The low carb chicken recipe I create today is because I’ve felt lousy. You might recall that at the beginning of this year, I complained that I felt tired, cranky, and sluggish. I knew something had to change to lift this cloud over me, but what?
I called my friend and fitness guru Ben Greenfield, and he gave me some tips for healthy living that included examining how I’m eating. I came to the realization that my diet is heavily laden with carbohydrates. My theory is that all the bread, pasta, rice, and potatoes I’ve been eating have been weighing me down in more ways than one.
So, I set about trying to reduce as much of the carbohydrates from my diet as possible. I’ve set aside the rice, pasta, bread and potatoes in favor of ingredients that are higher in fiber and protein. Instead of creating dinner dishes with a side of carbs, I’ve substituted beans and eggs wherever I can.
The main problem for the home cook in creating special diet dishes is that there are few recipes written specifically for the way YOU want to eat. Searching for a low carb chicken recipe in a cookbook can take you more time than just creating it yourself.
But how do you just make-up a recipe? I’m glad I asked myself. As I’ve been teaching for years, the combination of basic cooking methods along with the ingredients you desire yields your own custom-created recipes. This is how the best home cooks work, they just “throw things together”.
I don’t “throw” things, but I can create a new stir-fry dish using black beans and egg whites in place of the rice or pasta that I’d normally serve a chicken stir-fry with.
This newly created dish will call upon a few of my favorite basic cooking methods and techniques to use in the home kitchen. First, steaming is one of the healthiest ways to cook because it uses no additional fats and it retains the nutrition of vegetables better than any other cooking method. I’ll begin by steaming snow peas to par-cook them for the stir-fry to come.
Next, basic sauté method is used with sesame oil and sliced chicken breast. I call sauté “driving the car” of cooking, because you have to pay attention to all the land marks as you progress. One of those landmarks is the coagulation of proteins on the chicken. When you see the raw product turn from pink to white, you’ve witnessed the cooking process on a scientific level.
Then, I can add any ingredients to the sauté pan that I’d like. Perhaps onions, garlic, red peppers, mushrooms, broccoli, snow peas, or asparagus. Without a recipe to command me, I can use the vegetables that I want to use.
The protein blast for this dish comes from a rinsed and drained can of black beans simmered in chicken broth and thickened with egg white and a soy sauce cornstarch slurry. The combination of cornstarch dissolved in soy sauce will thicken the sauce when the starches gelatinize at 150F.
This dish is complete when I simply combine the chicken and vegetable sauté with the black bean sauce. It’s now a low carb chicken recipe that I created in less than 10 minutes. If I had tried to find a recipe, I’d still be reading books right now instead of eating a delicious, protein rich meal.
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I find that cooking corn with the husks on give it a very sweet yet very mild earthy flavor. I peel back the first inch or so of the husks, being carefull not to tear them, and check for insects. I cut the brown silks off and fold the husks back over the cobb. I wash the husks with a vegie brush and steam them. If I grill it, I soak it in water for several hours or over night to keep it from drying and catch fire before it gets done. When done the silks come off very easy because they also are cooked and tender. Add a little salt and butter and you have a feast from heaven.
Nice procedure, Debbie.
The best part of what you described is when you say that you soak the corn in water for several hours. As I’m sure you’ve seen, this will enable you to steam the corn, even if it’s on a very hot grill.
Thanks for the suggestions.
That chicken black bean dish was great. I never thought of beans in broth before. I like how you always expand the envelope of new combos.
That’s what makes cooking exciting, Mike. It’s when you make a small discovery that is the catalyst for even more experimentation and great results.
Chef Todd this is the NEATEST video! I liked it so much I watched it twice! :> Your black bean sauce with egg white is a fabulous idea – hadn’t thought of increasing the flavor of the beans by cooking them for a bit in chicken broth. I can’t wait to try this! I’m going to take the chicken out of the freezer right NOW. Thanks for another wonderful cooking idea (not recipe. . . IDEA!) -patti
Thanks for your kind comment, Patti. It’s a liberating feeling to not have to follow a recipe when you can create new exciting flavor combinations from what’s already on-hand.