Low Carb Chicken Tapenade with Bacon

What is Tapenade?

Tapenade is the name of Provencal for one dish containing pureed, capers, finely chopped olives, and anchovies. Its name came from the Provencal word for capers, as tapenas. (Provencal is a different variety of Occitan language spoken by some people in Southern France, especially in Provence, which is a region of Southeast France.

Tapenade is a famous food in south France, where it is eaten as a spread on bread. It also used for stuffing the poultry.

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History of Similar Dishes

Olive based dishes containing vinegar or anchovies are ubiquitous in the Italian cuisine, written in ancient Roman cookbooks thousand years ago before it appears in Occitan word called tapenade. Olivarum Conditurae is one of the oldest knowns from Italian recipes in first century AD.

Cato the Elder in 234–149 B.C. also adds a recipe for Epityrum, which is an olive spread more like a tapenade, (in chapter 119 of his On Agriculture).

Using capers is the recipe hallmark for Tapenade. Often Tapenade is mistaken with New Orleans olive salad, which is an essential component in the New Orleans sandwich – Muffaletta. New Orleans olive salad is properly called Giardiniera. It also does not have capers but does consist of carrots, cauliflower, and celery.

How to prepare the perfect tapenade?

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This Provençal most loved is the ideal drinking companion, as it’s a blend of the saltiest ingredients you could envision – incredible with a sensitive, pale pink neighborhood rosé, indeed, yet also a blameless matching with a gin and tonic or, obviously, a pastis.

Though the primary ingredient is olives, the French word comes from Provencal referred to caper buds, Tape no. 

The olives

Caroline Conran’s tapenade

Traditionally, tapenade is produced using the little, dark olives adored of the area, however, as Caroline Conran writes in her Sud de France, “these days, they additionally sell green tapenade” in the neighborhood markets, just as adaptations made with dried tomatoes and basil. As I favor the fruitier, earthier kind of the dark olive (green tapenade having a propensity towards astringency in my view), I’ll be keeping things carefully customary. This is surprising at different recipes include black olives. People from Provence find top quality fruits in local markets.

How Healthy is Chicken Tapenade?

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This recipe contains different ingredients such as Chicken breast, Bacon, Shallot, White wine, heavy cream, butter, fresh lemon, parsley, capers, olives, and peppers. Let’s show it helps your low carb diet and health.

Chicken Breast

Chicken breast is a healthy source of low carb and lean proteins. People who consume enough protein are more likely to develop lean muscle mass and have a healthy metabolism. As the chicken breasts are versatile and not much expensive, they are healthy foods to balance a low carb diet.

Chicken Breast: Nutrition Facts

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The chicken breast provides good nutrition per serving. A single chicken breast probably offers the following nutrition.

• Calories: 128
• Fat: 2.7g
• Sodium: 44mg
• Carbohydrates: 0g
• Fiber: 0g
• Sugars: 0g
• Protein: 26g

Adding chicken breast in a low carb diet helps to maintain and build muscle mass in strength training.

Strengthens Bones

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According to scientists, diet containing animal proteins may lower bone density and raise the risk of bone breaking. However, recent research shows that protein helps work with calcium and protect your bones. It is essential to consume more protein to keep bones healthy and strong. 

Reduces Appetite

Eating protein encourages you to feel full, which can help lessen nourishment desires and forestall indulging. One little investigation of overweight men on diminished calorie eats less, for instance, found that the individuals who ate more protein showed “improved hunger control and satiety.

Bacon

Bacon is one of the salted cured pork, which is prepared from many different meat cuts, commonly from pork belly, back cuts, which have less fat than the belly. It is consumed as a side dish. Bacon can be available from other animals such as lamb, beef, chicken, turkey, or goats.

As bacon is processed meat, it may not be much healthy because of low carbs but suitable for low carb diets. You can consume bacon in a low carb diet and lose weight.

Make sure to eat bacon in moderation like only once in a week, so it will not affect.

Instructions:

Include bacon in a pan and fry till it gets ready.

Place the bacon on a plate and fry 3-4 eggs, add some garlic powder, sea salt, onion powder while frying.

Shallot

Shallot is one the type of onions. Particularly it is a botanical variety of species Allium cepa. The shallot is primarily classified as different species, A.ascalonicum.

Low Carb Shallot Nutritions

One Serving Size of 2 oz (56g)

• Calories 314
• Calories from Fat 306 (97.5%)
• Total Fat 34g
• Sodium 405mg DV-17%
• Carbohydrates 1g
• Fiber 0g DV-0%
• Net carbs 1g
• Protein 0g
• Vitamins and minerals
• A Vitamin 0μg DV-0%
• C Vitamin 0mg DV-0%
• Calcium 0mg DV-0%
• Iron 0mg DV-0%
• Fatty acids – nil

Capers

The caper is an un-ripened and immature green flower but of the caper bush. It is also called as Capparis Inermis or Capparis spinosa. The plant is cultivated in Morocco, Italy, Australia, Asia, and Spain. It is often linked with Mediterranean cuisines but eaten worldwide.  Dried or brined, the caper is not much valued for the flavor it provides. It also provides texture and tanginess to more variety of recipes, including pasta, a fish dish, sauces, and stews.

Varieties

Commercial capers are distributed and sold by size. The buds run from minor (about the size of an infant simple green pea) to the size of a little olive. For the most part, the littlest trick will have the most sensitive surface and better flavor. A bigger trick is progressively acidic, so it is ideal to utilize these all the more sparingly.

The small variety comes with 1/4-inch or 7mm in the diameter, which is from south France named French nonpareils, they are expensive and available with a huge price tag.

How to Cook Capers?

Capers have a high taste. It is an excellent idea to utilize a large caper. Rather than including handful, try to get one balance in the recipe, so it does not change the tastes of the complete dish. Capers are ready to use from the jar. Different recipes mention rinsing the capers to remove vinegar or salt, which bring the best flavor of the caper. Larger capers will require to chop before using it.

Some recipes, such as sauce, need finely chopped capers while others use as puree like tapenade. Most of the time, you need to include them in a hot pan with other ingredients, typically near the end of the cooking process. It makes the capers to stay in their shape and manage their signature taste. 

How Caper taste?

Capers have different flavors such as Oliver, lemony, and salty. Most of them are vinegary, and briny taste comes from packaging.

Caper Substitute

You can substitute the finely chopped green olives with a briny flavor of capers. If you get access to them, pickled nasturtium seeds also helpful.

>Where to Buy Capers?

You can get capers in supermarkets, grocery stores, and natural food stores. It comes in a jar for sale. They are also available in gourmet food stores. Capers are generally packed in small jars not more, than one ounce in the vinegar brine. You can find them in the form of pickle. Smaller and nonpareil capers are costlier than the large capers and similar in price to gourmet olives jar.

In their local regions, caper plants grow wild, and the flowers can forage. The caper spurge plant is the same looking plant, which is poisonous, so the right identification is important.

Backyard gardeners can also plant the grow from cuttings or seeds. The plant can manage heat but not the cold. It should be grown in winter indoor in northern climates. After harvesting the caper, preserve the buds in brine.

Storage

Capers come in the pack of salt and brine to put in airtight containers. Brine packed capers also entirely immersed and can be refrigerated for 9-months or longer. Sealed jars can be stored in the pantry. Capers with the salt pack can be stored at room temperature for 6-months. When capers expire, it has a dark color and foul odors.

Nutrition and Benefits

Capers are suitable for low carb diets as it provides low calories and low fat. They are generally consumed in high quantities to provide the best nutritional value. They also have high vitamin K, magnesium, iron, and copper. Capers also contain high sodium due to the curing process. Therefore, watch out salt consumption.

Olives

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Olives are a high-fat food, and 80% of calories come from its fat content. They provide omega-3 fatty acids and oleic acid and some alpha-linolenic acid. Consuming high monounsaturated fat from olive helps to lower the cardiovascular disease. It is suitable for a low carb diet and promotes good cholesterol and heart health.

Olives Nutrition Fact

• Calories: 42
• Fat: 4.4g
• Fiber: 1g
• Sugars: 0.2g
• Sodium: 451mg
• Carbohydrates: 1.1g
• Protein: 0.3g

Carb

The chicken tapenade has green olives, which are a suitable ingredient for a low carb diet. 10-green olives provide 1.1 grams of carbs.

Olives have less starch and sugar, so it helps to manage blood sugar. 

White Wine

White wine contains strong polyphenols, which provide health benefits. According to the clinical nutrition study of 2018, white wine has heart health benefits. The alcohol chemical of wine helps health. The study also shows that white wine also helps to repair endothelial cells.

An article from Science-Direct, tells that endothelial cells help to line your blood vessels, which protect heart health.