Recipe Idea: Ginger Chicken Breasts

As an OCR Racer, you probably want to make sure you are taking care of your inside just as much as the gym takes care of your outside.  One way to do that is to purposefully put efficient fuel into your body– not just food to fill you up and stave off hunger.  This Ginger Chicken recipe is just one idea.  Let us know your favorite recipes to give your body fuel!

Packed with a nutritional punch, this recipe can benefit your overall health and provide you with sustained energy to keep going the distance.  It’s got protein and veggies packed with health benefits.  Plus, it’s super simple to make. You can use a slow cooker or stove top.  Pick your preference.  For our purposes, we used the stove top.

RECIPE:

  • Chicken breasts (lightly salted and peppered)
  • 1 minced shallot
  • 1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger
  • 2 minced garlic cloves
  • 1 thinly sliced scallion
  • 1 bunch of broccoli
  • 1 sliced red bell pepper (into strips)
  • 1 teaspoon curry powder
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil (or vegetable oil)
  • 1/4 cup chicken broth
  • 1 tablespoon soy sauce
  • white or brown rice

STOVE TOP DIRECTIONS:

Put preferred rice in a rice cooker and prepare according to the directions.

Heat up the shallots, oil, ginger, and the garlic until fragrant, stirring occasionally.

Stir in the broth and soy sauce and continue to cook on a low to medium heat in a large pot.

Lightly coat a separate pan with oil and place the chicken breasts in the pan and cook until both sides are a golden brown (if the chicken is not cooked thoroughly at this point, don’t worry– it will finish cooking with the sauce and vegetables).

Once the chicken is browned on both sides, dice it up into chunks and add into the pot to finish cooking.

Add the red peppers to the pot and then add the broccoli last just to soften it (you don’t want to cook broccoli longer than necessary because it will strip it of nutritional value.)

Place rice on your serving dish and then spoon the chicken and sauce over rice as desired.

Enjoy this ginger chicken dish!

(If using a slow cooker, cook 2-3 hours on low heat following the same order of preparation and adding the chicken last to the slow cooker.  Continue to prepare the rice separately in a rice cooker.)

NUTRITIONAL BENEFITS:

Chicken is a high-density, low-fat protein that also offers:

  • Selenium (protects your cells from damage)
  • Zinc (helps with blood clotting, wound healing, immune function)
  • Niacin/Vitamin B3 (lower cholesterol levels, improve cardiovascular health)
  • Beta-carotene (decrease asthma from exercise, prevent certain cancers, lower blood pressure, decrease heartburn and headaches)
  • Vitamin E (improving physical endurance, increasing energy, reducing muscle damage after exercise, improving muscle strength, prevent heart disease)
  • Vitamin B6 (boost the immune system, reduce eye infections, reduce PMS symptoms, preventing anemia, increase appetite, lower risk of muscle cramps, treat allergies)
  • Vitamin B12 (helps red blood cell formation, cell metabolism, nerve function and the production of DNA).

Broccoli is a rich source of Vitamin A, fiber, and surprisingly, Vitamin C and calcium.  It’s thought to have cancer prevention and antioxidant effects and it helps boost your immune system and lower cholesterol.

Red Bell Peppers actually pack the most nutrition out of any bell pepper because they’ve been on the vine the longest and allowed the most time to grow and develop.  Compared to green bell peppers, red bell peppers have almost 11 times more beta-carotene and 1.5 times more vitamin C.

Garlic offers a multitude of benefits.  Garlic is used to prevent and/or treat several types of cancer, helps with earaches, the flu and common cold, exercise performance, and exercise-induced muscle soreness. It also aids in the treatment of fever, coughs, headache, stomachache, sinus congestion, gout, joint pain, hemorrhoids, asthma, bronchitis, shortness of breath, and the list goes on.  Garlic is a necessity for a healthy body.

We’ve talked about the benefits of ginger before, but we’ll do it again.  It’s that good for you.

  • reduce inflammation
  • reduce muscle soreness
  • reduce the risk of cancer
  • lower blood sugar
  • lower cholesterol
  • improved circulation
  • boosts our immune systems
  • reduce nausea or stomach discomfort

Shallots/Scallions are in the same family as garlic, but each offers its own benefits.

Shallots protect the body and may reduce the risk of developing cancer, heart disease, and diabetes.  Just one tablespoon of chopped shallots goes a long way: high in potassium, Vitamin A, and folate.

  • Potassium (used for treating high blood pressure, preventing stroke, and plays a role in body functions such as transmission of nerve signals, muscle contractions, fluid balance, and various chemical reactions)
  • Vitamin A (reduce complications of several diseases, improve wound healing, prevent breast cancer, raise a male’s sperm count, treat sunburns, acne, improve vision)
  • Folate (aka Folic Acid) for memory loss, Alzheimer’s disease, age-related hearing loss, preventing the eye disease age-related macular degeneration, reducing signs of aging, weak bones (osteoporosis), jumpy legs (restless leg syndrome), sleep problems, depressiohttps://ocrracers.com/wp-admin/post-new.phpn, nerve pain, muscle pain)

Scallions (or onions in general) reduce swelling (inflammation), reduce lung tightness in people with asthma, and reduce levels of cholesterol and sugar in the blood.

Curry offers antioxidant and anti-inflammatory benefits that are thought to help prevent and/or treat Alzheimer’s, cancer, and heart disease.

Brown Rice is thought to help decrease the risk of developing Type 2 Diabetes when swapped out in place of white rice.  Though admittedly we used white rice in this version, brown rice is the more nutritious alternative.  The minor difference?  Brown rice is “unpolished” whereas white rice is polished.  The major difference?  In the polishing process, most of rice’s benefits are lost, and it just becomes a filler for your plate.

Soy Sauce is not typically thought to offer any nutritional value.  However, one study concluded that the natural antioxidants found in soy sauce could actually help protect your body from damage from free radicals (which help speed aging) and help reduce inflammation in addition to helping with digestion.  You can also use less soy sauce than you would other sodium sources (table salt) and get the same salty taste while decreasing your sodium intake compared to adding salt to every meal.

 

Source for Soy Sauce benefits: Livestrong.com

Source for Ginger benefits: Legion Athletics & The Joint Chiropractic

The main source for all other nutrition benefits: WebMD

This Ginger Chicken meal was tested out by real humans cooking it in a real house kitchen and given a thumbs up for ease of preparation and taste. (Not some fancy test kitchen by staffers paid to say it’s great.)  For additional healthy training recipes, visit us here.

1 thought on “Recipe Idea: Ginger Chicken Breasts”

  1. Pingback: The Benefits of Ginger and Why Eating it Often Can Benefit OCR Athletes

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