Maple Dijon Chicken

This past week has not been a great one for food. Well, it's been great taste-wise, but health-wise it's been less than awesome. I have returned to work on a volunteer basis and that's been exhausting. I don't even have energy to do the groceries or cook. I need to get myself back on track. I've worked so hard to get to where I am and I still have a long, long way to go.

Tonight's dinner got me right back on track and was fresh and tasty.

Without further ado, Maple Dijon Chicken.

This recipe is based on dinner I had at a friend's house several years ago. She was using the last bits and pieces of what was left in her fridge and came up with this yummy combo. Over the years, I've made versions of this, and tonight I tried to go as low carb as possible (next time, I'd reduce the maple syrup, maybe use a little maple extract).

Ingredients:
2 chicken breasts, sliced into little pieces with all the nastiness removed
1/2 c reduced sodium chicken broth
1 tbsp olive oil
3 tbsp maple syrup
1 tbsp grainy Dijon mustard
3 tbsp Philadelphia Light Cream Cheese - Garden Vegetable flavour (this was the only flavour I had in the fridge, I would have preferred to have had plain cream cheese)

Process:
-Preheat oven to 350 degrees
-Cut chicken into itty bitty pieces and place in cooking dish
-Season with salt and pepper and sprinkle olive oil on top
-Cook chicken for 10 minutes
-In a bowl, combine mustard, syrup and chicken broth
-Flip chicken and cook for another 5 minutes
-Cover chicken with mustard, syrup and chicken broth mixture
-Cook for another five minutes in oven

I love how simple it is to whip up a sauce that complements a meal.

-Pour drippings from chicken into saucepan on stovetop, add cream cheese, heat and reduce (about 5 minutes) (this creates the sauce)

A few minutes of broiling does a lot for the chicken's texture and gets rid of any sliminess.

-Set oven to broil, cook chicken for 3-5 minutes to crisp up a little bit
-Serve chicken with a little bit of sauce

(creates 3 servings)

Nutritional Information:
(per serving, includes sauce)
Calories: 190
Fat: 8 g
Protein: 14 g
Carbs: 15 g
Fibre: 0 g
Sugar: 13 g
Net carbs: 15 g

Yum or Not:
I served this with a great big pile of brocolli. The Captain got butter on his, mine was plain. The chicken was flavourful and the sauce added a nice creaminess. This was extremely yum and very easy. We will definitely be having this meal again.

Like I wrote earlier, I could have cut the maple syrup in 1/3. If the taste wasn't maple-y enough, I would add some maple extract (yes, that's a thing. It's awesome with bacon). This dinner could retain the delicious taste without being so high in carbs (as I'm trying to stay under 20 net carbs a day, 15 in one meal is high!).

I'm such a fan of making sauces from the drippings. This cream sauce added a lot of texture and deliciousness for very few calories. I wish I'd had an open bottle of white wine, because a little splash of that would have been lovely.