Meal-prep honey-mustard chicken & asparagus
1 base recipe, 3 dinners, wowza
Hi everyone, and welcome to anyone new who found their way to this newsletter from The Athletic. There will be absolutely nothing about sports here. Instead, you’ll find weekly recipes that are abundant in joy yet streamlined in process—because they’re all made of the same 40 ingredients.
If you want to have a look around 40 Ingredients Forever, the About page is a good place to start. Or the recipe index. Or keep scrolling for grilled chicken.
One strategy for easy, breezy, warm-weather dinners: Grill once, then eat and eat night after night. Because the smokiness of grilled foods intensifies as the days go by, grilled dinners actually improve when they’re made ahead.
Today’s meal plan takes full advantage of hot grates. It starts with a honey-mustard dressing with plenty of vinegar to keep it tangy and not too sweet. Some of that dressing marinates the chicken before it hits the grill, then the rest of the dressing is used in a number of ways for future meals.
Then, we’ve got literal bunches of grilled asparagus and scallions; I love how they tangle together on plates, the scallions sneaking in an oniony flavor to every few bites of asparagus. We’ll also grill some bread to use in a few meals.
If you’re pro meal prep, let me know by hitting the ❤️ button at the top left or bottom left of this newsletter.
With grilled chicken, asparagus, scallions, and bread — plus a sauce/dressing — in the fridge, you’re on your way to many meals, including the following three, which use overlapping ingredients to streamline shopping even more.
Meal #1: Mixed grill
The night you grill, chop up some tomatoes and dress them with the honey mustard, then eat some of your mixed grill with the tomatoes and more honey mustard to sauce everything.
Meal #2: Grilled chicken chopped salad
It’s got avocado and feta and grilled chicken and vegetables, plus tangy kale — and anything else you want. That’s the beauty of a salad arranged in rows: It willingly accepts whatever you need to get rid of.
Meal #3: Asparagus-feta dinner omelet
Tuck grilled asparagus and scallions into a comforter of eggs. There are also melty pops of feta, plus crunchy pops of grilled breadcrumbs.
Behind the paywall, there is a grocery list and the four recipes, plus swaps for riffing on the main recipe. Hope it’s helpful!