Stuffed sweet potato with chicken: 55 g protein per serving

Sweet potato usually ends up as a side next to something else, which leaves you with a plate full of carbs and not much protein. This recipe turns the potato into the bowl: bake it whole, scoop it out, fill it with chicken and a yoghurt sauce. Two servings, roughly 55 g protein each, and no more than 15 minutes of actual hands-on work.

Prep time and servings

Prep: 15 min. Cooking: 45 min. Servings: 2 (one potato per person).

Most of that hour the potato is on its own in the oven, so the chicken and the sauce get made while it bakes. Baking four potatoes at once takes the same time — just leave a gap between them on the shelf.

Ingredients

• 2 sweet potatoes, about 300 g each (600 g total)
• 300 g chicken breast
• 150 g Greek yoghurt, 2% fat
• 100 g tinned sweetcorn, drained
• 60 g spring onions (red onion works too)
• 60 g medium-fat hard cheese, grated
• 10 ml olive oil
• 1 tsp smoked paprika
• 1/2 tsp ground cumin
• 15 ml lime or lemon juice
• salt and pepper to taste

Method

1. Heat the oven to 200 °C. Scrub the potatoes, dry them, prick them a few times with a fork and rub with 5 ml of the oil.
2. Bake for 40–50 minutes directly on the shelf with a tray underneath. They are done when a knife slides into the centre with no resistance.
3. While they bake, cut the chicken into roughly 2 cm cubes and toss with the smoked paprika, cumin, salt and pepper.
4. Heat the remaining 5 ml oil in a pan over high heat and cook the chicken for 6–8 minutes, stirring now and then, until it takes colour and no pink is left in the middle.
5. Add the drained sweetcorn for the last two minutes, just long enough to warm through, then take the pan off the heat.
6. Mix the yoghurt with the lime juice, half the finely sliced spring onion and a pinch of salt.
7. Halve the baked potatoes lengthways and scoop out about a third of the flesh. Stir that flesh into the chicken — it bulks out the filling and the skins stay firm.
8. Spoon the filling back into the halves, scatter over the cheese and return to the oven for 5 minutes to melt it. Spoon over the yoghurt sauce, top with the rest of the spring onion and serve straight away.

Nutrition per serving

These are an estimate per serving, worked out from the quantities above and split into two equal portions.

• Calories: around 650 kcal
• Protein: 55 g
• Carbohydrate: 73 g
• Fat: 15 g

The real figure moves with the size of your potatoes and the fat content of the cheese, so allow about 10% either way. If you track intake closely, weigh the sweet potato raw before it goes in the oven.

Swaps and variations

Swap the sweetcorn for 100 g cooked black beans and the calories stay about the same, while you gain roughly 3 g of fibre and 4 g of protein per serving.

Leave the cheese out and a serving drops to about 565 kcal and 48 g protein — useful on lower-calorie days. Going the other way, a tablespoon of tahini stirred into the sauce adds around 45 kcal per serving.

Turkey, smoked tofu (expect less protein) or a tin of tuna in spring water all work in place of the chicken. The same yoghurt sauce turns up in the chicken tortilla recipe, so it is worth making a double batch and keeping it two days in the fridge.

For meal prep, bake the potatoes a day ahead and keep them whole for up to three days, with the filling and sauce stored separately and combined only when you reheat. For something eaten cold at a desk, a tuna wrap travels better, and when you want the protein higher still in a single bowl, there is the chicken pasta with 60 g protein per serving.

In short

One 300 g sweet potato, 150 g chicken and a yoghurt sauce give you roughly 650 kcal and 55 g protein per serving, for 45 minutes in the oven and 15 minutes of work. It doubles cleanly for four people and takes swaps of cheese, pulses and protein source without the numbers shifting much.