Friday, July 11, 2014

Lemon Pepper Chicken Rotini (Under 500 calories!)

Since I'm in the process of changing my eating habits and trying to lose 30ish pounds, I've been trying to find certain foods that are good for the taste and good for the nutritional value! This recipe is one I have come up with by just combining two of my favorites... chicken and pasta! This recipe serves 3-4 people but can be adapted to serve as many as you want! 

1 serving is only 470 calories!! 
(A serving consists of 6 oz of chunked chicken breast, 1 cup pasta, and 1 Roma tomato.)




What You'll Need:

- 3 large boneless skinless chicken breasts
- 3 roma tomatoes (or a couple handfuls of cherry tomatoes)
- 3 cups of rotini pasta
- lemon pepper 
- seasoned salt
- olive oil

I learn recipes better in steps so that's how I'll list them for you! (Honestly, a few steps can be interchanged but this is all how I prepare my meal. So if you feel you prefer one step first over another then by all means...fix this yummy dish how it works best for you!)

1. First what I do is put a little olive oil in a skillet and turn it on low heat. That way the oil doesn't "freak out" in the skillet and start popping while I prepare the chicken.

2. Next I cube my chicken breasts and put them in a bowl. (I try to do a 1" cube but really just chunk it up all in about the same bite sized pieces.) After you cube the chicken, season it with the lemon pepper and seasoned salt however your tastebuds want. I like heavy seasoning on my chicken so I used about 1 1/2 tbsp of the lemon pepper and 2 tsp of seasoned salt. Try to evenly coat every chunk of chicken. 
  • After you chunk that chicken and WASH YOUR HANDS... go ahead and dice  up those 3 tomatoes. Or if you have the cherry tomatoes then cut them all in half.

3. Put the chicken chunks into the skillet and turn the heat up to medium... You still don't want that skillet to get too hot or else you'll scald the outside of the chicken, you'll think it's done, and then it may not cook all the way through. I don't "turn up the heat" until I get my pasta cookin'! Keep an eye on your chicken so that if you need to turn a few pieces over you can do it quickly without it burning.

4. Boil some water in a medium-large sauce pan (depending on how much pasta you need/want...If you're like me, more is better) on medium-high heat. Once the water is boiling, add in your rotini and turn down the heat to about 5 o'clock. In other words "Turn down for what?!" 

5. Okay, so is the chicken all the way cooked... how can you tell? Take a knife or metal spatula or something and cut through a couple of the bigger chunks and make sure the middle isn't pink. Once your chicken is cooked all the way through and your pasta is almost cooked to perfection, add in the tomatoes to the skillet with the chicken. Turn down the skillet's heat to low so the tomatoes don't get all "mushy."

6. Pasta's done! Turn off the heat and strain the pasta of the left over water but DO NOT RINSE. Return the pasta back to the sauce pan.

7. To plate the meal what I usually do is make sure I have about 3/4 cup of the cooked rotini down as the "bed" then I add the chicken chunks with tomatoes on top. Now it's your food so you can plate it however YOU want! That's the beauty of cooking your own dinner.

Now you're all ready to eat your yummy Lemon Pepper Chicken Rotini!! 
Happy eating and I hope you enjoy!

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