Chicken tortilla wrap with yoghurt sauce: recipe for two

The usual objection to a chicken wrap is that the meat comes out dry and the protein count is disappointing. Both are fixable: get the pan properly hot, and swap mayonnaise for thick Greek yoghurt. This version makes two wraps, each with roughly 50 g of protein and around 505 calories.

Preparation time and servings

Prep: 15 minutes. Cooking: 12 minutes. Servings: 2 (one serving = one filled wrap). That is about 27 minutes in total, and half of it is hands-off while the chicken cooks and rests.

Season the chicken in the morning and you are down to roughly 20 minutes of actual work in the evening.

Ingredients

• 300 g skinless chicken breast (raw weight)
• 2 large wheat tortillas (62 g each, 124 g total)
• 200 g Greek yoghurt, 2% fat
• 10 ml olive oil
• 1 garlic clove (about 3 g), finely grated
• 15 ml lemon juice (about 1 tablespoon)
• 100 g tomato, diced
• 80 g cucumber, cut into thin batons
• 60 g red onion, thinly sliced
• 60 g lettuce or iceberg, shredded
• 3 g smoked paprika
• 1 g dried oregano
• about 2 g salt and black pepper to taste

Method

1. Slice the chicken breasts lengthways into pieces about 1.5 cm thick. Pat the surface dry with kitchen paper — wet meat steams instead of browning.
2. Season the chicken with smoked paprika, oregano, pepper and half the salt. Rub it in and leave it at room temperature for 10 minutes.
3. Mix the 200 g of yoghurt with the grated garlic, lemon juice and a pinch of salt. Chill the sauce while you cook; the garlic needs those 10 minutes to spread through the yoghurt.
4. Heat a frying pan over high heat, add the 10 ml of olive oil and lay the chicken down. Leave it alone for 4 minutes — that is when the crust forms.
5. Turn the chicken and cook for another 3 to 4 minutes, until it reaches 74 °C in the thickest part and shows no pink in the middle. Take it off the heat, cover it and rest for 5 minutes before slicing into strips.
6. While the meat rests, chop the tomato, cucumber, red onion and lettuce.
7. Warm the tortillas in a dry pan for 20 to 30 seconds per side. Warm tortillas bend instead of cracking.
8. Spread a spoonful of sauce down the centre of each tortilla, leaving a 3 cm border, then layer on lettuce, chicken and vegetables. The rest of the sauce goes on top.
9. Fold the bottom edge up, then the sides, and roll tightly. For a sealed wrap, put it back in the pan seam-side down for one minute.

Nutrition per serving

These are an estimate per serving, worked out from the quantities listed above divided by two. Tortillas vary a lot between brands, so check the label on yours.

• Calories: around 505 kcal
• Protein: around 50 g
• Carbohydrates: around 42 g
• Fat: around 15 g

Most of the protein comes from the chicken, about 34 g per serving. The yoghurt adds roughly 9 g and the tortilla and vegetables make up the rest.

Variations and swaps

If you want fewer carbohydrates, use a smaller 40 g tortilla: the serving drops to about 440 kcal and 28 g of carbohydrates while the protein barely moves. A wholemeal tortilla of the same weight lands in a similar calorie range with more fibre.

To push protein higher without adding much fat, use skyr instead of Greek yoghurt (around 11 g of protein per 100 g), or add another 50 g of chicken per serving. The same tub of thick yoghurt also works as the base for a protein pizza on a Greek yoghurt base, so nothing goes to waste.

Turkey breast swaps in one for one, and 300 g of white fish works if you shorten the cooking time. For a meat-free version, use 250 g of baked tofu with the same sauce and expect roughly 8 g less protein per serving.

The structure here is the same one behind a chicken rice bowl with vegetables: one protein source, one carbohydrate source, plenty of vegetables and a sauce that ties it together. If you still want something sweet afterwards, a protein smoothie without protein powder covers it, or just a handful of raspberries.

For meal prep, cook the chicken and make the sauce a day ahead, but only assemble the wraps just before eating. The vegetables release water and the tortilla goes soft within a few hours.

In short

Two wraps, 27 minutes, roughly 505 kcal and 50 g of protein per serving. Three things decide the result: dry the meat before it hits the pan, leave it undisturbed for the first 4 minutes, and rest it before slicing. The garlic and lemon yoghurt sauce replaces a fatty dressing and adds protein of its own.