I know you've shared different suggestions throughout, but do you have a top-5 list of favorite chicken recipes? Context: I grew up hating chicken. My parents made disgusting chicken meals my entire childhood, and it scarred me for life. Plus, the texture of chicken sucks. But.....I need more sources of healthy-ish protein.
Open to any and all ideas. TIA.
If you don't love chicken, you'll probably prefer recipes where it's not the main event, or if it is, you're cooking it better. I mostly cook with boneless skinkess chicken breast but some people swear by chicken thights because the fat gives the dark meat a little flavor.
I dont know which textures you find disgusting so it's hard to tell you how to cook it but grilled chicken breast will usually get some "bark" but baked or fried usually won't. Cooking it too long dries it out.
1 chicken avocado wrap. Dice up a chicken breast into half or 3/4 inch cubes, add some lettuce, bacon bits and croutons to your wrap. Cut an avocado in half and remove the pit, run a knife through the avocado all the way down to the skin but not through it, and cut it into cubes then squeeze them into your wrap. Add a pinch or two of shredded cheese, bacon bits, croutons and maybe add a drizzle of ranch.
2 chicken quesadillas cook a chicken breast or get rotisserie chicken from the store and shred it with two forks. Put a dot of oil on a tortilla and fold it in half, then rub the tortilla around to spread the oil. Put it oiled side down in a frying pan on medium heat and spread some Mexican cheese over the full surface. Add you chicken and maybe some grilled peppers and onions to one half and when the cheese is melted fold the tortilla over and serve with salsa, sour cream and/or guacamole.
3 chicken dice your chicken breast into small pieces and cook it in a frying pan or use shredded rotisserie chicken like above. Rinse and cut some grape tomatoes in half and put them in a bowl with a can each of black beans and corn, the cooked chicken and cilantro then squeeze a lime over it. This is one of my favorites recently.
4 vaguely Chinese chicken- I suck at making Chinese food and don't have the patience to buy all the right spices but I like to cut up a cooked chicken breast with cooked carrots broccoli and cauliflower and toss it in a store bought sauce like general tso, sweet chili, teriyaki or sesame ginger. Then in a frying pan fry an egg with a cracked yolk, add cauliflower rice (or regular if you're not worried about calories), and some sauce (i love kikkoman sweet soy sauce for rice but any of the sauces above will do). You can have a huge plate with tons of protein and not many calories, sodium might be high depending on which sauces you choose.
5 chicken pasta and vegetables. Cook some pasta (ziti, rotini, penne, cavetappi are about the right size) al dente in one pot with a little oil, basil and oregano in the water. In a large frying pan, put a small amount of olive oil and spread to the bottom of the pan. Add some garlic and chicken breast diced into bite sized pieces and cook on medium high until chicken is thoroughly cooked. It should go from kind of translucent to solid on the outside and start to develop some texture and if you cut a piece you won't see any pink but the proper way is to use a meat thermometer. Drain your pasta and add it to the frying pan with a cup of chicken stock (you can use reserved pasta water if you prefer). Reduce the heat to medium. Add a generous amount of grated cheese to the mix and add your vegetables - i like steamed broccoli here but it's up to you. You can add some white wine too if you like, anything you'd drink will probably go well. Let it simmer until the stock starts to boil off, add another cup and let it boil down again if it seems dry. This is a nice versatile dish if you prefer red sauce or diced tomatoes you can do that instead of the chicken stock/pasta water/wine, add some peppers and onions and make it more of a Primavera, or some artichokes or capers,, you can bake it with some melted cheese on top... the main thing is letting the chicken absorb the sauce and letting the pasta and sauce do the work.