Cheesy Chicken Stuffed Artichokes (Low Carb)

New year, new diet? While I’ve done a modified version of Keto for almost two years now, I’ll admit that food boredom has had me cycling off and on. This year, I’m taking my focus off carbs (I’ll still be low-carb though) and trying to put it back on being healthy. For me, that means getting creative, coming up with delicious low-carb meals and making eating right sustainable. Because of that, I’ve been spending some time in the kitchen in the new year. While it’s EASY to do meat and veggies, that gets boring fast. I want flavor. I want excitement. And now, every day, I want these Cheesy Chicken Stuffed Artichokes.

For years, I’ve been buying the artichoke hearts in jar and adding them to salads, pizzas, pasta salads and more. But truthfully, “real” artichokes have intimidated me. I mean, they look a little scary right? But I’ve recently discovered that they are so easy to make and they are low in carbs. Plus, if you cook them right? Well, the flavor is fantastic. So, it’s fair to say I’ve been roasting my fair share of artichokes to enjoy as a side dish at dinner time. But I wanted to take things up a notch and take this perfect food, stuff it full of chicken and cheese and turn it into a low carb lunch that I could actually get excited about.

Let me assure you that artichokes are not as difficult to cook as you might assume. It simply takes a little prep work and knowledge to ensure they are amazing. To start, I cut off my artichoke stems and then cut about an inch and a half off the top of each artichoke. Using kitchen scissors I then cut about an inch off of all of the exterior petals to remove the tough portion. At this point my artichoke looked like this.

Once my artichokes were prepped, I added water to a large pot (big enough to submerge the artichokes) and brought the water to a boil. Then I placed my artichokes inside, added a lid and turned town the heat slightly so that they cooked for 20 minutes.

As soon as my artichokes were done in the water, I removed them, allowed them to drain and cool and then cut them in half. Once they were cut in half, I used a spoon to scoop out the tough middle layers and the spiky portion at the bottom of the artichoke. I really just use feel for this step and keep removing the center petals until the hard parts are gone and I’m left with soft delicious goodness. My prepped artichoke halves looked like this.

I added them to a baking sheet and brushed my olive oil onto them, getting it down into all the crevices and added a sprinkle of sea salt.

With my artichokes prepped and ready to be stuffed, I mixed together my cream cheese, shredded chicken and half of my shredded cheese. Then I simply filled each of my artichokes with the mixture.

My Cheesy Chicken Stuffed Artichokes immediately went into my preheated oven and baked at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. Once my mixture in the middle was bubbly and my artichokes were tender, I removed them from the oven, sprinkled the rest of the cheese over the top and returned them to the oven to broil for five minutes or until the cheese on top turned brown and bubbly.

Once my Cheesy Chicken Stuffed Artichoke Hearts were cooked to perfection, I removed them from the oven, sprinkled some diced chives over the top and served them immediately.

Seriously, this dish was so perfect! It reminded me of artichoke dip but in a different way since I was able to pull off the perfectly cooked artichoke petals and dip them into the cheesy mixture in the middle.

Even better, a half artichoke was totally filling and had less than 5 net carbs while still being crazy delicious!

Whether you’re cutting carbs, looking for a lunch you’ll love or are just a fan of artichoke dip that wants to mix thing up, I highly recommend giving these Cheesy Chicken Stuffed Artichokes a try!