Like a bad date, low fat, carb free dinners tend to leave you empty, unfulfilled and desperately craving one of those 367 million calorie melt in the middle chocolate puddings. I can’t claim that my latest culinary favourite is *quite* as delicious as cheese covered chips, but considering how kind it’ll be to your thighs, it’s pretty good. Totalling less than 500 calories per portion, even ardent food fascist Gillian McKeith would struggle to confiscate ingredients from you. (She’d probably try though.)
Preparation and cooking time is around 40 minutes in total and if you’ve got leftovers, it’s makes a great lunch too.
Chorizo, chicken and chick pea casserole
Serves 3 (or 2 very greedy people)
What you’ll need
2 large chicken breasts diced
Half a chorizo sausage (you can choose how spicy you like it.)
2 red onions finely chopped
1 finely chopped red chilli (optional)
1 large red pepper roughly chopped
Half an aubergine (optional) chopped into small cubes
1 tin of tomatoes
1 tin of chick peas or butter beans
Salt and pepper
What to do
1.) Chop the chorizo into small chunks and lightly fry in a casserole dish. You won’t need oil as the fat should melt. After around five minutes transfer the cooked chorizo into a side dish.
2.) Put the chorizo fat on a low heat and use it to gently fry the onions and peppers. When they start to soften add the chilli and aubergine (if you want to make it spicy.)
3.) Once all the vegetables start to soften, turn up the heat slightly to brown the chicken.
4.) Once the chicken is sealed and lightly browned, add the tin of tomatoes and a sprinkling of salt and pepper.
5.) If the tomato juice isn’t covering the chicken and veg you can add a cupful of stock water.
6.) Cover and leave to simmer for 15-20 minutes until the chicken is completely cooked through.
7.) Stir in the chick peas (or beans) and chorizo and simmer for a further five minutes.
8.) I recommend serving with green veg but if you’re a carbs monster try it with white rice.
Word of warning: Do not leave your cooled chorizo in ‘paw reach’ of any animals.
3 comments
Hannah says:
Aug 27, 2012
This looks yummy! Matt dived on the laptop when he say this so we will have to make it now! haha
Emma says:
Mar 6, 2013
How big is the chorizo sausage you used? Or how much does it weigh? I have small ones just a few inches in length but I have seen them much longer and am not sure how much chorizo I can put in. I’m on the 5:2 diet so 500 calories is all I can have!
Lizzie says:
Mar 6, 2013
I love chorizo so used quite a large piece (about half of a full sized one.o) However it is quite high in cals so if you’re going super low cal, try a small amount of spicy chorizo… Chop it up small to maximise flavour throughout the dish. x