20 Low Cholesterol Chicken Recipes

1g saturated fat · 45 minutes · serves 4

The marinade here has just 5 ingredients: balsamic vinegar, lemon juice, chopped garlic, olive oil and black pepper. Butterflied chicken breast halves soak up the flavors, then are finished with a splash of broth and fresh parsley.

Acid and garlic carry the flavor, so there's no call for butter or a cream sauce anywhere in the pan. That's the whole reason the saturated fat stays at 1g. Start to finish the recipe takes 45 minutes, and a serving comes in at 185 calories.

1g saturated fat · 45 minutes · serves 4

Restaurant Italian food is often the first thing people give up when they start watching saturated fat. This version keeps the lemon, the rinsed capers and the bright pan sauce, and measures the butter in tablespoons rather than sticks, so you get rich flavor without all the excess fat.

Those three tablespoons of butter get split across four servings, alongside olive oil and reduced-sodium broth. Butterflied breasts cook quickly and pick up plenty of zesty taste from the lemon juice and chopped parsley. That balance is what keeps the saturated fat at 1g.

2g saturated fat · 45 minutes · serves 4

Everything happens in one pan on the stove. Chicken breast halves get a light dusting of flour and a quick sear, then a pint of cherry tomatoes, dry white wine and chopped Kalamata olives go in around them.

Cooking the tomatoes down builds a sauce out of their own juice, so nothing creamy is needed to make the dish feel finished. Olive oil supplies the fat, and it's the unsaturated kind. Saturated fat lands at 2g and it's ready in 45 minutes.

4g saturated fat · 45 minutes · serves 4

Scallopini usually arrives swimming in butter, which is what makes it a hard dish to fit into a low cholesterol diet. Our chefs cut the butter back to two tablespoons for the whole pan and let white wine, thin lemon slices and reduced-sodium broth do most of the work.

Whole wheat flour replaces white flour for the dredge and adds a little fiber. This one has the most saturated fat of anything on the list at 4g, so it pairs well with a light vegetable side. It's ready in 45 minutes and each serving has 28g of protein.

1g saturated fat · 30 minutes · serves 4

Takeout stir fry gets its gloss from a lot of oil and a very salty sauce. This one uses a single tablespoon of oil and thickens with cornstarch and reduced-sodium broth instead.

Broccoli florets, red and yellow bell pepper and sliced onion cook down with strips of chicken breast, all of it served over brown rice. It's the fastest dinner in this group at 30 minutes, and the saturated fat comes to just 1g.

2g saturated fat · 30 minutes · serves 4

Taco night, but make it healthy! Lime juice, minced garlic, cilantro and ground cumin make the marinade. The salsa is diced mango, avocado, tomato and red onion, spooned into warmed corn tortillas with shredded red cabbage.

Avocado adds real fat to the plate, but it's the monounsaturated kind that a low cholesterol diet encourages. Grilling the chicken means no oil in a pan at all. Saturated fat stays at 2g and a serving has 7g of fiber.

0g saturated fat · 30 minutes · serves 4

After the warm tacos, this one goes the other direction. Chicken breast comes off the grill and gets sliced over a bowl of butter lettuce and mixed greens, along with mandarin orange segments, julienned carrot, sliced scallions and a handful of nuts.

All the fat on this plate comes from the nuts, the sesame oil and the peanut butter in the dressing, and none of it is the saturated kind. There's no mayonnaise and nothing creamy in the bowl at all, so the saturated fat reads 0g. Grill the chicken the night before and dinner comes together in hardly any time at all!

3g saturated fat · 30 minutes · serves 4

Delivery buffalo chicken pizza is usually built on a white sauce base with a heavy hand on the cheese. This one starts with reduced-sodium tomato sauce on whole grain flatbread and treats cheese as a topping rather than a foundation.

Shredded cooked chicken breast, hot sauce, a little Worcestershire and thin scallions go on top, with two tablespoons each of part-skim mozzarella and reduced-fat blue cheese spread across four flatbreads. Saturated fat comes to 3g, and the whole grain base supplies 6g of fiber.

1g saturated fat · 25 minutes · serves 6

The air fryer or the oven can give you crunch without the oil. Frozen tenders and drive-thru versions get their coating out of a deep fryer, which is where most of the fat comes from. These use beaten egg and gluten-free panko seasoned with paprika, basil, oregano, parsley and garlic powder.

The coating still crisps because hot air moves around it, no oil bath required. They're ready in 25 minutes start to finish, with 29g of protein and saturated fat of 1g.

2g saturated fat · 60 minutes · serves 6

Southern-style chicken might seem like something you have to give up, but not when it’s cooked the Health eCooks way! Our chefs marinate skinless chicken in low fat plain Greek yogurt with thyme, garlic, paprika and cayenne, then coat it in bread crumbs and bake it.

Yogurt tenderizes the meat the way buttermilk does, minus the frying. A single tablespoon of melted butter is the only added fat in the coating. Start to finish it takes an hour, and it has the most protein on this list at 35g.

1g saturated fat · 45 minutes · serves 4

The marinade is an unusual one: plain Greek yogurt, white wine vinegar, spicy brown mustard, horseradish and a half teaspoon of honey, with fresh rosemary and orange zest. Chicken breast cubes thread onto skewers with onion, zucchini, summer squash and red bell pepper.

Yogurt and vinegar together break the meat down so it stays tender through baking, and vegetables take up half of every skewer. It's ready in 45 minutes with saturated fat of 1g.

1g saturated fat · 60 minutes · serves 4

One sheet pan does the whole dinner. Chicken breast roasts alongside red bell peppers, broccoli florets, chopped onion and sugar snap peas, with baby bok choy and cauliflower rice rounding out the plate.

Roasting concentrates the vegetables so the sauce can stay light, built from low sodium tamari, rice vinegar, honey and a teaspoon each of sesame oil and sriracha. It's ready in an hour, and a serving has 30g of protein with saturated fat of 1g.

3g saturated fat · 60 minutes · serves 4

This is the one to reach for when you want an old favorite on your table. Pounded chicken breasts get dipped in beaten egg, coated in whole wheat Italian bread crumbs and baked rather than fried, then covered with a tomato sauce made from scratch.

Part-skim mozzarella and grated Parmesan go on at the end, half a cup and two tablespoons between four servings. Baking instead of frying is what keeps the saturated fat at 3g. It takes an hour and delivers 34g of protein.

1g saturated fat · 60 minutes · serves 10

What's better than hot soup on a cold night? Black beans, frozen corn and uncooked brown rice go into the pot with chicken breast, green bell pepper, onion and garlic. Chili powder and a quarter cup of tomato paste give it depth, and minced cilantro gets stirred in at the end.

Beans and rice do the filling work that cream or cheese would do in a richer soup, and they add fiber while they're at it. It makes ten servings, takes an hour, and saturated fat per serving is 1g.

1g saturated fat · 60 minutes · serves 12

Chipotle peppers in adobo get blended into the base, which is where the deep red color and the heat come from. Hominy and shredded cooked chicken then simmer in it with onion, carrot, celery and garlic.

Blending the chiles rather than frying them means all that flavor arrives without added fat, and canola oil is capped at one tablespoon for the entire pot. It makes twelve servings at 124 calories each, with saturated fat of 1g.

0g saturated fat · 150 minutes · serves 16

Canned chicken noodle soup saves time, and that's about all it does. This one starts with five pounds of chicken pieces with the skin taken off, simmered with celery, onion, carrots, garlic and sage.

Removing the skin before anything hits the pot is the single biggest reason the saturated fat comes out at 0g. Yolk free whole wheat egg noodles go in near the end. Start to finish it runs two and a half hours and makes sixteen servings, so plenty of it can go in the freezer.

2g saturated fat · 375 minutes · serves 8

Anyone who likes coming home to a finished dinner should start here. Shredded chicken breast, three cans of no salt added great northern beans and a blended base of fire roasted tomatoes, jalapeño, garlic and cilantro all go in the slow cooker together.

Beans push the fiber to 10g, the most in this collection, and reduced fat sharp white cheddar melts in without much saturated fat behind it. Start to finish this chili takes about six and a quarter hours, mostly hands-off.  One serving has 33g of protein with saturated fat of 2g.

4g saturated fat · 45 minutes · serves 8

Sometimes a comfort food classic is just what you need. Casseroles usually run on canned cream soup, shredded cheese and a stick of butter, and that stacks up fast. This one uses unsalted cream of mushroom soup and reduced fat sour cream, with crushed gluten-free corn flakes on top in place of buttered crumbs.

Green bell pepper, onion, celery and garlic cook down with shredded chicken breast. Saturated fat sits at 4g here, tied for the highest in this collection, and the sour cream accounts for most of it. It's ready in 45 minutes and serves eight.

1g saturated fat · 75 minutes · serves 8

Six sheets of phyllo dough stand in for the usual pastry lid, brushed with three tablespoons of butter spread across eight servings. The filling underneath thickens with flour and skim milk rather than cream.

That pair of swaps is what separates this from a standard pot pie, where the crust and the cream sauce carry nearly all the fat. Leeks, carrots, asparagus and peas fill it out alongside chicken breast. It takes an hour and a quarter, and saturated fat comes to 1g.

0g saturated fat · 60 minutes · serves 6

Reduced fat biscuit mix and skim milk make the topping, and reduced fat low sodium cream of mushroom soup binds what's underneath. Chicken breast, chopped onion, celery and three cups of frozen mixed vegetables go in the base.

Using the reduced fat mix instead of a scratch biscuit built on butter or shortening is what takes the saturated fat all the way down to 0g. Everything goes in one dish, it's ready in an hour, and it serves six.