Today I want to share with you one of my all time favorite meal prep recipes. We recently talked about the benefits of meal prepping in the latest edition of The Pivotal Press. If you haven’t already, make sure to subscribe to it here. What’s great about this recipe is that you can’t mess it up, I guarantee it.

This recipe is my go to meal for cooking chicken. We cook this so much in our house that we call it meal prep chicken, because its easy and quick to prepare.

First, before you begin you will need a few kitchen tools, a digital kitchen scale which can be picked up on amazon for under $15, measuring cups, and enough Tupperware for all your meals throughout the week. Of course you will need the ingredients and chicken breasts. The great thing about this marinade is that you can use it with any cut of chicken. For meal prepping purposes I prefer to use chicken breasts, they’re easy to work with and cook up evenly.

Ingredients for My Favorite Chicken Recipe

¾ cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil

1tbs Garlic Powder

1tbs Onion Powder

1tbs Italian Seasoning

1tbs Balsamic vinegar

1 tbs Dijon mustard

1tbs Basil Paste or chopped basil

1 tbs Oregeno

Sea Salt to taste

 

This recipe will marinate 6-8 chicken breasts evenly. You can scale it up or down as needed if you’re cooking more or less.

1) Start by adding your ingredients to a large bowl. Notice how everything is 1 tablespoon. See I told you its impossible to mess this up. Whisk your ingredients together so everything is mixed. Go ahead and give it a taste, you can add salt and pepper to your liking.

2) Unwrap your chicken breasts and pat them dry with paper towel. This removes excess moisture on the outside of the chicken, which will help the marinade do its magic.

3) Place the chicken in the bowl and begin folding them through the mixture. Make sure that all sides of the chicken breasts are thoroughly covered. You can go ahead and use your hands at this point.

 

4) Let them sit covered for a few hours in the fridge. If you’re pressed for time you can let them marinate for 15-20 minutes. The longer you can give them the better. I let this batch sit for 3 hours.

5) When you’re ready to cook, turn on the grill to medium high heat. Let the grilling surface get good and hot. You can begin by placing the chicken on the grill smooth side down. Close the grill and step away for 8-10 minutes. Thicker cuts of meat will take more time to cook.

6) Check on the chicken after 8-10 minutes to see that the edges are cooking evenly and turning white and juicy. When the chicken pulls away from the grill in one piece and you have some nice grill marks on the under side you’re ready to flip.

 

 

 

7) Close the grill again and come back in about 5 minutes. The chicken should be firm when you push the flat side of your tongs against it. Once you’ve reached this point, go ahead and take them off the grill and set them aside. Let the chicken cool completely before you start portioning. When you cut into the chicken it should be white throughout with no evidence of pinkness.

8) At this point cut the chicken into small manageable portions and set it aside. You will need to weigh all your chicken at once so you know how much you have. Then you can divide it evenly amongst the Tupperware.

9) Turn on the scale and place a Tupperware or container on the surface. Hit the tare button. This “zeros” out the scale so you’re not weighing the container. Add the chicken to the container. A normal serving size is around 4 oz.

During this meal prep I grilled 8 chicken breasts, which weighed around 42 oz. I portioned out a total of 10 meals at 4 oz each. Those last two ounces were consumed during the process of portioning. At this point the meals aren’t complete. I have a number of different options when it comes to sides.

• Cut up vegetables and mixed greens
• Baked sweet potato
• ½ cup of cooked brown rice
• Steamed broccoli
• Steamed green beans
• Quinoa
• Any variation of the above. For example steamed broccoli and brown rice.

For this week I have decided to have cut up vegetables and mixed greens. This recipe is a great way to get started with meal prepping. At first it may feel like your wading in uncharted waters but after you’ve done it a few times you will have the process down.

If meal prepping doesn’t work for you I recommend cooking a large amount of food for dinner one night. Then simply portioning out the leftovers into meals for the next few days. Keep this recipe in mind when you need an easy marinade for your chicken dinner or meal prep.