Easy & Healthy Butter Chicken: Weight Watchers friendly & Gluten-free

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I love that my kids are learning to cook at school because they bring home lots of easy and delicious recipes that they now make for ME,  including THIS Easy & Healthy Butter Chicken.

I had never been the biggest fan of butter chicken, but this recipe was a game changer! But not every recipe they’ve brought home has been such a success…..

However, when I plugged the original recipe into my WW calculator and saw that it had 40 grams of fat and was 20 WW fsp points, I understood why it was sooo good; FAT MADE IT GOOD.

Weight Watchers Friendly Butter Chicken

So…. I made it my mission to make it into a delicious Healthy Butter Chicken that was Weight Watchers friendly and brought it down to 8 WW blue plan points!! And this Easy & Healthy Butter Chicken recipe with Greek yogurt does not disappoint. However, I knew it was a true success when my kids said they liked my Weight Watchers butter chicken better than the original fattening version!

Cooking Independence

When my son had been bringing home recipes from school for a few years and making them with my close supervision, one day I decided to give him a bit more freedom in the kitchen and backed off a bit. He seemed to like not being micromanaged. But when it came time to taste the cookies he made, he carefully watched my reaction as I took that first bite, yearning for my “expert baker” (as he calls me) approval. And as those cookie morsels met my taste buds in that very first split second, I really wasn’t sure what to do…

Taste Testing 

Being a parent is hard. And every parent’s very real struggle is balancing being supportive with honesty, helping them to learn, grow, and navigate disappointment, while keeping their confidence intact and not inadvertently crushing their little spirits. Because honestly, you can never really predict how they’ll react. And just then you think you have them figured out, they go and change. And then they are teenagers….

So, as my son sat there waiting for my ‘expert baker’ cookie endorsement, I managed to muster a “Mmmm… can I see the recipe?”

Healthy Butter Chicken

Then I got him to taste it and asked if that was how it was supposed to taste (as they made it in school). He concurred that it was a bit too salty and we soon discovered that he had doubled the salt by not reading the instructions carefully enough. Although he was clearly disappointed, luckily he is pretty easy-going, even as a teenager, and took it as a lesson learned. And fortunately, many subsequent successful recipes, like this healthy butter chicken, served to boost his culinary confidence!

Jasmine rice

I love to serve this recipe with jasmine rice because jasmine rice has a subtle floral aroma and a soft, sticky texture when cooked. It makes your house smell amazing! Jasmine rice is originally from Thailand and is commonly used in Southeast Asian cooking and is a longer grain variety of rice. You can also serve this butter chicken with basmati rice. Even though jasmine and basmati rice are often used interchangeably, there are some differences. One of the differences is that jasmine rice grains are shorter and thicker than basmati rice. You can read more about it HERE.

But when I’m trying to really keep my WW points down,  I’ll use Cauliflower Rice (and skip the oil in this recipe).

It takes a Village

I love that my kids are learning to cook with others, in addition to me. I think it takes a village to raise a cook. Whether it’s the Foods Teacher at school, their Dad, their Grandma or Aunties, cooking with others gives them a different perspective, which expands their culinary horizons. But like I said, my favorite part is that they can cook and that means not only will they be able to survive without me one day, in the meantime, they cook for me!

Weight Watchers Chicken recipes

If you are looking for additional Weight Watchers friendly recipes give my Baked Hoisin Chicken a try!

And these Cornish Hens with Rosemary Wine Sauce are only 2 WW blue plan points per 1/2 a hen. And yes, Cornish game hens are chickens (just little ones!)

 

This Recipe is part of Country Cook’s Weekend Potluck!