What is the fastest way to batch cook protein for the week?

If you'd rather cook a couple of different proteins, Nikkiey's rule on Ep. 42 is to start with whatever takes longest, which is usually the protein. She explains that chicken can take upwards of 25 to 30 minutes. She likes cooking it hotter, around 450, for less time because it comes out juicier, or pressurizing it in about 20 to 25 minutes. Ground beef and ground turkey take only 10 to 15 minutes on the stove. With chicken in the oven and ground meat in the pan, you make rice and sweet potatoes while those cook. In her 30-minute meal prep video she cooked chicken, ground beef, rice, sweet potatoes and asparagus at the same time and finished in about 28 minutes and 45 seconds.

If meal prep has been eating your whole Sunday, that's a plan problem, not a you problem. Nikkiey says it should not take three hours. Even cooking for more people, she puts it at 45 minutes to an hour, and the difference is strategizing, prioritizing and staying focused instead of getting distracted. The payoff is having prepped meat in the fridge, so lunch can be built around protein and you can turn it into a wrap, salad or bowl depending on what you're in the mood for.