Pesto Chicken and Cauli-Rice Cups
These lettuce cups are packed with dynamite flavors! We all know that you can’t go wrong with a powerfully flavored pesto, so I included it in the salad dressing here by adding some gut-friendly yogurt. The sun-dried tomatoes add a burst of sweet tanginess in every bite, while the lettuce offers the perfect crunch. The toasted pine nuts and fragrant fresh basil finish it beautifully. I used cauli-rice to bulk up the mixture, but if you aren’t living “low-carb,” you can use cooked quinoa or gluten-free couscous instead.
Chef Tips:
- Cauli rice is available in stores, but the flavor of freshly made is far superior.
- I recommend that you remove the seedy core of the cucumber before chopping to prevent a watery mixture.
- Be sure to chop the cucumber, sun-dried tomatoes, and chicken into very small pieces to prevent the mix being too “chunky” and unable to fit into the gem lettuce cups.
Pesto Chicken
Transform your weeknight dinner with our Pesto Chicken and Cauli-Rice, a quick and delicious dish where juicy chicken and fragrant pesto pair perfectly with light, flavorful cauliflower rice.
Equipment
Ingredients
- 2 medium skinless deboned chicken breasts (we use Butcher Box meat)
- ¼ tsp garlic powder
- 2 TB pine nuts
- 1 TB olive oil
- 7 oz cauliflower florets blitzed in a mini food processor to ‘rice’
- 1.4 oz store-bought basil/green pesto
- 1.8 oz full-fat plain yogurt
- ½ cucumber diced very small
- 0.9 oz sun-dried tomatoes in oil drained and chopped small
- Handful basil leaves sliced
- 2 little gem lettuce
- Sea salt
- Freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 425°F (200°C) and line a baking tray with parchment paper.
- Season the chicken breasts with garlic powder (and salt and pepper, if desired). Place them on the tray and bake in the oven for 20-22 minutes.
- Remove the chicken from the oven and leave them to cool completely. Once cooled, chop the chicken into very small pieces.
- Meanwhile, toast the pine nuts in a non-stick pan over medium heat for around 4-6 minutes. Once golden, remove the pine nuts from the pan and set aside.
- Add the olive oil to the same pan and bring to high heat.
- Add in the cauli-rice and cook, stirring regularly for around 3-4 minutes until the raw flavor has cooked out and the cauliflower still retains some texture.
- Season with salt and pepper (if needed), place into a bowl, and set aside to cool a little.
- Once the cauli-rice has cooled, stir in the pesto, yogurt, diced cucumber, chopped sundried tomatoes, and half the sliced basil. When the chopped chicken is ready, stir this in too.
- Trim and separate the larger leaves of the little gem lettuce. Spread out on a serving platter or two flat plates.
- Spoon portions of the mixture between the lettuce leaves.
- Sprinkle on the remaining sliced basil and toasted pine nuts. Enjoy!
Nutrition
Serving: 1gCalories: 430kcalCarbohydrates: 21gProtein: 41gFat: 23gSaturated Fat: 3.5gCholesterol: 95mgSodium: 220mgFiber: 6gSugar: 12g
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Hi, my name is Kate.
I love food. Real food. We eat all of the things that nursing school taught me were bad for you: butter, eggs, bacon, and raw milk.
I am a Nurse, a Mom, and a Real Food loving blogger. Just trying to save the world.