tenderizer thingies. I knew I forgot something from the store...darn it!
You know what sucks about the parmesan cheese? I was at the store today and almost all the grated and shredded parmesan had FILLER to prevent caking. Lame. I ended up paying the extra bucks for the Kraft shredded parm just so I could get no filler. Guess I should invest in a cheese grater now!
Feel free to keep 'em coming. This is all so new to me.
EDIT: Just had to look up the Thai curry ingredients for the kind I used to buy. I always thought Thai curry paste would be off my list on keto because I kept thinking it had sugar in it! Looks like I was happily wrong. YAY Mae Ploy brand!
-T.
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If you have a rubber mallet in your tool kit (or one of the really heavy ice cream scoops), put your chicken in a ziploc bag that's about twice as big as it is and go after it.0
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Invest in a grater. Freshly grated parm will kick the flavor of the sauce up immensely. Not that I've never resorted to the pre-grated stuff. I often have. But, the best is fresh.0
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I put my chicken in a plastic bag and beat the hell out of it with my rolling pin...not professional, but it works LOL
Oh, edit to actually answer the OP: cut into bite sized pieces, coat in egg then coat in grated parm (I mixed in some grated mozzarella too) then pan fry in about 1/2 inch of oil to make chicken "nuggets" BEST. SH*#. EVER.0 -
Rolling pin! Now THAT I have! Never used. Stopped baking right when I bought it and went keto.
You guys are full of great ideas! Thanks!
Ohh man, I just realized I ate a big fat 3 oz of pork chop fried in ghee and coated in parmesan. That's coursing through my body now and it's telling me THANK YOU. Tons of energy. Sorry it's bursting out all over the forums! I should...probably back away from the keyboard. >_>
-T.
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Literally anything you can beat it with does the job. A bit tedious sometimes, but worth it.0
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sweetteadrinker2 wrote: »Literally anything you can beat it with does the job. A bit tedious sometimes, but worth it.
Yep: I just use some sort of canned good from the pantry.
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If you want simple, try this (three ingredients):
Cream Cheese, Bacon & Chicken
I hope this helps,
Dan the Man from Michigan
Cocoa Dusted Nuts Recipe
Have You Tried Fried Radishes?
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klopfer123 wrote: »One of my favourite lunch's is diced avocado, diced fried bacon and half a small tin of sweetcorn.
Keep an eye on the carb levels in the sweetcorn
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I (which means my husband, under my instruction, because he's our cook) cut an inverted 'V' shape into the breast from the top, so it has 2 slits down it's length that go well into the meat, but not through the bottom of it. Pack plenty of butter and a sprinkle of garlic-to-taste in there, wrap in foil and then cook in the oven at 180°C for 20+ minutes. It's like chicken kiev but without the crumb coating and very delicious. Any butter that spills out stays in the foil so harvest that and pour onto the plate with the meat.
I was pescetarian since the mid-80s so understand exactly why you can't cope with chicken legs etc. I've only been reintroducing meat this year since going keto and it's baby steps.0 -
Just saw this on my facebook stream, looks yummy! https://buttoni.wordpress.com/2014/04/15/chicken-florentine-2/
I like this site for drool-inducing ideas.0 -
you can use crushed pork rinds for chicken coating ...
@GrannyMayOz, you may have just solved dinner for tomorrow night (coating added)0 -
one of my favorite side dishes is spinach sauteed with olive oil, garlic and tossed with toasted pine nuts. Depending on the main dish I sometimes toss in feta cheese and lemon juice.0
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Now that sounds *goooood*. And so does the spinach with pine nuts.you can use crushed pork rinds for chicken coating ...
@GrannyMayOz, you may have just solved dinner for tomorrow night (coating added)
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You can flatten it with a meat pounder until they're very thin, stuff it with whatever you want. I like to do creamed spinach with cheddar and heavy cream, add some mushrooms and bacon and roll into chicken. You can fry it in butter and olive oil or bake it in the oven until tender. Top it with garlic and Parmesan and you're good to go. I buy tons of chicken breaststs, thighs and drumsticks, there are tons of delicious recipes
Sounds gorgeous!
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^^^ Indeed it does! Lots of good ideas here to make a plain chicken breast taste a whole lot better!0
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It was a very tough winter for much of the eastern US. One of the effects of the many storms and highway closures was a lot of chickens being held farms past their normal market dates. Chickens grow fast and even a few days can result in larger but tougher & less tasty chicken breasts. It means lower prices for over-sized breasts but more creativity on our part. Like Grannymay I've been experimenting with splitting them & putting the fat & flavorings inside. I then wrap with bacon and pin it all together with toothpicks. I line the bottom of a small baking dish with layers of sliced zucchini to soak up the combo of bacon grease, chicken fat, cheese, whatever. Put the chicken on top, cover with foil & bake. Half way through the baking remove the foil to crisp things up.0
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Awesome ideas! Thanks so much, everybody! And yeah...oh man, I loves me some curry. That sounds like it'd hit the spot.
Hmm! Yes! I can use these to make my chicken salad, too. I make it with rosemary marcona almonds and mayo (also sugar free) from Trader Joe's and celery as well. Great minds think alike. I usually use leftover rotisserie chicken for the chicken salad. I didn't even think of this.
Also, you can tell how out of practice I am - I didn't even think of "making a sauce" to pour on it. I was dairy free for the past 10+ years, too, so...no creamy sauces for me! Thank you, @FIT_Goat! I was sitting here trying to think of how to thicken creamy sauces without flour or corn starch. Parmesan cheese it is. MMmmmm.
I just Googled some instructions on how to flatten chicken breasts. I'll have to get one of those meat tenderizer thingies. I knew I forgot something from the store...darn it!
You know what sucks about the parmesan cheese? I was at the store today and almost all the grated and shredded parmesan had FILLER to prevent caking. Lame. I ended up paying the extra bucks for the Kraft shredded parm just so I could get no filler. Guess I should invest in a cheese grater now!
Feel free to keep 'em coming. This is all so new to me.
EDIT: Just had to look up the Thai curry ingredients for the kind I used to buy. I always thought Thai curry paste would be off my list on keto because I kept thinking it had sugar in it! Looks like I was happily wrong. YAY Mae Ploy brand!
-T.
MY homemade alfredo is literally butter, heavy cream and freshly grated parmesan, with just a hint of garlic, salt and black pepper. Awesome with chicken.
Worth the effort for sure to use fresh parm, much more pungent and better melting that the jarred stuff.
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GrannyMayOz wrote: »
Now that sounds *goooood*. And so does the spinach with pine nuts.you can use crushed pork rinds for chicken coating ...
@GrannyMayOz, you may have just solved dinner for tomorrow night (coating added)
I crush pork rinds and mix with grated parmesan and a little garlic. Egg wash, then into the coating, makes great chicken.
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You guys rock.
I even have an explanation now why there are all these large cheap chicken breasts on sale in the stores!
And more importantly...
I have half of one of those breasts digesting in my belly as we speak, and the other half in the fridge waiting for dinner tomorrow.
-T.
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chunk or strip it, dredge in coconut flour or arrowroot, dip in egg, coat with coconut. bake.0
This discussion has been closed.