Weekly Bulk Apple Cider Dijon Grilled Chicken

I hesitating sharing this because it’s so simple and has always been an eyeballing, throw-it-in-a-bag kind of thing. But it’s also one of the foods we eat the MOST of and I’m not that tempted to switch up the marinade so we must love it.

And that means I must share it.

Because if you’re in this macro-game… or even just trying to eat healthier, one thing you can ALWAYS use is more lean protein hanging around.

I know people can get so sick of chicken but honestly, I never do. I find it to be so versatile and easy to make yummy when done right. You’ll never see me eating a plate lunch with a plain steamed chicken breast. I’d rather starve. And it still kills me when I see people cook their chicken with a lid on or stir it a bunch so it stays totally white.

But grilled with some good color, plenty of salt and garlic and some tangy grainy good dijon and vinegar?  Now it’s the perfect addition to everything and anything… like this yummy panini, salads like my favorite thai, watermelon, waldorf, BLT salad flatbreads, pizzas, crunch wraps, . … And it’s essentially JUST protein. Which might be why I’ve never struggled to hit mine.  If I prelog my day, I could ALWAYS add more chicken to my salad or sandwich and the protein in grilled chicken adds up so fast!

Too fast… I usually have to limit myself to like two tenderloins … and when it’s fresh off the grill, that’s torture. Makes me feel like such a meathead, how much chicken I could eat if I let myself.  Like Chad from the Bachelor. OH MY GOSH I hope someone remembers him with his fist full of cold cuts at all times.

See how easy it would be to grab those crispy bits while you chop? I’m always stuck estimating how much I accidentally ate off the cutting board and hope I still get to put some in my salad.  There’s about 30 grams of protein just TWO tenderloins. Good and bad I know.

Obviously you can half the recipe, or do two different marinades for options throughout your week. And if you don’t see your family going through it all, feel free to freeze some for later! Once it’s thawed, it’s still great for tucking into a million meals. Keep it cold for salads or tuck it in sandwiches, burritos, quesadillas … where it just gets the residual heat….  Just promise me you won’t stick it in the microwave for like a minute till it’s rubbery and smells like reheated poultry.

(In desperate need of the barf faced emoji right now. Which makes me feel like such a millennial.)

Weekly Bulk Apple Cider Dijon Grilled Chicken

Once a week I grill a ton and it goes in and on everything! A simple, basic, must. (*I recently edited this to increase amounts of mustard and garlic according to my preference! If you preferred the old quantities, it was 2 tbs mustard and 8 cloves garlic.)

• Author: Lillie
• Prep Time: 20
• Cook Time: 6
• Total Time: 26 minutes
• Yield: 10-12

Ingredients

• 1 whole bag of Costco frozen chicken tenderloins (6 lb) – I just really prefer tenderloins to breasts. They cook up so fast and so much more tender for me.. never weird and tough like breasts sometimes do.
• 1/3 cup apple cider vinegar (If I’m out I’ll use white balsamic)
• 3-4 tbs (I use 4) grainy dijon mustard
• 1 tsp honey (7 g)
• 12-16 cloves garlic (I use frozen dorot cubes– SO MUCH easier and no flavor loss in my opinion)
• 1.5-2 tbs KOSHER salt (I do 2 but always get nervous that I like more salt than most)
• 1/2 tbs pepper

*Sometimes I like to add some herbs I have on hand or extra honey or fresh citrus. But this is our basic weekly, go-in-anything chicken.

Instructions

1. Thaw tenderloins and trim fat and weird strings and tendony stuff- ew.  Pat dry and place in large ziplock.
2. Whisk all marinade ingredients together and pour over chicken.  Close bag and work the marinade so it spreads around. Let marinate anywhere from an hour to overnight.  Longer marinade = more flavor of course!
3. Preheat grill to medium high (I usually err on the hotter side)
4. Spray grill with cooking spray (carefully since it will make the flame go wild for a second)
5. Sprinkle a little more kosher salt over chicken and grill for just 2-3 minutes per side. I make sure and get nice dark marks on the first side and can always pull off early on the flip side if needed. At least that way you know you’ll guarantee some nice color.

Notes

EDITED: I now have this recipe in My Fitness Pal so you can just search “Lillie Eats and Tells Apple Cider Dijon Chicken” and log as many grams of grilled chicken as you put on your plate!  Easy Peasy. So you can ignore below… but I’m leaving it there in case it’s useful to anyone still!

LOGGING SHORTCUT: If you don’t want to do your own recipe and trust my calculations, in my experience this should be accurate:

• Scan the barcode from the bag of chicken for your diary, but log 1.47 TIMES what you actually take. This will account for the shrinkage that happens while grilling.  So if you put 120 grams of grilled chicken in your salad, but you’re logging the raw chicken you scanned in, log 1.47 TIMES that amount, or 120×1.47 which is 176 grams.  If you had weighed your chicken raw and then grilled it, this is the portion you would have started with to end up with 120 grams grilled. Since I skipped the oil, I don’t bother logging any of the marinade ingredients.  They’re so negligible spread amongst that much chicken.

Nutrition

• Serving Size: 113 grams
• Calories: 147
• Fat: 1.5
• Saturated Fat: 0
• Carbohydrates: 0
• Protein: 33.8