Healthy meal of the week: Slow-cooked chicken, brown rice, and corn on the cob
Healthy leftover idea: Chicken sandwiches
Here’s an easy meal to make using your wonderful slow cooker that is probably sadly sitting in the corner of your kitchen waiting patiently for a call. When planned accordingly, this meal can be ready to eat when you return home, especially if the variety of rice and corn you buy is of the microwave type. Don’t worry if you don’t have them or want to spend the extra money on them, as the rice and corn will only take about 20 minutes to prepare.
For leftover food, you’ll have a great handy treat that weighs only about 250 calories each if prepared as described below.
Necessary equipment
– slow cooker (Crock Pot)
– saucepan with lid for rice (or rice cooker)
– large pot for corn
Preparation time
– 5 minutes
Time to cook
– 4-8 hours depending on the temperature setting
Ingredients
(4-6 servings)
– 1 whole packaged chicken
– 1/2 cup brown sugar
– 16 ounces chicken broth
– 2 tablespoons seasoned salt
– 3-4 whole ears of corn
– 1 cup of brown rice
– 1/4 cup of honey
– 2 tablespoons olive oil
– optional: butter / margarine for corn and rice
– optional: 3 bay leaves for rice
For chicken sandwiches
– 100 calorie multigrain sandwich blenders
– Grated cheese
– chili paste / sauce
Addresses
* Decide if you want to cook the chicken on the low setting for 6-8 hours or on the high setting for 4-5 hours.
1. Open the chicken package and rinse well under cold water in your kitchen sink. Place the whole chicken inside your clean slow cooker.
2. Add 1/2 cup of brown sugar and 2 tablespoons of seasoned salt to 16 oz. chicken broth and stir / mix well. Add solution to slow cooker and turn to desired setting. Remember to set a timer or alarm on your phone for 6-8 hours on low or 4-5 hours if the slow cooker is on high.
3. When there is about 1 hour left on the timer, add 1/4 cup of honey over the chicken. Recover and let finish cooking.
Four. About now you can start cooking the rice and corn. For corn, fill a large pot about half full with hot water and bring to a boil on the stove. While that’s happening, peel the corn husks from each piece you plan to cook. Rinse the corn chunks under the sink to get rid of any lingering husk chunks. For this food example, the corn chunks were split in half so that the leftover travel portions were easy to fit into the plastic containers, but this choice is entirely up to you. When the water is boiling, place the pieces in the water and set a timer for 20 minutes.
5. If you want to prepare brown rice the same way as this meal, add 3 tablespoons of olive oil to your rice skillet and turn to low / medium heat. Add 1 cup of brown rice and stir frequently for 3 minutes. Add a cup of chicken broth along with 3 bay leaves. Stir and cook / soak for a couple of minutes. Add 1 cup hot water, increase heat until rice mixture comes to a boil, stirring occasionally. Once boiling, reduce heat to simmer, cover skillet with lid, and set timer for 18 minutes. That is all!
6. Once the chicken has finished cooking, turn off the slow cooker and with two forks, you should be able to easily cut the chunks out of the whole chicken, at least enough for the portions you’ll need for now. You can get the rest later when you put the leftovers in containers or make the leftover sandwiches listed below. You can also try carefully scooping out all of the chicken, but it may be easier to wait until the liquid is a little cooler to do so. The choice is entirely up to you.
7. Serve an appropriate serving size with some optional butter on the corn and a tablespoon of the slow cooker liquid on the rice / chicken and enjoy!
Healthy Leftover Idea: Chicken Sandwiches
The great thing about these leftover sandwiches is that if you use the right kind of bread / wrap, there is no reason why these sandwiches couldn’t be less than 300 calories each. Combine that with a piece of fruit and a good glass of water and you have a nutritious lunch that will be around 400 calories in total. Isn’t that much better than the 1300+ calorie food you’ll find at any fast food place?
Hopefully your local grocery store has a good selection of bread / wraps and look for these 100 calorie multigrain sandwich blenders or something similar in calorie count. Open the pre-cut bun and top the bottom slice with 2 tablespoons of cooked brown rice. To spice up this sandwich a bit, some fresh ground chili paste was added, but you can literally use any of your favorites. Carefully cut some chicken into fine pieces and add a couple of tablespoons over the side of the rice / chili paste. Finally, add some shredded cheese and then the top of the bun and you have quickly but effectively created a delicious travel sandwich that you will find quite enjoyable for lunch the next day. Just be sure to wrap it securely in a piece of aluminum foil so all the fixings don’t fall off.