Healthy Chicken Salad Recipes for the Hard Boiled Egg Diet

So, you’ve read our previous article on the Hard Boiled Egg diet and you have decided to give it a shot. Fair enough. You have printed the diet plan and stick it to your fridge. You go through you first day. It’s hard at first, but you remember why you’re doing this. You somehow manage to reach dinner time. This is where the actual meal comes. You are excited and you look at your diet plan and it says Chicken and vegetable salad. How vague…

 

We want to aid you, our readers, in your weight loss journey following the hard boiled egg diet. We decided that it’s high time that we put together a couple of chicken salad and chicken with vegetables recipes. Most of you probably already have your favorite chicken salad by this point. In order to satisfy your senses while losing weight at the same time, we have set upon fat-free, proven to work recipes versions of famous and widely known dishes.

Preparing chicken according to these recipes will have a couple of advantages:

• The ingredients will bring out flavors in the chicken you never knew existed, it is always interesting to find new dimensions of dishes or food you have already tried (or in the case of chicken, quite often had).
• The process of preparation makes these salads quite enjoyable while at the same time keeping them very low in calories. All of these dishes contain somewhere between 200-300 calories per serving. On a diet where you are trying to keep your intake as low as possible, these salads provide a satisfying meal.
• They will not leave you bloated. While most diets contain meals that interact with your stomach acids and leave you bloated, these recipes for the hard boiled egg diet will leave you feeling satisfied and full while not bloating your stomach. I mean, what’s the point of dieting if you can’t show it off.
• They are quite easy and fast to prepare. You might be tempted to think that dieting requires a lot of planning ahead, but this is not the case with these recipes. You can prepare them in less than 10-15 minutes (depending how skilled you are in the kitchen). It is a salad, after all. The only part that you will be cooking is the chicken.
• The dishes can be served cold. If you ask me, this is the biggest advantage here. You can prepare your chicken and store it away in your fridge for a couple of days. This means that if you have an extra hour you can prepare for the next two or three days. This in turn, translates to cooking as little as two to three times a week. When it’s time for the meal, just take the chicken, slice the veggies and you’re good to go. After all, chicken salad is a dish best served cold …
• Just because you’re on the hard boiled egg diet it does not mean that you have to spend hours upon hours in the kitchen

Grilled chicken with Avocado and Mango

Chicken with fruits! What a blasphemy. But believe us, this refreshing salad will bring pleasure to both your senses and your stomach. But trust us. It goes well with the hard boiled egg diet. We might go as far as to suggest that it goes well with any diet actually. This dish is perfect for those days when your sweet tooth starts itching. It will satisfy your need for something sweet while keeping it low cal.

The ingredients

• 2 tbsp freshly squeezed lime juice
• 2 tbsp mango chutney
• 1 tbsp soy sauce (make sure it’s low sodium)
• 2 tbsp olive oil, extra virgin olive oil is even better
• 1/2 peeled grated ginger (preferably fresh)
• 4 oz boneless, skinless chicken breast (get halves if you can, it will save time)
• 8 cups mixed salad greens*
• Cooking spray
• 1 cup peeled, diced mango
• 1 cup peeled, diced avocado

(*Note: the 8 cups of mixed greens are totally up to you. You can use 8 cups of crisp lettuce or 8 cups of different greens. It’s all according to taste. Vegetables are extremely low in calories and the differences are insignificant.)

The preparation process

• Prepare the grill
• In a small bowl, put together the olive oil, ginger, soy sauce, lime juice and mango chutney. Coat the chicken with 2 tablespoons of this oil mixture and reserve the rest for the salad. Let it stand for 5 minutes
• After 5 minutes, spray cooking spray on the grill. Place the chicken Grill for approximately 4 minutes on each side or until the chicken is done. Brush it with the oil mixture from the plate where you kept the chicken before turning for extra flavor. Once dine, cut the chicken into strips.
• This is where you get creative. Arrange the avocado, mango and greens on serving plates. If you followed the guidelines so far, you will have enough for 4 servings. Arrange the chicken as well. On top of all this, add the leftover oil mixture and serve.

Italian Grilled Chicken

I mean who knew that there are Italian chicken salads other than the Caesar salad. This salad will leave you feeling quite fresh and satisfied. The combination of green veggies with tomatoes will also bring out tastes in the chicken that you haven’t previously tasted. The Italians have this preconception that vegetables should be grilled. And why shouldn’t we trust them.

The ingredients

• 8 oz medium zucchini (cut in half)
• 7 tbsp balsamic vinaigrette dressing (light)
• 1 red onion (go for a medium one, if you like onion, you can go crazy here, if you can’t stand it, you can skip it)
• 4 plum tomatoes (the Roma variety, cut in half)
• 6 cups baby arugula
• 1 lb of boneless, skinless breast tenders (make sure they are not breaded)
• (optional) 1 oz of feta cheese, crumbled
• cooking spray

The preparation process

• Use 1 tbsp of the dressing to coat the chicken. Let it stand for 2-3 minutes
• Spray cooking spray on the grill. When ready, carefully place the chicken, onions and zucchini on the grill. Cover the grill. 4 minutes into the cooking process turn the chicken and place the tomatoes. Cook for 4 more minutes or until chicken is done. Cook vegetables until soft and tender.
• When finished cooking, place everything in a bowl and add the remaining 6 tbsp of dressing. If you decided to add some low fat feta cheese, do it at this point. Mix everything together and serve.

Chicken Salad with Curry

Since we decided that we are going to explore the taste of chicken, I believe that we cannot skip curry. Curry is notorious to go well with chicken, and just because you’re on the hard boiled egg diet it does not mean that you cannot enjoy it. An added benefit of curry is that it’s spicy ingredients actually boost your metabolism, further promoting weight loss.  This nicely balances out the little bit of extra calories added by the frying process.

The ingredients

• 1 onion, chopped (red or yellow, your choice)
• 2 green onions
• Olive oil (doesn’t need to be of the extra virgin variety)
• 2 tbsp yellow curry powder (as much as you can scoop)
• salt
• 1 apple, cored, peeled, diced
• 1/2 cup fresh, chopped cilantro
• 1 1/2 lb boneless, skinless chicken breast, cut them in 1 inch cubes
• 1 cup raisins (optional)

The preparation process

• Heat the olive oil in a saute on medium to high fire. Cook the chicken cubes stirring frequently. Season with salt during the cooking process. Cook for 4-6 minutes or until chicken is done (not pink in the middle). Remove the chicken and set it aside in a bowl
• Heat olive oil once again, this time add the yellow/red onions and cook. After a couple of minutes add the curry powder. If the curry powder sticks to the bottom of the pan add some more olive oil and while steering scrape the bottom for the curry. If you want to add raisins (highly recommendable) add them at this point. Cook and stir for another 2 minutes and remove from fire.
• Add the onion curry (and raisin) mixture to the chicken and mix thoroughly. At this point, if you decide to prepare this dish a day in advance you can place the mixture in the fridge. It can stay there for up to 2 days.
• When ready to serve, add chopped green onions, cilantro and apples. Add chicken-curry-onion mixture and stir.

Healthy Means Happy
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