This recipe is one of the easiest to make, tastes delicious AND is extremely macro friendly. It is easy to bring to a barbecue or other event where you don’t necessarily want to deviate from eating good quality foods, but also would really like to enjoy your meal.
It features turkey bacon in place of regular bacon, and a homemade ranch dressing that is made from a Greek yogurt base.
You can absolutely use regular bacon and regular ranch dressing, it will still be a high protein meal, it just will have a higher fat content.
Nutrition:
Per 1 Serving:
Ingredients:
- 500 grams of pasta
(I used 1 package of Fusilli Bucati Corti, from the brand Pasta Garofalo, I like the shape AND it contains good protein, fibre, and low sugar content)
- 800 grams or approximately 30 ounces of chicken breast, diced
- 4 slices turkey bacon (I use the Hayter’s Farm brand)
- 1 cucumber
- 2 cups grape tomatoes
- handful of chives, finely chopped
- 1 cup Greek yogurt, 0% fat, plain flavour
- 1/2 juice of 1 lemon
- 1 teaspoon dried parsley flakes
- 1 teaspoon dried dill
- 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
- 1/2-1 garlic clove, to taste
- 1-2 tablespoons water, to desired consistency
- salt and pepper, to taste
Directions:
Heat a frying pan on medium-high heat. Add the turkey bacon to the pan and let it cook for 3-5 minutes or until it develops good colouring on the bottom side. Once you start seeing good colouring and the strips start to shrink flip to the other side. Continue cooking to your desired crispiness and a nice golden/brown colour develops on all sides. Once cooked, remove from heat onto paper towel to soak up any unwanted grease. Set aside.
Heat a frying pan on medium-high heat. Once the pan is hot, add oil/non-stick spray if desired and add the chicken to the pan and season with salt and pepper. Continue cooking stirring occasionally until fully cooked through and golden. Once it’s finished, set aside.
In a medium-sized pot, add water until it comes up about halfway the height of the pot, and place on high heat with the lid on to speed up boiling time. Once the water has come to a boil, add salt and the pasta and stir occasionally until cooked al dente, in other words, it should be just slightly firm when you bite into it. If it is too soft the pasta will lose it’s shape, if it’s too hard the pasta be chewy or chalky to eat.
Once the pasta is done, drain and pour cold water over to stop the cooking process.
While the protein and pasta is cooking, chop the cucumbers, tomatoes, and finely chop the chives, set aside.
In a large mixing bowl, add the Greek yogurt, chives, lemon, grated or minced garlic, parsley, dill, onion powder, salt and pepper. Mix until well combined. Optional: add 1-2 tablespoons at a time of water until you reach the consistency of ranch dressing.
Add the pasta, chicken, bacon, tomatoes, and cucumbers to the large bowl and mix until well combined.
Optional: top with parsley and serve cold!
