10 Post-Workout Dinner Recipes

Getting your protein on is important for every meal, seeing as you need it for muscle and glycogen build-up and recovery. You’ve got breakfast covered though; steak, eggs, sausage, ham – you get the point. Aside from fruit, toast, and the occasional stack of pancakes, it’s pretty much all protein. Dinner can be a little more complicated though. That’s why I give you this handy-dandy list of delicious post-workout dinner recipes that you need to try for the sakes of your muscles as well as your taste-buds!

1. Chicken thigh with sweet potato and kale bake

Here’s a great recipe I located on JoCooks.com. Indeed it does have a Sunday night dinner feel to it, but it’s really great as far as dinner recipes for post-workouts go. Chicken is obviously great for getting protein, and then on top of that there’s kale the super green along with one of the healthiest carbs there is – sweet potato. The recipe takes under an hour so get this into your belly as soon after your workout as you can for the best recovery results.

For the full recipe, click here!

2. Pulled BBQ chicken over instant rice

I’ll start off our list of dinner recipes with something simple: pulled BBQ chicken over instant rice. This blast of protein and carbs should have your muscles and glycogen back to normal in no time flat. It takes about 6 hours to slow-cook though, so plan your workout to end around the time this is done cooking for optimal results.

Ingredients:

1 pound of chicken breasts

a bottle of your favorite BBQ sauce

1 onion

2 tablespoons of garlic powder

2 cups of minute rice

2 cups of water

Directions:

Throw everything EXCEPT for the rice and the water into a crockpot. Set to medium-high for 6 hours.

Before the 6 hours is up, bring a small pot of water to a boil and throw in your instant rice, covering the pot and removing from heat for 5 minutes.

When the 6 hours is up, simply pull the chicken breasts apart with two forks, make sure all the pulled chicken is well coated in the BBQ sauce.

Drain your rice when the water has been fully absorbed and serve the pulled chicken over the rice.

Note: you can get creative with what kind of BBQ sauce you use, or even make your own. For example, this recipe tastes awesome with Korean BBQ sauce, perhaps with a garnish of chopped green onion and sesame seeds. Also great for sandwiches!

3. Garlic chicken and noodles bake

More chicken! Sorry if you’re getting sick of chicken but when it comes to post-workout dinner recipes, there’s just no way of getting around it. Luckily, this recipe has so much garlic that I’m sure you won’t mind. Mmmmm… garlic. There’s going to be a lot of oil too, but don’t worry – fat isn’t as bad for post-workout as one might think. Besides, what else are you going to soak up with bread afterward?

Ingredients:

Directions:

4. Curry sweet potato salad

Here’s a fun recipe from 86 Lemons that makes for a nice pile of healthy carbs. You can have it as a light vegetarian meal in itself or have it as a side-salad of sorts. Regardless of how you eat it, if you like curry and sweet potatoes, you’re definitely going to have to try this perfect post-workout meal from our list of dinner recipes.

For the full recipe, visit its website of origin by clicking here!

5. Mashed sweet potatoes

Here’s another easy one for our list of dinner recipes that are going to keep the sweet potato ball rolling. Mashed sweet potatoes are a great side dish to have with any protein, or standalone if that’s how you roll. No judgment in this dojo.

Ingredients:

4 or 5 sweet potatoes

1 stick of butter

1/2 cup of cream

Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Wrap sweet potatoes in tin-foil and bake in the oven at 350 degrees for an hour or until tender.

After baking, unwrap your sweet potatoes into a pot and mash.

Add the butter, cream, salt, and pepper.

Stir and mash thoroughly until mashed sweet potatoes are fluffy. Then serve.

Note: if you’ve got a sweet-tooth, you can also add brown sugar or even marshmallows to the mix.

6. Oven pork chop pan roast

Two great things about this meal that make it a great addition to our post-workout recipes: pork and squash. Squash is another healthy-ass carbohydrate, and pork is a lean protein that’s perfect for building muscle. Put it all together in the oven and what have you got? One lean-mean muscle restoration machine of a dinner.

For the full recipe, click the link here!

7. Brined pork chops

Here’s another pork chop recipe to add to the list of post-workout dinner recipes.

Ingredients:

1 pound of pork chops

2 cups of warm water

1 can or bottle of a light lager

1 1/2 cups of ice cubes

4 sage leaves, dried or fresh

6 cloves of garlic, minced

Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Throw everything except for the pork chops and the ice cubes into a large container, be it an ice cooler or a serving pitcher.

Mix everything together until the salt dissolves a bit, then add the ice cubes and the pork.

Keep stored in a cool place for 7-12 hours.

Set the grill to high and allow to warm up for about 10-15 minutes.

Lower grill to medium and allow the temperature to go down for 5 minutes, then throw on your pork chops for 8 minutes.

Flip and allow to cook for another 8 minutes.

Flip once more for two minutes, plate, and serve!

8. Baked Chicken Parmesan

What better way to get your protein and carbs out of your post-workout dinner recipes than with a spicy Italian twist? And cheesy. And with marinara sauce. Yum-a-dum-dum!

For the full recipe, click here!

9. Egg Foo Young

It’s basically just a vegetable omelet, but more vegetable than omelet. It’s super quick, super easy, super tasty, and it’s just vegetables and protein… and salt. Also, it’s a great way to utilize leftovers!

Ingredients:

Salt and pepper to taste

4 eggs, whisked

1/2 cup of bean sprouts

1/2 cup of chopped carrots

1/2 cup of sliced bell pepper

3 tablespoons of soy sauce

A squirt of siracha

Directions:

Just mix all the ingredients in a large bowl.

Pour the mixture into a large pan on high.

Stir and cook until vegetables are soft and egg is cooked.