Meal Prep Buffalo Chicken Balance Bowls
Yeah yeah yeah. The title of this recipe is unnecessarily long. But it just be like that sometimes, you know?
Does the term “balance bowl” irritate you? Does it sound pretentious? I’ll tell you what it means to me. Protein, fat, carbs, green vegetable. All up in one happy little healthy bowl. That’s it! In this recipe, the protein is the chicken. The fat is the ghee and the avocado oil. The carbs are the perfectly cooked baked potatoes. And the green vegetable I went with is steamed broccoli because broccoli is my favorite! You could also go with kale, but in my opinion sauteed kale doesn’t reheat all that well. Every time I attempt to reheat it it ends up uncomfortably chewy. So weird. I thought broccoli was more meal prep friendly, so that’s what I did!
I have a confession to make, now that January Whole30 is almost over. I didn’t do a Whole30 this January! I honestly wanted to, and I really felt like I needed to, but at the same time I didn’t think I could make it work with all that I had going on. My birthday is in early January, which is a pain in and of itself. Thanks Mom! But this year I turned 30 and it seemed like I celebrated my birthday at least ten times with cake and champagne spread about the month. We’re also traveling to Florida and we’re attending a wedding. In all honestly, I just didn’t feel like dealing with a Whole30 for all of that. Can it be done? Of course. I just didn’t want to though. To top it all off both Mike and I got sick so that was another whole pain in the butt ordeal that I would have had to accommodate. So I said no January Whole30 for me this year.
What did I do instead? In between all of the fun events I just mentioned above, I made it a point to meal prep as many Whole30 meals as possible for myself to eat. I think it worked out pretty well, and it’s what I generally do the rest of the year anyway. This recipe is a great one for me because it allows me to eat four of my top five favorite foods all in one sitting. Chicken, potatoes, and broccoli are three of my favorite foods. Cucumbers are also in my top five, so on days that I bring this for lunch alongside some sliced cucumbers I’m really having a good time. I was sitting at work one day thinking about how much I loved potatoes, chicken, and broccoli. Then I thought how exciting it would be to eat them all in the same meal. Lastly I realized how easy it would be to accommodate just that. Thus, Meal Prep Buffalo Chicken Balance Bowls were born. If you love these three foods as much as I do (and even if you don’t), you’re going to love this one! Happy meal prepping!
Meal Prep Buffalo Chicken Balance Bowls
Ingredients
Method
- Preheat oven to 350° F. Poke each potato with a fork 15-20 times all over. Rub each potato with avocado oil (a little bit goes a long way!), sea salt, and fresh ground black pepper. Place the potatoes directly on the oven rack and bake at 350° F for 55-65 minutes, until very soft when squeezed. I suggest putting a baking sheet on the rack below under the potatoes so as to catch any dripping oil and avoiding a mess at the bottom of your oven.
- Season the butterflied chicken breasts with sea salt, fresh ground black pepper, and garlic powder to taste. Heat 1 tbsp avocado oil in a large cast iron skillet over medium heat. When hot, add each chicken breast to the skillet. Saute for 7 minutes, checking occasionally. Flip and cook for 7-10 minutes more until each chicken breast is cooked through to 165° F. Remove from skillet and immediately shred using two forks.
- Melt the ghee in a medium microwave safe bowl. Add the Frank's Red Hot, coconut aminos, and 2 tsp garlic powder and whisk until combined completely. Add in the shredded chicken and stir to combine completely.
- Steam the broccoli florets according to the package instructions, or using your preferred method.
- Assemble the bowls: place one potato in each bowl and cut potato in half. Distribute the buffalo chicken evenly among the five bowls. Repeat with the steamed broccoli. Serve hot and enjoy!
