Chicken Lunch Wraps
I've been looking for a quick, easy, and healthy lunch. Unfortunately, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches fill only two of those requirements (especially when eaten daily). I've also been looking to up my greens intake.
In the building I used to work in, they had an excellent deli that served fresh sandwiches and wraps. For the longest time, I ate the club sandwich. But, one day I decided to try their grilled chicken wrap, and I was hooked.
So here's a chicken lunch wrap recipe. It requires a little prep, but the chicken can be made in large batches and kept for a week. I went with cabbage, which has a different flavor. I tried two variations: Ranch dressing (unhealthy) with cheddar, and fat-free Italian dressing (healthy) with pepperjack, both to good effect.
Here's to a week's worth of healthy lunches!
Ingredients
- 2 lb boneless skinless chicken breasts
- Cabbage, shredded
- Cheese
- Dressing
- Tortillas
- Salt
- Pepper
Instructions
Remove excess fat from chicken and, if too large, split in half. Coat liberally in salt and pepper. Heat pan over medium-high heat. Fry chicken until golden brown on both sides and cooked through. Let cool.
Meanwhile, shred cabbage and grate cheese. When chicken is cool enough, cut into cubes.
Warm tortillas in microwave. Build wraps by combining chicken, cabbage, cheese, and dressing. Close wraps starting from the bottom, then the sides, then rolling the bottom over the top.
Images
The whole point of this for me is to get more vegetables in my diet. Cabbage is good. Lettuce (of any variety) is also good.
First, remove any excess fat from the chicken. On the breasts, there will be some fat on the edges, and likely some on the bottom as well.
Once that's done, we can split this in half. It's entirely too thick to cook well in the pan.
Split the breast in half by cutting across with a chef's knife. This will make it easier to cook through, and make it easier to cube later.
Sprinkle the chicken with salt and pepper and set aside.
To prepare our cabbage, first rinse off the outer leaves, removing any damaged ones.
Now, we need to cut down through the stem of the cabbage, halving it.
Then we can cut both halves in half again, forming quarters.
Once we've got quarters, we can remove the stem.
With the stem removed, we can shred it.
Cut across the cabbage first, forming strips.
Then cut across the strips.
The cabbage can go in a zipper bag and should keep for a few days.
Now we can start cooking the chicken. Add a bit of oil to a pan over medium heat, then add the chicken. We don't want to crowd the pan, so cook the chicken in batches if necessary.
While we wait for the chicken to cook, we can shred the cheese. Cheddar is always good, but I also decided to try some pepperjack.
After a few minutes, we can flip the chicken.
Remember that browning means flavor. Try not to flip the chicken over prematurely.
The chicken is done when its internal temperature reaches 165°. Once done, remove it from heat to a plate to cool down a bit.
Once the chicken is cooled, you can cut it into cubes.
Some of these pieces aren't cooked through, especially those near the bottom of the picture. I had to toss them back into the pan for a bit.
Now we've got everything ready and we can build our wrap.
Start with a little bit of chicken.
Then add a handful of cabbage.
This one has cheddar cheese.
And finally, some Ranch dressing.
Close the wrap by folding up the bottom, then the sides, then rolling the bottom over the top.
Feel free to mix it up. This one's made with pepperjack cheese and Italian dressing (non-fat, for health purposes).