Next Post
Chai Spiced Apple Ricotta Galette.
This post may contain affiliate links, please see our privacy policy for details.
Keeping things comforting, but healthy with my Healthy Chipotle Chicken Sweet Potato Skins. Kind of like cheesy nachos, but instead of chips, we’re substituting crisp sweet potatoes skins…so better! Made simply with sweet potatoes, chicken, chipotle chilies, spices, a touch of lime, spinach, and a generous amount of sharp cheddar cheese. Each homemade, oven-baked, sweet potato skin is delicious…and pretty healthy too. Think crisp on the outside, soft on the inside. Stuffed with sweet and spicy chicken that’s full of protein and perfectly balanced. Each sweet potato skin makes for the perfect weeknight dinner that easily doubles as lunch the next day.
What I love so much about fall food is that it’s comforting, cozy, warming, and typically on the heartier side. Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE a good salad (though I do prefer warm, roasted salads over cold salads). But I think it’s obvious that I really shine when it comes to cozy, comfort food. In fact, I want one of my upcoming cookbook titles to be Half Baked Harvest Cozy. What do you think…cookbook #3…before cookbook #2 even rolls out? Yeah, I have issues.
Point is, I love cozy recipes. I even love the word cozy. And I really just love fall food.
BUT, sometimes fall recipes can get to be a bit on the heavy side. I prefer to lighten them up a little and get back to a more balanced, healthy dinner. To me, that still includes cheese, but also includes plenty of vegetables, lean chicken, and flavorful spices to keep us warm and our metabolism running quickly.
Enter in my go-to, healthy yet comforting, fall dinner – Healthy Chipotle Chicken Sweet Potato Skins
These are SO GOOD.
I’ve been making a version of these for years and years, but this year I added a few things. Things like crunchy chickpeas (because I’m obsessed with them), a touch of onion, and I also kicked up the spices.
I could not love these skins more. And? They are so simple and easy to make. They do take some time, because baking sweet potatoes just takes patience. But all the prep and hands-on time is under 20 minutes. Easy.
To make these sweet potato skins
Start with the sweet potatoes themselves. I like to bake the sweet potato whole, directly on the oven grates. Cooking the potatoes this way allows them to soften in the center, but also keeps the skins from getting soggy.
While the skins are baking, also bake the chicken and the chickpeas together in the same baking dish. As the chicken cooks, the chickpeas crisp. I do want to note two things here…
First, if you don’t like chickpeas, you can very easily omit these from the recipe entirely. Most of my family really dislikes any kind of bean, so I never even add the chickpeas when they’re around.
Second, if you are vegetarian, you can leave out the chicken and use double the amount of chickpeas. The cooking times will be the same. Also? Black beans would be equally delicious, but they will not crisp like chickpeas.
Now, and this is key, the chicken is where all the flavor is at. It’s seasoned with chipotle chiles, garlic, and spices like oregano, cumin, and chili powder. I also threw in some lime zest for a little citrus zing.
It’s that sweet and spicy combo that I love so much.
During the last few minutes of cooking, toss some baby spinach in with the chicken. I love the added greens and the spinach pairs well with the flavors happening in these sweet potato skins.
Next, scoop some of the sweet potato flesh out of the skin. Bake another 10 minutes until the skins become crisp, and then stuff the chicken into the sweet potatoes. Then add as little or as much sharp cheddar cheese as you’d like and bake. About 10 or so minutes later your kitchen will smell heavenly and your skins will be ready for eating. The smell of sweet potatoes baking is truly the most comforting smell and so very “fall”.
These are best enjoyed warm. Preferably with cilantro and a dollop of plain Greek yogurt. Super simple, but so delicious. Between the sweet potatoes and the cheese, this is one of the coziest fall dinners. And it just so happens to be healthy, score!
Kind of like cheesy nachos, but instead of chips, we’re substituting crisp sweet potatoes skins…so better!
These skins are great any night of the week. But they feel especially great for Thursday, Sunday…or Monday night football.
And the biggest bonus…the leftovers. They make for such a delicious lunch the following day.
Love a two for one recipe!
If you make these healthy chipotle chicken sweet potatoes skins be sure to leave a comment and/or give this recipe a rating! Above all, I love to hear from you guys and always do my best to respond to each and every comment. And of course, if you do make this recipe, don’t forget to tag me on Instagram! Looking through the photos of recipes you all have made is my favorite!
Healthy Chipotle Chicken Sweet Potato Skins
Servings: 6
Calories Per Serving: 709 kcal
Nutritional information is only an estimate. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed.
Ingredients
- 3 medium sweet potatoes
- 1 pound boneless skinless chicken breasts
- 1 can (14 ounce) chickpeas, drained (optional)
- 4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 4 cloves garlic, minced or grated
- 2-3 chipotle chilies in adobo, chopped (more or less, to your taste)
- 2 teaspoons chili powder
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1 teaspoon cumin
- zest of 1 lime
- kosher salt and black pepper
- 2 cups baby spinach, roughly chopped
- 1 cup shredded white cheddar cheese
- 1/4 cup fresh cilantro, chopped
Instructions
- 1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Prick the sweet potatoes all over with a fork. Bake directly on the rack until tender, 50-60 minutes. Allow to cool.2. At the same time, cook the chicken. Place the chicken, and chickpeas – if using, in a baking dish. Add the olive oil, garlic, chipotle chiles, chili powder, onion powder, oregano, cumin, lime zest, and a pinch each of salt and pepper, gently toss to coat. Transfer to the oven and bake 20-25 minutes, until the chicken is cooked through. During the last 5 minutes of cooking, scatter the spinach over the chicken and cook 5 minutes, until wilted.3. Shred the chicken using 2 forks, then toss with the chickpeas, spinach and any oil left in the baking dish. 4. Scrape the sweet potato flesh out of the peel, leaving 1/2 inch thick layer of sweet potatoes. Brush the skins with a little olive oil and bake for 5 minutes, until crisping. Remove skins from the oven and stuff with the chicken. Top with shredded cheese. Return to the oven and bake for 10 minutes, until the cheese is melted. Serve with fresh cilantro and greek yogurt, if desired.
This post was originally published on September 19, 2019
I made these tonight and they were delicious! I cut back on the chipotle just a bit, but the spice and the sweet of the potato was the perfect compliment.
YES! I am so glad you liked these! Thanks for letting me know!
Oh my goodness, just made these and am OBSESSED!!! Swapped lowest fat mozarella and used an olive oil spray (am weightwatchers), and added chopped bell pepper and courgette (zucchini?!! I’m British!) (didn’t have any spinach). So easy, delicious and great for both treat meal and weekday. Thanks for posting. xx
I am SO glad you like these!! I love all the tweaks you made to to! YUM!
Just wanted to let you know that I made these for dinner tonight and WOW!!! I think these are by far, one of the best things I’ve ever made for dinner. SOO GOOD!!! My husband, four year old son, and I loved them. I’m already craving them…too bad my hungry husband ate what I had intended to be my lunch for tomorrow! These will become a dinner regular around here for sure! The flavors are just amazing.
YAY! I am so glad you guys loved them!! I love comments like this! Made my night!!
Made this for dinner tonight and it was uh-mazing!! Thank you for posting it, I will definitely be making it again!! 🙂
As for calories, I calculated 339 for a whole sweet potato with 1.5 cups of shredded chicken, 1/2 cup of spinach, garlic, jalapeño (no chipotle on hand), and 2% mozzarella on top…no garnish. Delishhhhh!!!
I am so glad you liked it!! And wow these are pretty low cal! Awesome!
Hi,
This looks delish, something my family would like.
Our party is live today, and we would like to invite you to link up and share this: http://thebusybhive.blogspot.com/ We would really appreciate it.
Hope you have a great day!
Thank!
The Busy Bee’s,
Myrna and Joye.
I love how you have made this healthier by using a sweet potato. Just pinned!
Made these tonight and LOVED them! Thanks for the recipe! Unusual, but so delicious.
Haha I love how you wrote more about your computer than the actual theme of this post! It was quite amusing. And I didn’t waste my time since I got what I wanted in the end. Thanks for the recipe! I will try it out as soon as possible.
Was wondering if anyone has a calorie count on these??? They sound very VERY good and I want to make them soon.
Because you scoop out some of the sweet potato flesh, it’s hard to calculate precisely but I have numbers to give you an idea. I also changed it a bit so this reflects my version:
I used 1 pound of chicken thighs (instead of breasts) and 4 ounces of white cheddar (instead of 5). I also used 4 smaller, long sweet potatoes so it would make 4 servings (my nutrition info reflects using three sweet potatoes, which I figured was a good estimate since you scoop a lot of the flesh out). I cut the chipotle to one and about a tablespoon of adobo sauce.
With those changes, I get the following per serving (recipe serving 4):
427 calories
23g carbs
35g protein
462mg sodium
4g fiber
5g sugar
VERY filling and I like those macro ratios a lot. This will be a regular in our house.
Hey, those are some good stats! Thanks for posting them and I am so glade you loved these!
Oh, yummy! I’d love to have you share this at What to do Weekends Party. Take care, Linda
http://www.craftsalamode.com/2013/02/what-to-do-weekends-8.html
I love sweet potatoes and this one is loaded! Great idea.
Thank you!!
Hi there. The current Food on Friday on Carole’s Chatter is collecting links to posts about Mexican dishes and flavours. I do hope you link this one in. This is the link . Please do pop back to check out some of the other links – there are a lot of good ones already. Have a great week.
These look great. My very big question is —- I was always told that you should not eat sweet potato skins …. I think I missed something ????
I have never heard this. I am pretty sure sweet potato skins are very healthy and delicious. Enjoy!
Yummy! I am trying these asap! Looks & sounds amazing! Love it– and your blog! New follower! =)
Thanks so much for linking up to Tasty Thursdays, Tieghan. These look amazing and will be FEATURED on this weeks party. Thanks, Nichi
These look great.. My family loves sweet potatoes and I’m always looking for new things to do with them. We make baked stuffed potatoes all the time, but I never do it with the sweets.. thanks for the idea!