Saturday, September 27, 2008

Roasted Green Chili Chicken Sandwich

From Jenny Craig Gourmet

I am currently eating off of the preplanned menus. For me it is easier knowing that my whole day is planned out calorically. Today's lunch, according to my menu is:

Chicken Sandwich
Spinach Salad
Jenny's Dressing (50 cal)
2 Tbl Parmesan Cheese (42 cal)

Now, here is what I did to mix things up a bit while staying within the calories (and actually a little under).

Roasted Green Chile Chicken Sandwich
1 green chile
1 Jenny Craig Chicken Sandwich (discard the Creole Mustard dressing or save for another use)
1 roma tomato cut into thick slices
2 small pieces of romaine lettuce
a few thin slices of onion
1 Babybel Light cheese, cut into 3 thin slices (50 cal - I am substituting this for the parmesan. It's 8 calories more but I'm making up the difference with not using the Jenny's Dressing - more on that later)
2 Tbl FF Sour Cream (20 cal)
Chili Powder to taste
PAM Professional

Heat up your grill to high heat.

Roast the green chile on the grill until it is almost completely blackened on all sides (it should look like the picture below) and place in a ziploc bag for about 5 minutes. This will loosen the skin so it will scrape off easily.

From Jenny Craig Gourmet

Remove the chicken and bun from the packaging. Defrost chicken in microwave for 90 seconds on low power. Remove chicken and season with chili powder then spray with PAM. Spray the inside surface of the bun with PAM as well and place the bun and chicken on the grill. Watch the bun closely so it does not burn and remove when toasted to your preference. Heat the chicken through on the grill, about 5 minutes.

Meanwhile combine 2 Tbl Fat Free Sour Cream with 1 tsp or so of Chili Powder or to taste. I like things SPICY! Mix well and set aside.

Remove the chile from the ziploc bag and scrape the charred skin off with a knife or your fingers. Cut off the stem, then cut lengthwise and remove the seeds. Slice green chile into pieces that will fit on the sandwich.

Now, it's time to assemble. I used about 1 tsp of the sour cream mixture on each bun (2 tsp total = ~7 cal) then added the 3 thin slices of cheese to the bottom bun. Top with lettuce, onion, tomato then the chicken. Add a couple green chile slices to the top of the chicken and finish with the top bun.

I ate my sandwich with a spinach salad with diced tomato, freshly ground pepper and a few tsps of my favorite Fat Free Balsamic Vinaigrette (2 T = 5 Cal, 1 g Carbs).

So whats the damage? My substitutions added up to 62 calories (not including the chicken sandwich of course) vs. the 92 calories had I eaten the Jenny's dressing and the Parmesan Cheese. I saved 30 calories and had a filling, SPICY lunch. How do you jazz up your chicken sandwich?

2 comments:

The Crate Escape said...

This looks good, I'll have to try it. I love your blog! Any ideas for that gross burrito??

Chrissy said...

I hope you enjoy it! I'm really struggling with that burrito too. Unfortunately I'm usually at work when I have to eat it so I can't get creative. But now you have me thinking. If I come up with something you'll be the first to know!