If you're trying to eat healthier or lose weight, one popular method you can try is meal prepping. Usually associated with athletes or bodybuilders, meal prepping is a great way to control what goes in your body, save yourself time and money, and promote healthier eating.
One drawback is that it can get boring, real quick. However, we've got some great chicken meal prep ideas that'll give you some variety and new ideas to keep you excited to stick the course with your meal prepping.
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Chicken Breasts and Broccoli Gets Boring Real Quick
1. Chicken Fajita Lunch Bowls With Cilantro Lime Quinoa
Personally, there's nothing like the feeling of knowing you get to eat chicken fajitas on a daily basis. One of the benefits of meal prepping is the control over your seasonings, especially with proteins. If you're watching your sodium, you can cut back a lot by using a homemade marinade rather than a packaged fajitas or taco seasoning.
Also, plus points for this recipe spicing up quinoa with a delicious mix of cilantro and lime. Perfect accompaniments are diced avocados or guacamole. However, better to buy them separately and use them fresh.
2. Healthy Roasted Chicken and Veggies
You want to meal prep but you don't want to slave over a hot stove, we understand. That's where this simple chicken meal prep and veggies recipe comes in handy on those times where you really don't want to spend a lot of time in the kitchen.
Cut all your chicken and vegetables up, season them, place them on a baking sheet and cook them until they're done. That's it.
This recipe really helps you “eat the rainbow” and get a variety of vegetables and their respective vitamins and minerals into your diet in just one dish.
3. Chicken Shawarma and Sweet Potato Fry Bowls
Instead of hitting up that shawarma food truck, which may be delicious but not so healthy, why not make it at home? One key discipline you need for meal prepping is setting a plan of action.
With this recipe, make sure to marinate the chicken first to give it the most time to tenderize and really work its magic while you work on the other components.
Trust us, when you put this much thought and effort into your meal prep, it's impossible to not get excited when mealtime comes around.
4. Healthy Chicken Lettuce Wraps
This chicken meal prep recipe hits so many marks: low calorie, gluten-free, paleo-friendly, and huge on flavor. Usually, when we order this “healthy” food at restaurants, we're still dealing with salty sauces that may still have gluten in them.
With this recipe, not only can you tailor the sauce to your dietary requirements, you can fortify the chicken mixture with extra vegetables.
5. Fiesta Chicken Rice Bowls
Another quick hitter that only takes 30 minutes or less to prepare. This is the perfect recipe to go to when you have a fridge full of veggies that are about to go bad. Chop them up, add your chicken, salsa, rice, and you've got one of your meals done for the week.
This recipe is also very flexible. So, if you're not a fan of brown rice, you can always substitute in white rice, quinoa, or even rice noodles. Cook them separately and add to the skillet during the end of the cooking process.
6. Instant Pot Sweet and Sour Chicken and Rice
We always love it when we can take a classic restaurant favorite of ours and transform it into a delicious yet healthier option. Not only that, your instant pot will do most of the work for you! You can even cook the rice in the same pot as the chicken and have this ready for the week in 30 minutes flat.
RELATED: 13 Make Ahead Freezer Meals To Make Meal Prep Easy
7. Shrimp Taco Bowls
Shrimp is high in vitamins and minerals, low in carbs, and a rich source of protein. And they're absolutely delicious in this lighter version of the classic shrimp taco. Delicious as it is, you can still be extra and add extra sides such as salsa, guacamole, or sour cream after you reheat this great meal prep idea.
8. Butter Chicken With Rice and Garlic Naan
Talk about getting the whole package in one little meal prep recipe. If you're feeling a bit lazy, you can totally leave out the naan and be left with mouthwatering butter chicken and basmati rice. A great recipe to have on hand when you're craving for Indian food but want a healthier alternative.
9. Chopped Thai Chicken Salad With Skinny Peanut Dressing
This exciting salad recipe checks off so many marks: crunchy vegetables, tender chicken, and a flavorful homemade peanut dressing that brings everything together.
One key element of this recipe is that all the vegetables are run through a food processor which helps them soak up the dressing even better, enabling you to use less of it. Less is always more in our books.
10. Chicken, Apple, and Pecan Salad in a Jar
There's something about when your food looks pretty, it becomes even more desirable to eat. This salad is easy to make, very portable, and doesn't get soggy. If you have some extra mason jars lying around, this recipe is a perfect addition to your meal preparation repertoire.
11. Slow Cooker Chicken Lo Mein Noodles
15 minutes to prep and leave it to the slow cooker to do the rest of the work. Perfect meal prep recipe to have since you can prep other meals while this is cooking on its own and get stuff done. This is a way better option than ordering takeout and totally customizable.
Check out more chicken meal prep in thls video by Tastemade:
Don't fall into the trap that meal prep has to be boring and unexciting. With a little research and inspiration, you'll be looking forward to mealtime every week! We hope these chicken meal prep recipes have given you some fresh inspiration to revamp your meal prep menu and stay committed.
What are some of your favorite meal prep staples? Any good ones we missed? Tell us in the comment section below!
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