Simple Grilled Chicken w Air Fried Apsaragus

About

Make your Keto meal prep or mid-day lunch super simple with this recipe. Juicy chicken breast is heavily seasoned on one side to it blackens in your stovetop pan. Once the chicken is cooked to a tender inside and crisp outside, you can store it in a meal prep container or serve it immediately on your lunch plate. Paired on the side are whole stalks of asparagus that have been rolled in pork rinds and fried to a crisp. Your air fryer will cook the asparagus quickly so they have a crunchy outside with soft tender vegetables. You can choose plain pork rinds or hot pork rinds for a spicy kick to your meal. Looking for more to eat? Pair this Keto lunch with any of Carb Manager’s Keto side salads.

I Don’t Have An Air Fryer

If you don’t own an air fryer, no problem! You can bake the fried asparagus in your oven. Follow the direction as stated to prepare the breaded asparagus. Line a sheet tray with parchment paper as you preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Ignore the cooking times listed here. You’ll most like need to bake the asparagus for 20-30 minutes to achieve the same effect as an air fryer. Look at the pork rinds: they should be darker in color and adhered to the cooked asparagus if they’re done properly.

Can I Use Frozen Asparagus?

The short answer is no! You may think that using thawed asparagus from your freezer will equal a shorter cooking time, but that’s not so. Thawed asparagus will retain too much water, making it difficult to work with. Your pork rind breading and any extra seasonings likely won’t adhere to the asparagus. After cooking in an air fryer, you’ll be left with extremely limp and possibly soggy asparagus. It’s best to make this Keto lunch recipe with fresh, in-season asparagus.

Ingredients

3 ½ oz chicken breast boneless skinless raw
¼ teaspoon salt
⅛ teaspoon black pepper
⅛ teaspoon garlic powder
⅛ teaspoon onion powder
¼ teaspoon italian seasoning
¼ teaspoon olive oil
6 medium – spear – 5 1/4" to 7" long asparagus, raw
½ teaspoon olive oil
½ ounce fried pork rinds

Instructions

Prepare a chicken breast by patting it dry with a paper towel on a clean surface. Each breast should have no more than a 1-inch thickness. If necessary, place a piece of parchment or plastic wrap over the chicken and pound it to a thinner thickness. Season the chicken breast with salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, and Italian seasoning.
Heat the first amount of olive oil in a small pan to medium-high on your stove. Once the oil is hot, place the chicken in the pan, seasoned side down. Cook the chicken for about 4-5 minutes per side. The seasoning should be blackened and the other side should finish with a golden brown char. Leave the chicken aside to keep warm in the pan and rest off the stove.
To make the air fried asparagus, select 6 pieces of asparagus per serving. Choose pieces that are similar in thickness and length. Try to avoid particularly thin pieces. Cut off any hard, purple ends, and add the asparagus to a mixing bowl. Toss the asparagus with the second amount of olive oil until they are completely coated and shiny with olive oil. There shouldn’t be so much that the oil is dripping or pooling.
Turn on your air fryer and preheat it to 350 degrees for at least 5-7 minutes. Line your air fryer tray with parchment paper, if necessary. Meanwhile, arrange ground pork rinds on a plate or clean, flat surface. You can turn pork rinds into a crumbly breading by pulsing them in a food processor or blender. One by one, roll each piece of oiled asparagus in the pork rind breading and place them on the sheet tray. You should have approximately ½ TB of pork rinds coating each piece of asparagus.
Place the tray of asparagus in your air fryer and cook for 7 minutes. Then, rotate or flip the asparagus over and cook for an additional 7 minutes. To check for doneness, the breading on the asparagus should be dark and adhered to the asparagus. The asparagus itself will be quite soft and tender. Serve the fried asparagus immediately with your grilled chicken.