Healthy Chicken Recipes

When you make the switch to heart-healthful eating, chicken breast is almost a food group unto itself. Keep it fun and delicious with these tasty recipes.

Fennel, with its light, licorice flavor and celerylike texture, is the perfect complement to the other herbs in this soup. Look for firm, smooth bulbs without cracks and brown spots. Stalks should be crisp and leaves should be bright green.

Typical chicken salad is loaded with fat so most people avoid it when trying to eat healthfully. But this version uses low-fat yogurt and light mayonnaise, which cuts the fat significantly. For even less fat, leave the egg out and increase the amount of apple, cucumber, and/or celery.

When buying ground chicken or turkey, make sure that only the white meat was used. Sometimes, dark meat and skin are included when these meats are ground, which can greatly increase the overall fat content.

For fewer calories and less fat, use soba noodles in place of the egg noodles. Soba noodles, a Japanese favorite, are made from buckwheat flour. One cup has only 113 calories and almost no fat. Egg noodles have 213 calories and 2.4 grams of fat per cup.

If you don't have any leftover chicken, pick up some refrigerated or frozen cooked chicken breast at the supermarket. Or you can buy a whole rotisserie chicken and save the dark meat for another meal.

Hummus is a spread made of mashed chickpeas, ground sesame seeds (called tahini), lemon juice, garlic, and salt. It's full of fiber from the chickpeas and also contains some healthy monounsaturated fats.

Let the kids choose which vegetables to add to this soup. Studies have shown that when kids help make a meal, they are more likely to eat it, even when it includes foods they typically won't eat or even try, such as vegetables.

Most pizza you buy is loaded with fat and calories. But that doesn't mean you can never eat pizza again if you're watching your weight. This recipe will satisfy your cravings with less fat and fewer calories than the average restaurant pizza.

This classic dish fits perfectly into a heart-healthy diet because it uses reduced-fat soup, fat-free milk, and light mayonnaise. Serve with mixed greens tossed in a little vinaigrette for a complete meal.

Deli-roasted chicken makes this recipe extra easy. Whole wheat orzo and fresh spinach make it nutritious as well.

On those hot summer days when you're craving a cool meal, make these chicken- and melon-stuffed pasta shells. The dressing is made with fat-free yogurt, which keeps the calorie and fat levels in this recipe much lower than if you used a traditional mayonnaise dressing.

Since locally grown vegetables don?t have to travel far, they retain more nutrients than vegetables that sit on a truck waiting to be shipped. So whenever possible, use vegetables from your garden or a local farmer's market.

While 30 cloves of garlic may look like a typo, we can assure you it's not. If we were using it raw, that would be a lot, but roasted garlic becomes mellow in flavor and buttery-soft, making 30 cloves just right for this recipe.

Instead of using oil to prepare the chicken, Dr. Richard Collins, the Cooking Cardiologist, uses an oil-free marinade. This cuts down on the fat while keeping the chicken moist and juicy.

A lime and rosemary marinade infuses this chicken breast with a distinctive flavor. To get the most juice from limes, lemons, or oranges, let them stand at room temperature for about 30 minutes before halving them and squeezing out the juice. You can also try piercing the pulp inside with a fork, which will help release the juice.

Love fried chicken but don't want all that fat? Then try this low-fat version that uses cornflakes to give chicken that crispy, crunchy texture you crave, but without all the calories and fat.

Sweet potatoes are high in both beta-carotene and vitamin C, two antioxidants that may help protect you from disease and slow the aging process. To keep sweet potatoes fresh, store them in a cool (under 60°F), well-ventilated area -- not in the refrigerator.

Wild rice varies widely, from long, black, cultivated grains to more expensive, hand-harvested grains that are mottled gray. Generally, cultivated rice takes longer to cook. Either way, wild rice is a protein-rich whole grain that adds an earthy flavor to this low-fat soup.

Many people think mushrooms are tasty but offer little from a nutrition standpoint. But they actually are a good source of potassium and selenium, an antioxidant. In fact just five white button mushrooms provides almost one-fourth of the daily value for selenium.

Americans love Chinese takeout but it's often high in sodium and can be high in fat. This heart-healthy version lets you enjoy this traditional dish without all the sodium and fat.

Peanuts, which add crunch and flavor to this chicken pizza, are a good source of niacin. Niacin is a B-vitamin that that can help lower LDL ("bad") cholesterol. Peanuts also contain resveratrol, the compound most known for being in red wine, which is believed to reduce the risk of heart disease.