Buffalo Chicken Salad Meal Prep

The meal-prep plate is the lunch container that has solved the problem of "what's for lunch" for an entire generation of office workers. Two or three compartments, a protein on one side, a fruit and a snack on the other, and you don't have to think before you eat. This is that, buffalo-chicken-flavoured, which is the most universally inoffensive flavour profile that still has personality.

Buffalo chicken salad is the trick. Shredded chicken plus buffalo sauce plus a cooling element (ranch, blue cheese, or in the photo's case, a creamy dressing with pickle relish) plus crunch (celery, finely diced). The chicken absorbs the flavour overnight and gets BETTER on day two — this is one of the rare meal-prep dishes that doesn't degrade as the week goes on.

The photo shows the four containers: chicken salad in the largest compartment with green parsley flecks, blueberries in the small compartment for sweet-and-fresh, in-shell pistachios for the salt and texture and the satisfaction of having something to crack open. Each container is one complete lunch, eaten cold, no reheating, no fuss.