Chicken Breasts Stew with Pasta and Salad
Chicken breasts are an excellent source of low-fat proteins and when combined with plenty of vegetables and just a little bit of pasta and olive oil, one gets a very tasty and balanced meal that can be made rather quickly.
Published: February 16, 2021.
Although this recipe is rather easy, it takes some time to prepare it, since chicken breasts and pasta are not cooked together.
In a suitable pot, put some water, a little bit of salt, and let it boil. When water starts to boil, add whole-grain pasta and cook it for ~10 minutes.
Note: each pasta has a different cooking time, but on average, 10 minutes is enough. Hint: get the pasta's package and check the cooking time.
Put a carrot, onion, half of green pepper, and a clove of garlic in the food chopper/slicer and chop everything.
In just a few seconds, vegetables for stew are prepared - finely chopped. Food choppers/slicers can come in very handy.
When the pasta is done, put it into the strainer and let all excess water drain away.
Of course, it is possible to cook the pasta with the chicken in the stew, but that would require stew to be less thick.
In the wok pan put a tablespoon of olive oil - keep the heat to medium.
Put sliced/chopped onion, carrot, green pepper, and a clove of garlic in the wok and mix everything gently for few minutes - remember, heat must be low to medium.
In the meantime, put the chicken breasts on the kitchen board and using a sharp knife, remove any visible fat.
Chop the meat into smaller, bite-size pieces.
Put the meat into the wok and mix with vegetables.
Add a small laurel leaf, some strained tomatoes (or tomato juice), some good white wine, a little bit of salt and pepper, and mix everything. Also, add some water.
Increase the heat until stew starts to boil and then decrease the heat and keep it to low or moderate.
While the stew is being cooked, prepare the salad - wash and chop the lettuce, slice a little bit of onions and green pepper, and add few cherry tomatoes.
Don't add salt and olive oil, just a little bit of vinegar.
After cooking for 25-30 minutes, add cooked whole-grain pasta into the stew and mix everything. Let it cook for few more minutes. Turn off the heat and let everything settle down for few more minutes.
Serve warm with salad - no bread, no potatoes, no toast, no polenta ...
The nutritional content of this meal is given in the following chart:
Food | Amount | Protein | Carbs | Fats | Fibers |
Chicken Breast | 500g | 110g | 0g | 5g | 0g |
Pasta | 100g | 13g | 64g | 2g | 8g |
Tomato | 300g | 3g | 15g | 0.6g | 4g |
Lettuce | 300g | 4g | 10g | 1g | 4g |
Olive Oil | 15g | 0g | 0g | 15g | 0g |
Carrot | 100g | 1g | 9g | 0g | 2g |
Onion | 100g | 1g | 8g | 0g | 1g |
Green Pepper | 150g | 2g | 7g | 0g | 3g |
Total: | ~135g | ~115g | ~24g | 22g | |
Calories: ~1200 kcal | 540 kcal | 460 kcal | 216 kcal | - |
Total calories for this meal are ~1200 kcal - when this meal is served to two persons, each one gets ~67g of protein, ~57g of carb, 12g of fats, and 11g of fibers with a total of ~1600 kcal.
And if this meal is served to three people, each one gets ~45g of protein, ~38g of carbs, 8g of fats, and ~7g of fibers.
Again, if You are not a physically active person and you have an office job, there is no need to add any bread, toast, potatoes, polenta, or anything similar - the key of Mediterranean Diet (and cuisine) are balanced meals, tailored to individual needs and requirements.
Bonne Appetite ...