Falafel-Crusted Chicken w/ Hummus-Slaw Pitas

Life would be so much easier if I had three sous chefs helping me cook dinner every night.  Is that so much to ask for people?

Last week, Dave and I cooked up a delicious new dinner with our friends  Dave and Betsy.  (I do have to mention that they are actually Dave & Elizabeth just like we are… weird!) They are foodies just like us and we absolutely love trying new things with them (Check out our spectacular meal at Modo Mio).  I was happy to have lots of help in the kitchen- especially since the other Dave was the only one who could find the Falafel mix we needed!  You may have to visit more than one grocery store like we did, just a heads up.

This recipe was so tasty and really different than anything else I’ve tried before.  It could also be easily made and put over a bed of lettuce as a salad or stuffed into a wrap too!

Ingredients:

Cooking spray
2 packages of Chicken Breast Tenders (pre-cut saves time and is inexpensive!)
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 cup falafel mix (We used Casbah brand)
4 whole-wheat pitas, halved
1/4 cup Hummus (I made some homemade real quick first, but you can use store-bought if you want!)
Grated zest and juice of 1 lemon
1 Tablespoon Sriracha
1 package shredded coleslaw mix
6 radishes, halved and thinly sliced
1 cup chopped fresh parsley
Sea Salt and Black Pepper

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Directions
1.  Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Coat a foil-lined backing sheet with cooking spray. Toss the chicken with the olive oil in a large bowl, then add the falafel mix and toss to coat. (It will stick, I promise!) Arrange the chicken on the baking sheet and bake until golden and cooked through, about 10 minutes. While the chicken is baking, stack the pita halves and wrap them in foil; warm in the oven, about 5 minutes.

2.  Meanwhile, mix the hummus, lemon zest and juice, Sriracha and 3 tablespoons water in a large bowl. Remove 2 tablespoons of the hummus sauce and reserve. Add the coleslaw mix, radishes and parsley to the remaining hummus sauce and toss. Season with salt and pepper.  Add more Hummus, seasoning, or Sriracha to taste.  (This part was Dave’s job so I’m sure a little extra Sriracha slipped in! 😉 )

3.  Stick some slaw, two chicken tenders, and a drizzle of the reserved sauce into a pita and serve warm.

Recipe slightly adapted from:  Food Network Magazine

I couldn’t believe how evenly the falafel mix coated the chicken without any egg!

Slaw it up!

Ready to eat… nom nom

Delish! We made some simple sauteed zucchini and onion on the side.

Miss Stelly lookin’ pretty as usual

Sweet Baby Ray’s Sloppy Joes

I really have no idea what inspired me to make Sloppy Joe and put it into a wrap.  Let me tell you… the meal was JUST as sloppy as it is on a potato roll, if not MORE!  Grab a few paper towels and make this one for your fam!

Makes 8-10 Servings (3/4 cup)

Ingredients:

Olive Oil

1 Red Bell Pepper

4 Large Carrots

2 Stalks Celery

1/2 Sweet Onion

1 Tablespoon Minced Garlic

Sea Salt & Pepper

2.5 lbs Ground Beef (lean, 93%)

2 8oz cans Tomato Sauce

2 Tablespoons Tomato Paste (I used the tube kind)

1 cup Sweet Baby Ray’s Hickory Brown Sugar BBQ Sauce (+more)

3 Tablespoons Worcestershire Sauce

2-3 Tablespoons Hot Sauce or Buffalo Marinade

Buns (for traditional SJ’s), Wraps (what I did), or a big spoon!

Directions:

1.  Finely dice all of your veggies.  Heat about a Tablespoon of Olive Oil in a very large skillet or dutch oven.  Season with Sea Salt and Pepper (just a pinch of both will do) and saute for 5-10 minutes.  Add Garlic and cook for another minute.

2.  Add the ground beef to the veggies.  Chop, stir, cook until the meat is no longer pink and is fully cooked.  Chop and chop and chop until the meat is almost the same size as the veggies.

3.  Add your tomato sauce, tomato paste, Sweet Baby Ray’s BBQ Sauce, Worcestershire Sauce, and Hot Sauce.  Stir, cover, and simmer on medium-low heat until it has thickened (for about 10 minutes).  Serve any way you’d like… buns, wraps, or just enjoy with a big spoon!

Recipe adapted from:  Spenser’s Sloppy Joe’s, Down Home w/ the Neelys

Get your veggies sauteed up! I liked chopping them really small so they would mix well with the ground beef.

Finished product! YUMMM!

A Sloppy Joe wrap and a side salad

Digging right in… Sloppy is right! 🙂

So, for some reason I had imagined Sloppy Joe in a wrap… so that’s exactly what we did.  I used those Ezekiel Sprouted Wraps which are super healthy; they have only 9 ingredients (all organic), are high in fiber, gluten-free, and taste really good.  You can find them in the frozen section of the grocery store if you haven’t tried them yet!

The Sweet Baby Ray’s BBQ Sauce is so freakin’ good in here.  It is my absolute favorite BBQ sauce as it is, but the sweet & smoky Hickory Brown Sugar flavor is perfect for Sloppy Joe.  I added some extra onto the wrap before I closed it up as a nice finishing touch too.  You can try to use any BBQ sauce but if you see this stuff on sale… pick one up… or two… because it is SO YUMMY!

Although it made the recipe sorta non-traditional… I loved adding the veggies to this Sloppy Joe.  It gave the mix tons of flavor but also they bulked it up allowing you to eat more for the same amount of calories.  Hm… now that I think of it, what a great way to sneak in veggies for kids too!

We shared this batch with our roommate Adam and had enough for extras and leftovers the following day at work.  This is a great recipe for those one-pot cooking nights and for when you need to feed a lot of people!

Sweet Baby Ray’s Sloppy Joes Nutrition

Servings: 8-10 (3/4 Cup)

Calories: 311

Fat: 7g

Protein: 28g

Fiber: 2g

Carbs: 29g