Lebanese Chicken Recipe | 22g Protein Meal Prep

It is Sunday, you have twenty minutes before the week actually starts, and you want one thing in the fridge that does not need a decision attached to it every night. This is that thing. Three pounds of chicken thighs, a lemon garlic marinade you whisk in one bowl, and the oven does the rest. Twelve portions, 22 grams of protein and 2 grams of net carbs each. That is lunch and dinner solved for most of the week without a single spreadsheet.

Why This Meal Works for Fat Loss

Chicken thighs get skipped by a lot of women chasing a number on the scale because they assume "thigh" means "too much fat." It does not, once you know where the fat is actually coming from. In this recipe almost all of it is the quarter cup of oil in the marinade, which means you can see it, measure it, and adjust it. That is a very different situation than a fried thigh from a drive through where the fat is invisible and unmeasured.

The other reason this belongs in your rotation is volume. Twelve portions from one dish means you cook once and eat off it most of the week, which is exactly the kind of plan that survives a Tuesday when discipline alone does not. Shredding the chicken and tossing it back through the pan juices also means every bite carries flavor, so you are not reaching for a separate sauce that adds calories you never log. And because the carbs sit at 2 grams a portion, this dish leaves almost the whole carb budget for the day open, which means you decide what goes with it instead of the recipe deciding for you.

Lebanese Chicken Recipe

Protein 22g | Fat 9g | Carbs 2g per portion (recipe makes 12 portions, 266g protein / 19g net carbs / 110g fat total)

Ingredients

• 3 lbs (roughly 1000g or 1kg) boneless skinless chicken thighs

• 1/3 cup (81g) lemon juice

• 1/4 cup (56g) canola oil

• 2 tbsp (30g) low carb ketchup

• 1 tbsp (16g) tomato paste

• 6 garlic cloves, fine diced

• 1 tbsp (2g) dried oregano

• 1.5 tsp salt

• 0.5 tsp pepper

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 425°F.

2. Whisk together the lemon juice through the pepper to make the marinade.

3. Add the chicken thighs to a glass 13x9x2 casserole dish.

4. Pour the marinade over the chicken and make sure every piece is coated.

5. Bake 30 minutes, remove the pan, flip the chicken pieces, and return to the oven for another 20 minutes, or until internal temp reaches 165°F.

6. Remove the chicken, shred the meat, and add it back to the casserole dish, tossing to coat with the juices.

Macros are from Cam's cookbook and will vary by brand and by product. This makes 12 portions, so weigh the finished, shredded chicken and divide if you want your exact number.

How to Fit It Into Your Day

One portion at 22 grams of protein and 9 grams of fat is a solid protein add-on to a bowl or a salad. Two portions is a real meal, 44 grams of protein for 18 grams of fat, and it still leaves you room to build the rest of the plate however the day calls for it. Warm pita, rice, roasted vegetables, a big pile of greens with a real dressing, all of it works because this dish is not bringing much of a carb footprint on its own.

This is also a good one for the nights you are eating on a schedule that does not match everyone else's. Shredded chicken that already has flavor reheats fast and does not need a pan, so it is the meal that keeps you from grabbing whatever is easiest at 8pm because you are starving and out of ideas.

Swaps and Variations

Want it leaner? Swap in chicken breasts and cut the oil to broth for a nonfat version, the cookbook notes results will vary but it is a real option if your fat target is tight that day. Want more heat? Add crushed red pepper to the marinade. No fresh garlic on hand? A tablespoon of jarred minced garlic works, just expect a slightly milder bite. This chicken is also genuinely good stuffed into warm pitas with a yogurt sauce if you want a night that feels like takeout instead of a meal prep container.

Meal Prep Notes

This is a batch-cook dish by design. Let the chicken rest a few minutes before shredding so it holds together better, then portion it with the pan juices into containers so nothing dries out. It keeps 4 days in the fridge. Reheat covered, 60 to 90 seconds, and add a splash of water or broth if it looks like it needs it. It freezes well for up to 2 months, and because it is already shredded, it thaws and reheats without the texture problems whole chicken breast runs into.

Knowing what to cook solves dinner. It does not tell you how many of these portions belong on your plate this week, or how that number should shift around your training and the rest of your life. That is the part coaching answers, and it looks different for every woman who walks through the door. If you are done guessing and ready to eat with an actual plan built for your body, book your call here.

The Pan I Cook This In (and 10% Off)

Quick one, because it matters more than people think. This recipe bakes in a casserole dish, but the shredding and tossing at the end happens right in Caraway ceramic non-stick when I want it stovetop instead. It is the best non-stick pan I have used, full stop. Food slides off with barely any oil, it works on gas, electric and induction, and it goes straight into the oven up to 550°F.

Here is why a nutrition coach cares about a pan. Cooking oil is the calorie leak nobody logs. One tablespoon of oil is about 120 calories, and most of us pour it without measuring, two or three times a day. On a real non-stick surface a teaspoon does the job a tablespoon used to, which is about 80 calories saved every time you cook. Two cooked meals a day and that is over 1,000 calories a week you never tasted, gone, without eating a single bite less. That is the kind of deficit I want for you: the food stays, the calories you cannot taste go.

And the part I did not know for years: traditional Teflon-coated non-stick starts breaking down above about 500°F, which is exactly where a hot sear or an empty preheating pan lands, and the fumes it gives off are what doctors call "Teflon flu." Caraway's ceramic coating is made without PTFE, PFOA, PFAS, lead, or cadmium, so I stopped thinking about it.

Grab yours at rstr.co/caraway/coachcam and use code coachcam at checkout for 10% off. That is an affiliate link, so I earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. It is the pan every recipe in this series is cooked in.