Healthiest Baked Chicken Recipe - Clean Eating Meal Prep

Hey guys, I'm Dani Spees and today I'm talking steaming. Now, steaming is a very basic cooking technique that is great when it comes to preparing quick, simple, delicious, nutritious meals. And before you even say it, I'm telling you that steaming does not have to mean boring, lackluster, tasteless food. As a matter of fact, the secret is to seasoning the food after you steam it. But first things first, you have to have a steamer. Now basically, all a steamer is, is a basket that has holes all along the bottom. And this basket sits on top of a pot of boiling water. Now, you can either buy a pot that comes with a steamer attachment, which is what I have here, or you can just buy the basket on its own and fit it on a pot that you already have at home. Either way, you want to be sure that you have a lid that fits on top of the basket. Otherwise, the ingredients are never going to steam. Once you're ready to start steaming, you just want to get a couple of inches of water in the bottom of the pot here. Just be sure the water doesn't come up high enough to touch the bottom of your steamer basket, okay? Once you've got the water in there, bring your heat to high, and we're just going to let that come to a boil. So once you're at a boil, you're ready to get started. I'm going to pop my basket on top of the boiling water. Then you're going to get your ingredients in. Now today, I'm going to show you guys how easy it is to make a 10-minute steamed chicken and vegetable mixture at home. So first thing in, my chicken. Now the chicken's going to need about a 5 or 6-minute head start on the veggies, so I'm just going to pop the lid on and let that cook. It's been about 3 minutes, so I'm just going to give it a quick stir and let it go another 2 or 3 minutes. Now, I have my heat up on high, but if you notice that your pot starts getting a little rambunctious and you see little bubbles coming up along the side, then you might want to just bring it down a notch or two. So it's been about 5 minutes, and my chicken is all cooked through. I don't see any pink spots, so we're ready for the next step. So I'm just going to pop my veggies in. I have here broccoli and sugar snap peas. I'll pop the lid on. That'll take another 3 or 4 minutes, and dinner will be ready to serve. Now obviously, the cooking times are going to vary depending on what kind of ingredients you're cooking up, but this particular dish takes about 10 to 12 minutes. And in that 10 to 12 minutes, you could whip up a side dish, make a phone call, change the garbage, whip up your martini. Really quick, plenty of time. It's been another 3 minutes, and I like my veggies nice and al dente, so this is ready to go. If you like your veggies cooked a little bit more, just let them go an extra couple minutes. I'll just turn the heat off and serve some up. Now the key to delicious tasting steamed food is the seasoning it when it's done cooking. So I'm going to give mine a little Asian flair. First, I'm going to top it with a little bit of toasted sesame oil. Just a drizzle. A splash of soy sauce. A sprinkle of garlic powder. A pinch of red pepper flakes. And I'll top that all off with a few sesame seeds. Now this is just one way that you can finish this dish off, but you want to use your imagination and change the toppings. So for instance, if you were in the mood for Italian, go ahead and top this off with maybe a little garlic powder, tomato sauce, and parmesan cheese. See what I'm saying? So now that you see how easy and delicious a steamed meal can be, get in your kitchen and start steaming. And don't forget to tell me what kind of clean, simple, and delicious steamed recipes you come up with. I'm Dani Spees, and I'll see you next time with another how-to.