Okay, I don’t know how to say it without being extremely braggy, but this bowl recipe will be the best thing you’ve eaten in a while. It’s a healthy Mediterranean chicken bowl with tzatziki, salad, and olives and it’s gluten-free, low-carb and keto. Yes, keto. But if you’re not on a low carb diet – you can eat this with bread, quinoa, potatoes or rice – anything you want. This healthy dinner takes less than 30 minutes to prepare and you can meal prep most of it on Sunday, so you have food for the rest of the week.
This has been probably one of my go-to meals for many, many years. As long as I can remember.
In the past, I’ve always eaten these Mediterranean Bowls with a side of, well, a lot of BREAD, but lately, I started skipping the bread. And surprisingly – it’s still good and it keeps me full.
Exactly Where Are You From?
Honestly, the Mediterranean region is quite big, with quite a few countries and they all have different flavors.
If you want to get really dorky and educated about Mediterranean flavors, I really liked this table. If you don’t just trust me and make this thing for dinner.
Now, if I had to point to a country where this particular bowl comes from – it’d be Greece / Turkey.
But maybe I’ll send its saliva sample to 23andme just in case to do a DNA test and be really sure.
What To Use In Mediterranean Chicken Bowls
- Cooked chicken. You can use grilled, baked or sauteed chicken.
- Fresh vegetables. Tomatoes, cucumbers, garlic and onions, no need to overcomplicate.
- Greek yogurt. I used full-fat and have absolutely no regrets.
- Olives. I used Kalamata olives, pits in, but any kind will work in this dish.
- Roasted vegetables. I used a roasted spicy pepper, don’t think it was jalapeno – not a big pepper expert here – but it was really good. You can also grill vegetables and use on the side. Zucchini, eggplant, carrot – they will all work well in this bowl.
How To Make Mediterranean Chicken Bowls
1. Saute / cook the chicken. I know I will make quite a few people spit on me right now, but I don’t actually marinate chicken. I know, I’m a failure. But what can you do when it’s time to eat and you’ve forgotten to put your chicken in marinade 3 years ago? You give yourself a beat-up, you whine for a little bit, but you’re still hungry, so you just rub that chicken with spices and herbs and see that it also works and you’re still alive after eating non-marinated chicken.
2. Make this salad, but use onions instead of garlic.
3. Invest some skills in making Tzatziki. The first thing you have to do is buy a cow. Then milk that cow. Then add some bacteria to that milk, preferably not Salmonella or E.coli. Let it sit for a few days until the milk gets sour. Then let a fairy add some Greek spit to that sour milk and you’ve got yourself Greek yogurt. Good, now that you made Greek yogurt, time to mince a garlic clove, or two, depending on how much you’d want people to admire you that day. Then you chop a cucumber and if you like dill – dill. If you don’t like dill – well, don’t add it. Mix the garlic, the salmonella yogurt and the cucumber, add salt to taste and pat yourself on the back if you’re that flexible. You successfully made Tzatziki.
4. Add olives. Go to an olive tree, pick up some olives, add a ton of salt to them, let them sit and then add them to this bowl.
As you can see, this Mediterranean bowl takes only a few years to make and it’s totally worth it.
Meal Prep Option
To meal prep this Mediterranean Chicken Bowl, simply prepare the chicken and tzatziki and keep them in separate containers (or compartments).
You can also use whole cherry tomatoes and a roughly chopped cucumber on the side if you decide you’d also like to make the salad ahead.
I like to eat the chicken warm and everything else cold – so I keep each part separate. But if you don’t mind eating cold chicken, keeping everything in one container might work for you.
Mediterranean Chicken Bowls | Meal Prep, Low-Carb & Gluten-Free
Notes
To meal prep this, follow the instructions under the Meal Prep Option section.
Ingredients
- 1lb / 500g chicken, skinless, boneless thighs
- 1tsp Rosemary
- 1tsp black pepper
- 1tsp coriander
- tomato cucumber salad
- olive oil
- 1/2 cup olives
- 1 1/2 cup Greek yogurt
- 3 garlic cloves
- salt to taste
- 1 small cucumber, thinly chopped
- 4 roasted jalapenos or another hot pepper
- lemon
Instructions
- Slice the chicken in bite-sized pieces, roll it in the herbs and spices (rosemary, black pepper, coriander) add 1 tsp minced garlic, roll it some more. Saute in a pan with some olive oil at medium/medium-high until done. You can also grill or bake the chicken and then slice it in pieces.
- While the chicken is cooking make the tomato cucumber salad. In this version, I used no feta cheese and chopped onion instead of the minced garlic.
- Tzatziki making: In a small bowl, stir the Greek yogurt + 1-2 cloves of minced garlic + thinly chopped cucumber. Add salt to taste.
- Arrange the bowl: Salad, chicken, olives, roasted vegetables and tzatziki on top.
- Serve with a slice of lemon and squeeze it over the bowl, if you like food that tastes like lemon. I forgot to use lemon here, but I survived it was still unbelievably good.
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