Easy Chick-Avo-Kale: A Quick Chicken, Avocado & Kale Bowl
Updated: Sep 3
Some of my favorite recipes aren't really recipes at all. They're combinations of simple ingredients that taste good together, take almost no time to make, and somehow become something you make over and over again.
That's exactly how my Chick-Avo-Kale was born.
Yes, I came up with the name too.
This easy chicken, avocado, and kale bowl takes about five minutes to throw together and gives you a satisfying combination of protein, vegetables, healthy fats, and plenty of flavor. It makes a great quick lunch or easy dinner when you want real food but have absolutely no interest in spending an hour in the kitchen.
I've made this recipe over and over because it's simple, nutritious, and genuinely delicious. Those are pretty much my three requirements for a recipe to earn regular rotation in my kitchen.
Why I Love This Easy Chicken and Kale Bowl
One of the easiest ways to make healthy eating feel less complicated is to stop thinking that every meal needs to be an elaborate recipe.
Start with a protein, add some vegetables, include a healthy fat, and make it taste good.
That's essentially what we're doing here.
The chicken provides protein, the kale gives you a generous serving of leafy greens, avocado adds creamy healthy fat, and the lemon or lime juice brightens everything up.
A simple blend of chili powder, coriander, garlic, and onion gives the chicken plenty of flavor without requiring a cabinet full of ingredients.
Even better, everything cooks in one skillet.
Fewer dishes will always earn bonus points from me.
Kale Is One of the Most Nutrient-Dense Greens
Kale is one of those vegetables that most of us know we're “supposed” to eat, but knowing that and actually wanting to eat a giant pile of raw kale are two very different things.
Cooking it changes everything.
Kale provides fiber along with nutrients including vitamins C and K, carotenoids, folate, and minerals. Lightly sautéing it softens the texture and makes it much easier to incorporate into an everyday meal.
And you don't need to cook it into oblivion. For this recipe, we're just wilting it slightly so it stays bright and has some texture.
Don't Forget the Protein
Protein is something I pay particular attention to with my patients, especially women in their 40s, 50s, and beyond.
Adequate protein helps support muscle mass, recovery, satiety, and healthy body composition. As we move through perimenopause, menopause, and healthy aging, preserving muscle becomes increasingly important.
That's one reason I love meals like this one. Instead of eating a salad that's mostly vegetables and then wondering why you're hungry again an hour later, we're building the meal around a meaningful protein source.
If you want a larger meal or have higher protein needs, simply increase the amount of chicken.
Avocado Makes Everything Better
The avocado is what brings the entire bowl together.
Instead of using a traditional dressing, avocado mash mixes with the citrus juice and seasonings to create a creamy coating for the chicken and kale.
It also adds monounsaturated fats, fiber, potassium, and other nutrients.
And frankly, avocado needs very little convincing to make its way into one of my meals.
Kale From a Chinese Food Therapy Perspective
In Chinese food therapy, we don't look at food only in terms of calories, protein, carbohydrates, vitamins, and minerals. We also consider the energetic qualities of foods and how preparation changes the way a meal affects the body.
Cooked greens can be a wonderful way to incorporate vegetables while making them gentler on digestion than a large bowl of cold, raw vegetables may be for some people.
The chicken makes this meal more nourishing and substantial, while the warming spices and quick cooking method help balance the fresh greens and citrus.
This is one of the reasons I'm such a fan of cooked vegetables. You don't get extra health points for forcing yourself to eat a giant raw kale salad if your digestive system would much rather you put it in a skillet for a minute.
Easy Chick-Avo-Kale Recipe
This is the original recipe I've made again and again. If you want to make it even easier, buy seasoned fajita-style chicken strips and skip the individual seasonings.
Ingredients:
3 oz Applegate Naturals grilled chicken breast strips, or about ½ package
1 individual serving avocado mash
2 handfuls organic chopped kale
Avocado oil spray
Juice of 1 lemon or lime
⅛ teaspoon chili powder
⅛ teaspoon coriander powder
⅛ teaspoon onion powder
⅛ teaspoon garlic powder
Sea salt, lightly sprinkled
Black pepper, lightly sprinkled
Directions:
Heat a skillet over medium-high heat and lightly coat the pan with avocado oil spray.
Add the chicken strips and season with chili powder, coriander, onion powder, garlic powder, salt, and black pepper. Stir-fry for approximately four minutes.
Add two handfuls of chopped kale and continue cooking for about another minute, just until the kale begins to wilt.
Add the fresh lemon or lime juice and stir everything together.
Transfer the chicken and kale to a bowl, add the avocado mash on top, and mix everything together.
That's it. Chick-Avo-Kale.
Make It Even Easier
This is a perfect recipe for using whatever chicken you already have in the refrigerator.
You can use leftover grilled chicken, rotisserie chicken, meal-prepped chicken breast, or pre-cooked chicken strips. If your chicken is already seasoned, you may not even need the additional spices.
You can also buy pre-washed, chopped kale so there's virtually no prep involved.
With a few basic ingredients in the refrigerator, you can have lunch ready faster than you can decide what you want to order for takeout.
Easy Ways to Change It Up
One of the reasons I've made this recipe so many times is that it's easy to modify.
If you want a more substantial meal, add roasted sweet potato, quinoa, rice, or beans.
If you like more heat, add red pepper flakes, cayenne, or hot sauce. You could also add peppers, onions, mushrooms, broccoli, or whatever vegetables need to be rescued from your refrigerator.
For even more flavor, top it with fresh cilantro, pumpkin seeds, hemp seeds, or a little extra squeeze of lime.
The basic combination of chicken + kale + avocado gives you a starting point, and then you can make it your own.
Is This Good for Meal Prep?
Absolutely.
You can cook the chicken and kale ahead of time and store them together in the refrigerator. When you're ready to eat, reheat the chicken and kale and add the avocado afterward.
I prefer adding avocado fresh rather than reheating it with the rest of the bowl.
If you're prepping several lunches, portion the chicken and kale into individual containers and keep your avocado or avocado mash separate until you're ready to eat.
Simple.
Dr. Stephanie's Tip: One of the easiest ways to improve your nutrition is to have a few five-minute meals you can make without thinking.
This is one of mine.
Healthy eating gets considerably harder when every meal requires a recipe, a grocery-store expedition, and 45 minutes of preparation.
Keep a few proteins, vegetables, healthy fats, and easy seasonings available and learn how to combine them into simple meals. You don't need to cook something impressive every night.
You just need food that nourishes you and tastes good enough that you'll actually want to eat it.
Healthy Meals Don't Have to Be Complicated
This little Chick-Avo-Kale bowl is a perfect example of how simple healthy food can be.
Chicken, kale, avocado, citrus, and a few spices. That's really all you need.
You get protein, vegetables, healthy fats, and plenty of flavor in one quick meal without spending half your evening in the kitchen.
And almost six years after originally sharing this recipe, I still think Chick-Avo-Kale is a pretty great name.
I'm keeping it.
Love Easy, Healthy Recipes Like This?
If you enjoy simple recipes made with real ingredients, you'll find plenty more in my cookbook, Allergy-Free Tastes Good to Me.
I created this cookbook to prove that eating gluten-free and dairy-free doesn't mean giving up the foods you love. Inside you'll find 93 delicious recipes for breakfasts, soups and stews, easy dinners, side dishes, snacks, and healthy treats—along with practical tips to make healthy eating easier in real life.
Because healthy food should still taste really good.
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