Alongside exercise, diet plays a fundamental role in helping maintain a balanced and healthy lifestyle, and ensuring you eat the right balance of nutrients can go a long way to helping you achieve your personal weight-loss goals and provide your body the raw materials it needs to function and thrive.
Furthermore, in a society dominated by convenience eating and a fast-food culture, it’s increasingly tempting to turn to heavily processed snacks and carb-heavy meals. Nevertheless, creating healthful, nutritious, and tasty dishes needn’t be a challenge. Additionally, this delectable lemon rosemary chicken recipe, paired with a flavor-packed olive tapenade and vibrant green vegetables, offers a generous portion of healthy fats, a rich protein source, and low-carb greens. It’s an ideal addition to a balanced diet, quick to prepare, and bursting with flavor.
Moreover, this dish not only tantalizes the taste buds but also boasts impressive nutritional benefits. It remains consistently anti-inflammatory and free of dairy, gluten, and refined sugars, making it a perfectly balanced meal for any day of the week.
Additionally, this lemon rosemary chicken recipe relies on chicken breast for a lean protein source, crucial for growth and repair, with a single chicken breast meeting half of our daily protein needs. Opting for free-range chicken, when possible, ensures superior nutrition compared to conventionally raised poultry.
Moreover, the lemon rosemary chicken is prepared simply, and infused with anti-inflammatory herbs like rosemary and oregano. Rosemary’s antioxidant potency, known for fighting inflammation and soothing digestion, pairs beautifully with oregano’s array of health benefits. Packed with essential vitamins and minerals, oregano also exhibits antifungal and antimicrobial effects.
Furthermore, olives and olive oil provide this meal with a generous dose of healthy fats. That’s right — fat can be healthy. Not only does the humble olive deliver inflammation-reducing fats, but it is also purported to exhibit cancer-fighting properties and support a healthy heart. When selecting olives, the higher the quality, the better. Additionally, try to find olives preserved in olive oil or salt where possible. Stone-in olives are also preferable; however, good-quality pitted ones work well in this dish and are time-saving for weeknights.
For an added boost of flavor and a little zing, lemon juice and zest are used throughout the dish. Moreover, aside from offering the dish a refreshing twist, lemon aids digestion as well as contributes a generous dose of vitamin C.
In addition, the final component of the dish is a generous helping of green, nonstarchy vegetables. Low-carb veggies are at the foundation of every balanced diet alongside good-quality proteins and healthy fats. Here we have used broccoli rabe and green beans, two nutritional powerhouses in their own rights. Packed with fiber, vitamin C and essential minerals, broccoli rabe is an anti-inflammatory superfood. Green beans deliver an equally impressive vitamin and mineral content, alongside the potential to support bone health and maintain bone density.
Ready in just 20 minutes, this is a great recipe to prepare for dinner guests. If needed, adjust the ingredient quantities as appropriate. Packed with so much mouth-watering flavor, they will think you’ve spent hours in the kitchen.
In addition, this recipe provides two servings as a healthy lunch or dinner. Moreover, any leftover tapenade makes a great addition to a lunchbox salad.
INGREDIENTS
For the green vegetables
- 1/2 cup green beans
- 1/2 cup broccoli rabe
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon of olive oil
- Zest of 1/4 lemon
- Pinch of salt
- Pinch of ground black pepper
- Minced parsley, for garnish
To Prepare the Tapenade:
- 1/2 cup black or Kalamata olives
- 1/2 cup green olives
- 1 clove garlic
- 1 tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary
- 1/2 cup parsley
- 1/2 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- Pinch of black pepper
- Pinch of sea salt if needed (omit if the olives are preserved in salt)
Chicken:
- 2 skinless free-range chicken breasts
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh rosemary
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- Juice and zest of 1/2 lemon
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- Pinch of sea salt
- Pinch of black pepper
DIRECTIONS
- Add the olives, garlic, rosemary and parsley to food processor. Pulse all ingredients briefly until finely chopped.
- Add olive oil and balsamic vinegar to food processor. Season with salt and black pepper as needed and blend to a chunky paste. Reserve to one side until ready to serve.
- To begin, preheat oven to 400F. Cut a large rectangle of foil and place across a small shallow baking tray.
- Then, add green beans and broccoli rabe to foil. Sprinkle with lemon juice and olive oil and season with salt and black pepper.
- Using your hands, massage the oil and seasoning into vegetables.
- Bring the sides of foil together and enclose the vegetables in a tight parcel, ensuring there is enough space inside for steam to circulate.
- Now, transfer tray to oven and bake for 15 to 18 minutes until vegetables are tender and slightly caramelized.
- To prepare the chicken, place chicken breasts on sheet of parchment paper. Season chicken breasts with salt, black pepper, rosemary and oregano, coating on all sides.
- Subsequently, cover the chicken with another sheet of parchment paper or place in a large, resealable plastic bag. Use a rolling pin to pound the chicken to an even 3/4-inch thickness.
- In a separate pan, add olive oil to large frying pan over medium-high heat.
- Moreover, once oil is hot, add chicken and fry for 3 to 4 minutes on each side until golden and cooked through.
- Add lemon juice and lemon zest to pan and remove from heat. Spoon the juices and zest over chicken.
- Finally, add chicken to serving plate with cooking herbs and juices. Plate green vegetables with cooking juices and sprinkle with lemon zest.
- To serve the dish, serve with a generous helping of tapenade, lemon wedges and fresh minced parsley.
SERVES: 2
Total time: 28 minutes Prep time: 10 minutes Cook time: 18 minutes
NUTRITION INFORMATION: Calories: 561 Fat: 23g Carbs: 7.9g Protein: 56g
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