Four ingredients. One Skillet. Every benefit we want.

Dr. Chad and his wife Nicole walk through a four-ingredient 
skillet meal they fall back on most weeks — rotisserie chicken, 
mushrooms, onions, and arugula, cooked in a single cast-iron pan 
in about twelve minutes. The conversation moves through why each 
ingredient earns its place metabolically and why the most durable 
patients aren't the most precise eaters — they're the most 
repeatable.

Topics covered:
- Protein as the metabolic anchor — thermogenesis, glucose 
  steadying, and muscle protein synthesis
- Why arugula's glucosinolates support phase 2 liver detoxification
- Inulin in onions and what prebiotic fiber actually does for the 
  gut microbiome
- Beta-glucan in mushrooms and its role in immune and 
  gastrointestinal function
- Why "good, better, best" beats "perfect" when sourcing real 
  ingredients
- How Nicole plans meals around tomorrow's schedule instead of 
  prepping for the week

Dr. Chad is a naturopathic medical doctor (NMD) running 
The Adapt Lab, an integrative metabolic health practice in 
Solana Beach, California.

Learn more at doctorchadlarson.com.

This podcast is for educational purposes only and does not 
constitute medical advice. Always consult your physician 
before making changes to your health regimen.

Tags: metabolic health, naturopathic medicine, functional medicine, 
real food, gut microbiome, integrative medicine

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome back to our kitchen. Today we have a really simple, really delicious meal. So we thought we would shoot this one and share with you guys. It's four simple ingredients that we just do simply in a skillet, and they're all metabolically aligned foods. So the four ingredients are just chicken, mushrooms, onions, what's the fourth one? And arugula. So all four of these have some amazing health benefits. And when you combine it all together, it tastes really good. So chicken, of course, is the protein anchor, a good metabolically aligned meal, has some protein in it. And protein is a thermogenic meaning, meaning that it actually takes 20 to 30% of the calories just to break it down. That's a super cool thing from a metabolic health standpoint. It's also very supportive for glucose, for your insulin. Also, it really helps to induce muscle protein synthesis. So protein is the anchor. Arugula is basically a cruciferous vegetable. So it's got the glucosinolates in it, which is really great for phase two liver detoxification. And then, of course, we have the onions. Onions have some really great things in it, like inulin, which is a good prebiotic that is supportive for your intestinal microbiome. And then, of course, the mushrooms, which have a pretty unique compound in it called a beta-glucan, which is kind of a fiber type compound that is immune supportive, it's healthy for your gastrointestinal tract. And more importantly, all this tastes, so you're cranking along here. What are you what are you working on?

SPEAKER_01 1:22

Well, I'm just putting some olive oil in the pan. But first of all, the reason why I made this today, I was going to make tilapia. But again, in thinking about when I meal, I don't meal prep, but when thinking about what meals to make, I also think about am I working tomorrow? Which I'm oliving home. And so I'm home on Wednesday, so tilapia would be appropriate, but what then we'll have nothing for left over tomorrow. So I scrapped that, though I did buy it still because I get frozen tilapia from Trader Joe's and I just keep it in the fridge. Again, it's good to always have stuff on hand. I got that and I got some shrimp. But we also have frozen burgers in there. So we may take you on a little walk in our freezer and pantry sometime just to show you what we couldn't keep on hand so we can just throw something together. But I decided to pivot and do this meal because our older son's coming over and he eats a lot. And then also we can have it for leftovers tomorrow night. However, if we eat a bunch of it tonight, at least there will be some for Chad to take to work tomorrow. So whatever's leftover will kind of work with that. But again, it's super easy. So I bought four rotisserie chickens. I know, four. And this is how much four rotisserie chickens torn up amounts to. And again, we it's heavy protein, so that's the biggest portion. And then for the mushrooms, this is three packs of mushrooms. I'm not sure if we'll use all of them, but you don't even have to cut them. I was just like breaking them apart to make them smaller. And then two red onions. And I love a bunch of arugula, so throwing that in as well. So just starting with the mushrooms and onions. And actually, Chad's better at this than me. Like they'd use the do the mushrooms first or the onions.

SPEAKER_00 2:58

I typically do the mushrooms first.

SPEAKER_01 2:59

So we'll do that.

SPEAKER_00 3:00

We want to get the skillet nice and hot. There's a little bit of we're using a cast iron skillet, and you just want to put some oil in there. I'd get it like a lot hotter, but I think that's still gonna work.

SPEAKER_01 3:10

Okay, so the mushrooms and onions are pretty much done. I add this seasoning from traitors. I think I've talked about that before, and then salt and pepper. So now I'm gonna add the chicken in. And again, we have a tongue, so we'll have leftover or whatever. We can do something else with it. We don't have to use all this. But I just tear this up too, and I I do leave a lot of the skin too. Why not? So trying to mix it all out again, it disparates free chicken, so already pepped. Yeah. Yep. Again, the I use it's the whole chicken. I tear up the dark knee and the white meat. So they do that as well.

SPEAKER_00 3:49

Yeah, so so far this is super simple. It's just sweeten up the skillet. We started off by putting the mushrooms and onions, let those kind of grill for a little bit, and now we're throwing in the chicken. So all the flavors kind of all mixed together in there with the oil. Did you put butter in there too, or just salt in?

SPEAKER_01 4:03

I into butter because we are having a side of green beans, too. Um from the can. Organic, but I took a bunch of butter in there and salt and pepper. So just for a little sysine, because I am putting arugula in that I took it in the mix here, and I just get the lights probably like double arugula. So that's sad. I just kind of keep mixing it again. Just you can add C and if you want. Again, I tend to over season, so you can always just be right on that because everyone can add their own. And then one other thing that I do add at the end, well, not at the end, but I have on the side is a bruchetta sauce that I add to it. It's really good. Or not sauce, but it's it's this from trader thing. Again, the better vest, it is so good. And I can't find a bruchetta, sadly, that doesn't have that oils in it. So I am not making this on my own. So I buy this. That urines here. People ask some Ariba and see a arugula really shrinks down.

SPEAKER_00 4:58

But again, I see we love arugula, so eat remember, arugula is a a cruciferous vegetable. It's got these glucosinolates in it, which is really awesome for phase two of liver detoxification. But also it's kind of a it's kind of a uh a bitter green. So just that overall is super helpful for digestion as well. So I mean it tastes really good, but it's cool to know that you're getting some really awesome nutrients in there. Onions have some idylin, which is kind of a prebiotic fiber that helps to feed our healthy microbes and our gut, so sort of gut supportive. And then, of course, the chicken that's the protein acre. And then mushrooms have a pretty interesting compound called beta-glucan, which is immune-supportive, supportive for your gastrointestinal tract. So not only does it taste good, it's good for you.

SPEAKER_01 5:41

So you can see how it shrinks down. And again, you can I bought, I went to the store earlier this morning, and I I came home and tore off all the chicken, and then that was ready to go. So it is a really, really quick meal. And I think we talked about last time to just make sure, like we're eating at home. I think you're winning just that alone. Like the chicken is organic from sprouts. You don't have to get organic chicken, they have just regular rotisserie. A lot of times they don't have organic. I'll just get the regular chicken. As far as irregular, yes, I do buy organic. And then for dessert, we usually just do berries, if I said. So we're doing a variable for dessert. I wonder if I'm over here. And that's something that I don't compromise on because I think berries are part of the dirty dozen. I know at least strawberries are. So these are all organic. Here's some peanuts, and this is a mix from Trader Joe's, too. It's really good. It has, it does have some chocolate in it, but it's kind of a nice little treat. I will put a little bit of heavy whipping cream on it, that like the cream that you would put in your coffee. So, yep, that's good fat. We also have a kefir. Do you want to show what that is? But I was thinking that would be maybe really good to put on it as well, too, if you wanted to make it, I don't know, like creamy or whatever.

SPEAKER_00 6:53

So we get uh a kefir that they coconut-based kefir from a company called Kiefir Lab. I don't have any affiliation with them, but it's a really good, it's just kind of a drink. It just kind of comes in a bottle, you stick in the refrigerator, and it's got a bunch of healthy microbes. So it's it's like it's like taking a probiotic. Yeah, but it tastes good. And you can pour it over some berries and have it that way. I just usually kind of take the bottle and take a swig of it.

SPEAKER_01 7:16

Here's the final product or the dinner. I'm gonna add brucetta to mine. Again, my kid, don't know. Sometimes I do, sometimes I don't, but I love it. So I'm gonna add that to it. And here's my little dessert bowl, which I'm gonna add the heavy cream to that. But here's the coconut kefir that I thought would be really good on it, too. So give that a try. But this is it. And oh, we did make a pot of rice. We always have a pot of rice going because our kids love to put this over rice and makes it just a little bit more filling for them. But for Chad and I, this is how we serve it up. So give it a try and hope you enjoy.

SPEAKER_00 7:50

Have fun.

unknown 7:51

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 7:52

We've dropped some food on the ground, and so Maya is the head of the cleanup crew. So she's she's gonna take care of the John Maya.