Halal Cart Style Chicken Buffet Prep

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Prep Time: 30 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 45 minutes minutes

Total Time: 1 hour hour 15 minutes minutes

Servings: 6 servings

Nutrition

Calories: 773kcal | Carbohydrates: 60g | Protein: 53g | Fat: 36g | Fiber: 4.3g

This Halal Cart Style Chicken Meal Prep is a buffet style prep that keeps all of the ingredients stored separately for better freshness and control. It has grilled chicken thighs, turmeric rice, vegetables, and a white sauce to go over the top.

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Ingredients

For the Rice

• 2 cups (360 g) dry basmati rice
• 2 tbsp (28 g) butter
• 1 tsp (3 g) garlic powder
• 1 tsp (3 g) onion powder
• 0.5 tsp (1.5 g) cumin
• 0.25 tsp (1 g) turmeric
• 0.5 tsp (3 g) salt

For the Chicken

• 3 lbs (1362 g) boneless skinless chicken thighs
• 2.5 tbsp (37.5 g) oil
• 2 tbsp (30 g) lemon juice
• 2 tsp (6 g) cumin
• 2 tsp (6 g) garlic powder
• 2 tsp (6 g) onion powder
• 2 tsp (3 g) smoked paprika
• 1 tsp (3 g) cinnamon
• 1.5 tsp (9 g) salt
• 1 tsp (2 g) pepper

For the Vegetables

• 1 (100 g) small red onion
• 1 (300 g) english cucumber
• 3 (300 g) Roma tomatoes
• 8 oz (227 g) lettuce
• 1 tbsp (15 g) olive oil
• 2 tbsp (30 g) vinegar

For the White Sauce

• 0.5 cup (100 g) mayo
• 0.67 cup (150 g) plain non fat greek yogurt
• 1 tsp (5 g) lemon juice
• 1 tsp (3 g) garlic powder
• (30 g) water to consistency
• salt to taste

Instructions

For the Rice

• Measure out 2 cups (360g) of dry rice. Rinse it until the water runs clear. This is important to remove all of the starch from the exterior and get less sticky grains.
• In your rice pot add in 2 tbsp of butter and dump in the rice. Stir to coat the grains with butter and toast over medium heat for a few minutes until the rice starts developing some color.
• Add in the seasonings and stir to combine. Allow the spices to bloom for about a minute and then pour in 3 cups (720g) of water.
• Turn the heat to high and bring to a strong boil. Once this has been achieve, place on a tight fitting lid and turn the heat to low and simmer for 15 minutes.
• After the 15 minutes are up, turn the heat off and leave covered for an additional 10 minutes. Then you can remove the lid and fluff with a fork.
• Once cooled, you can move it into a storage container and place into your fridge.

For the Chicken

• You can cook this chicken in the oven or on the grill. I did mine on grill for ease and speed.
• In a large bowl make your marinade by mixing together all of the seasonings, lemon juice, and oil. Stir to combine. Add your chicken thighs and toss to coat. Allowing this to marinate for at least 30 minutes will help with flavor but it isn't a requirement.
• To cook on the grill, heat your grill with a medium high flame.
• Place your chicken on the grates and cook for 4-5 minutes on each side or until cooked throughout and well colored. Remove from the grill and allow to rest before cutting.
• Too cook in the oven preheat the oven to 400 °F (204 °C). Place the thighs on a sheet pan with plenty of room between each thigh and the smooth side facing down.
• Roast for 20-22 minutes. If you want to get more color, you can turn the oven to broil for the last 5 minutes, just keep a close eye on the chicken so it doesn't burn.
• After some time to rest, you can cut the chicken into thin slices. Place into a Zwilling Fresh & Save container and remove the air to help with freshness retention.

For the Vegetables

• Wash all of your vegetables first. For the cucumber, I think English is best because they have less seeds and aren't as wet. I like to cut it the long way 2 times to get it into quarters, then cut each quarter into thin slices.
• For the tomatoes, cut them in half, remove the seeds, and cut them to match the size of your cucumbers.
• Cut your onion into thin slices and separate all of the layers. If you want to take some of the raw onion bite out of them, you can rinse under cold water.
• Place the cucumbers, tomatoes, and onion into a Fresh & Save container. Drizzle over 1 tbsp of oil and 2 of vinegar. Stir to combine. You don't want to salt at this point as it will pull water out of the vegetables and make them mushy.
• For the lettuce, I find it is best when sliced as thin as you can possibly get it. I stack up the leaves, roll them tight, then cut into thin pieces. Place into a Fresh & Save container, and remove the air to help keep fresh over the week.

For the White Sauce

• Mix all of the sauce ingredients together in a bowl and season with salt to taste. You want the consistency of this sauce to be pourable but not too watery. It will likely thicken a bit in the fridge so you may need to add a bit of water over the week.

Storage and Reheating

• Storing each ingredient separately in a Fresh & Save container from Zwilling aallows you to remove the air with the vacuum pump which will help keep the ingredients fresh for longer.
• When it comes time for a meal, you can remove each of the containers from the fridge. One of the benefits of buffet style meal prep is that you can make your meals whatever size you are feeling at that moment.
• Add some rice and chicken to a bowl and reheat in the microwave. I also like to add the cucumbers, tomatoes, and onions in the microwave for the last 20-30 seconds to take some of the chill out of them.
• Next place some lettuce into your bowl. Make sure you salt your vegetables as we did not do it during the prep portion.
• Top your bowl with the white sauce and enjoy.

Nutrition Estimates

• Because this is a buffet style meal prep, the nutritional content of each of your meals will depend on the size. The nutritional estimates above are if you were to evenly split each of the ingredients evenly between 6 meals.
• My total cooked weights of the ingredients were the following:

  rice = 1080g

  chicken = 950g

  lettuce = 227g

  vegetables = 745g

  sauce = 288g

Course: Main Dish

Cuisine: Middle Eastern

Keyword: chicken, gluten free, meal prep

NUTRITIONAL INFO FOR THE Halal Cart Style Chicken Buffet Prep

The information in this table represents the estimate for the total nutrition of the recipe as it is written. If you wanted to split the recipe into more or less servings than what is originally listed you can use this table to determine the nutritional estimates.  If you update the number of servings in the “Servings” field of the recipe above, the information in these tables are no longer accurate as you have updated the ingredients.