Americans have a love affair with chicken, so I felt it apropos to feature it as the final dish in our 9-day Gut Health Series. This Tangy Feta Chicken recipe is courtesy of The Beauty Chef: Delicious Food for Radiant Skin, Gut Health and Wellbeing by Carla Oates. Her stunning new cookbook features over 150 healthy dishes that are gluten-free and mostly dairy-free that will leave you looking and feeling healthy and wholesome from the inside out. The founder and 'chef' behind the popular Australian beauty and wellness brand, The Beauty Chef, believes healthy, radiant skin comes from a well-balanced gut. She describes the common causes of gut health issues, such as inflammation, grains, dairy, fats, and sugars, and shares her Glowing Kitchen Tips and Beauty Nutrients table which relates the health benefits of various nutrients and where to find them.
One of the stars in the following recipe are peppadew peppers, a sweet and slightly spicy chili pepper often found in olive bars of supermarkets. You may not think of chili peppers as a gut healing - or even gut soothing - ingredient, but in fact, peppers can aid in digestion and help create gastric mucus, the velvety soft lining of our stomach that acts as a protective barrier. Capsasin, the active ingredient in peppers, may also help fight harmful gut bacteria. Try adding a few mild peppers to your diet to see how you feel, starting with the recipe below! Be sure to click over to our homepage for all recipes in our Gut Health Series.
TANGY FETA CHICKEN
"Chicken is a lean “flavor canvas” that cries out for the sweet hot flavor of peppadew chiles, a pickled pepper from South Africa. Once you pick a jar of peppadews from your local pickle aisle, you’ll see what you’ve been missing. Just wrap this delicious chicken mixture in kale and crunch away. Compounds in peppadews, and all spicy chiles, are not only great for your skin but also heart healthy, since they can help to lower blood pressure." ~ The Beauty Chef
SERVES 4
1 lb [455 g] boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1-in [2.5-cm] pieces
1 cup [160 g] pitted black olives, chopped
1 cup [160 g] jarred peppadew chiles or 1 cup [136 g] pickled jalapeño chiles
2 Tbsp grass-fed butter or coconut oil
2 Tbsp apple cider vinegar or balsamic vinegar
1 Tbsp herbes de Provence or Italian seasoning
1 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
8 oz [230 g] crumbled feta
1 bunch kale, stemmed
6 scallions, thinly sliced, green and white parts
Put the chicken, olives, peppadews, butter, vinegar, herbes de Provence, paprika, and pepper in the slow cooker and toss well. Cover the slow cooker and cook on the low setting for 1½ to 2 hours, until the chicken is cooked through. Sprinkle with the feta, cover the slow cooker, and let rest for 5 minutes, until the cheese melts.
Arrange the kale leaves on a large platter and divide the chicken mixture between the leaves. Garnish with the scallions and serve immediately.
Nutritional Stats per Serving
330 calories, 34 g protein, 11 g carbohydrates, 17 g fat (10 g saturated fat),
97 mg cholesterol, 2 g sugars, 2 g fiber, 723 mg sodium
Recipe excerpted with permission from The Beauty Chef by Carla Oates, published by Hardie Grant Books August 2017.
