Spicy Chicken with Sweet Potato Fries
Thin sweet potato fries crisped in olive oil, sriracha-marinated chicken, and broccoli florets — all on the plate in 20 minutes.
Five ingredients, 27g of protein, and 9g of fiber at 526 kcal.
Thin sweet potato fries crisped in olive oil, sriracha-marinated chicken, and broccoli florets — all on the plate in 20 minutes.
Five ingredients, 27g of protein, and 9g of fiber at 526 kcal.
Ingredients
- chicken breast 3 ounces
- Sriracha sauce 0.5 teaspoon
- olive oil 2 tablespoons
- sweet potato 0.25 pound
- broccoli florets (frozen) 3 cups
Method
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Cut the chicken breast into 3/4-inch slices. Toss the chicken with the Sriracha and half of the oil in a bowl and let it marinate for 2 minutes.
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Scrub the sweet potato clean and cut it into thin fries. Heat the remaining oil in a sauté pan and cook the fries over medium heat for about 12 minutes until they are done.
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Heat a frying pan and cook the chicken for 8 minutes until it’s done and browned. Cut the broccoli into small florets and cook them for 4 minutes until they are al dente.
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Serve the spicy chicken with the sweet potato fries and the broccoli.
The olive oil on the fries does more than prevent sticking. Research found that cooking sweet potato in oil increased the amount of beta-carotene your body can actually absorb by 10 to 20 times compared to without it — the fat helps carry it through digestion.
Why This Works
Behind this recipe
Is 27g of protein enough for one meal?
For most people building or maintaining muscle, yes. A systematic review of 49 studies found no practical upper limit for how much protein your body can use per meal for muscle building. At 27g from chicken breast, this meal sits in a well-studied range.
Read the full evidence reviewIs frozen broccoli as healthy as fresh?
Frozen broccoli keeps its vitamins, minerals, and fiber intact — blanching and freezing preserves the nutritional profile. The one exception is sulforaphane: the enzyme that forms it (myrosinase) is destroyed during blanching. If sulforaphane is your goal, fresh broccoli wins. For everything else, frozen is just as good.
Read the full evidence reviewCan I bake the fries instead of pan-frying them?
You can — toss the fries in olive oil and bake at 200°C (400°F) for about 20 minutes. The key is keeping that oil coating. Research found that cooking sweet potato with oil increased beta-carotene absorption 10 to 20 times compared to without it. Whether you pan-fry or oven-bake, the oil does the heavy lifting.
Read the full evidence review
