Delicious Chicken With Just One Ingredient (Easy Meal Prep Ideas #1)

Our Easiest Meal Prep Ideas series of blog posts are designed for the busy hustler: Those with little limited time but still want healthy, tasty food that’s quick to prepare and cheap. This series provides meal ideas instead of specific recipes - since there’s already thousands of amazing specific recipes out there from many great Kiwi chefs. For more posts like this, visit happykitchen.co.nz or @HappyKitchenNZ on Instagram.

Chicken and spice has to be one of the best meal prep ideas. It’s long been known that gym peeps and fitspo influencers have a love affair with their ‘chicken on rice’, which is often seen as bland and tasteless. We’re here to say that simple chicken can be made delicious. On late Sunday nights we’ve been making chicken with pre-packaged spices for years and it’s always proved itself in a pinch.

Disclaimer: Chances are you've probably heard/of seen these spice packets in the supo, and used them before. However, we believe their use if severely underrated, especially as a convenient meal prep tool.

Let’s get into it.

Ingredients

• Chicken breast/thighs

• Spices: Either pre-packaged or home mixed

Why? The four pillars of our Easiest Meal Prep Ideas series:

• Easy: Chop up chicken, throw on spices, and chuck into oven/air fryer - and you’re done

• Cheap: Chicken is one of the cheapest forms of protein, and spices are the lowest cost way of adding flavour

• Quick: 5-10mins to cut the chicken and throw on spices, 20-30mins in the oven

• Healthy: No unnecessary processed foods, minimal oil

Give Me The Details

This Meal Prep Solution only requires two ingredients for the protein - chicken and spices. Top up with rice, pasta, or veges as you see fit. Both chicken breast and chicken thighs work well - pick chicken breast for easier preparation (noting that chicken breast does dry out easier), or pick chicken thighs for a juicer flavour (noting the extra step of removing bones after).

For maximum convenience, purchase the pre-packaged spices available at most supermarkets. There’s a huge variety of flavours and they each cost $1-2, or up to $3 for the fancy ones. These are a great solution since the type and ratio of spices are already done for you! Or if you’re feeling bold, you can combine your own set of spices (we’ve covered the basics of 3 effectives spices here too!)

Generally, one packet is good for ~500g of chicken, so proportion as you need. We find that 2x packets for 1kg of chicken perfectly sets us up for the week. If you make too much, you can simply freeze the excess chicken and take it out the night before.

Example products

There's heaps of variety at the local sumo, but these are a couple of our favourites:

• Farrah's Mexican Crispy Chicken Spice Mix

• Maggi Satay Chicken Mix

Note we're not sponsored by Countdown nor these brands, we just love these spice packs as easy meal prep.

Steps

1. Chop up the chicken into slices or cubes, based your preference. For faster cooking, cut into smaller pieces. Our favourite method is cutting chicken horizontally first to reduce thickness, allowing for faster cooking

2. Open spice packet and spread over chicken. Make sure to cover all surfaces and rotate the chicken as necessary

3. Place into oven or air fryer. Exact cooking times vary based on machine, temperature and chicken piece sizes. As a general guide, aim for 20-30mins on 180deg. Cut open the largest/thickest piece of chicken and check all pink spots/juices are gone.

4. Remove, cut to smaller pieces, and portion as required!

We’ve been able to reduce our preparation time to ~15mins (plus cooking time) with the added bonus of free time whilst the chicken cooks. Complete your lunch/dinner with rice or pasta, and throw in some frozen vegetables for maximum efficiency.

If you have a favourite pre-packaged spice flavour, let us know in the comments below! Or check out our socials happykitchen.co.nz or @HappyKitchenNZ on Instagram for more!