Chicken Curry with Baby Potatoes & Green Beans
How much fiber is in your average weeknight dinner? This one has 16 grams, roughly a third of a full day's target, from two sources: baby potato skins and green beans.
The recipe is simple. Baby potatoes go into boiling water, halved, skin on. While they cook, chicken, curry powder, cinnamon, and a splash of coconut milk become a sauce. Everything meets in a bowl fifteen minutes later. 479 calories, 30g protein.
Ingredients
- baby potatoes 0.5 pound
- green beans (frozen) 2 cups
- chicken breast 3 ounces
- onion 0.5
- garlic 1 clove
- olive oil 0.5 tablespoon
- curry powder 1 teaspoon
- cinnamon 1 pinch
- coconut milk 1.5 fluid ounce
- water 4 tablespoons
Method
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Bring a pot of water to a boil. Halve the baby potatoes and add them, along with the green beans, to the pot of water. Cook for 8 minutes until al dente.
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In the meantime, cut the chicken breast into cubes. Chop the onion. Mince the garlic.
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Heat the oil in a pan and sauté the onion and garlic for 1 minute. Then add the chicken cubes, curry powder, and cinnamon. Stir together and cook for 4 minutes over medium heat until the chicken is cooked through. Add the coconut milk along with the water, bring to a boil, and let simmer on low heat for 5 minutes until the sauce thickens.
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Drain the baby potatoes and green beans and stir into the chicken curry.
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Serve the chicken curry with baby potatoes and green beans in a deep plate. Season with pepper and salt.
If you like it spicy, sauté a finely chopped chili pepper along with the onion. The curry powder and cinnamon already bring warmth to the sauce. The chili pushes it further.
Baby potatoes sit in the moderate-to-high glycemic index range when boiled on their own. But GI changes in a complete meal. The protein, fat, and fiber in this curry all slow the glucose response. 14 pooled trials examining GI and fat loss reinforced that the complete meal, not the individual ingredient, determines the real glucose response.
Behind this recipe
Can I use regular potatoes instead of baby potatoes?
You can. Dice them to roughly the same size as halved baby potatoes so they cook evenly in eight minutes. Baby potatoes have thinner skins, which means more skin relative to flesh. That skin is where much of this recipe's fiber lives.
Is 3 ounces of chicken really enough protein?
This recipe delivers 30g of protein from that small portion, partly because the potatoes and green beans each contribute a few grams on top. Research into per-meal protein thresholds found that muscle protein synthesis continues well beyond the old 20-30g ceiling, so 30g in a mixed meal like this puts you in a solid range.
Read the full evidence reviewWhere does all the fiber come from?
Two places: the baby potato skins (left on during boiling) and the green beans. Together they deliver 16g of fiber, about 30% of what pooled research links to fat loss outcomes. Pooled evidence from 62 trials found that higher fiber intake tracks with fat loss.
Read the full evidence reviewCan I use full-fat coconut milk?
Yes. The recipe uses just 45ml, so the difference between lite and full-fat is small at this volume. Full-fat will give you a slightly richer, thicker sauce.
