Cilantro Lime Chicken Chopped Salad

May 6, 2013 by · 2 Comments

Cilantro Lime Chicken Chopped Salad

One of my favorite weeknight time savers lately is to cook a chicken on the weekend and then divide the meat (and broth) between two easy meals through the week.  While chicken and dumplings or enchiladas are always family favorites, sometimes I like to lighten things up with a chicken salad.

This salad is originally from Your Homebased Mom and I knew I would like it when she said it was from the Nordstrom Cafe.  I have only eaten there once, but I remember my lunch being sooo good.  The real star of this salad is the dressing.  On another day we combined the dressing with some mayo and Greek yogurt and poured it over some chicken in a wrap.  I love the taste of chipotles especially when they are combined with lime, honey and cilantro.  This was super flavorful and just spot on.

Here is a yummy recipe for Herb Roasted Chicken.  Another easy way to cook a chicken is to place the cleaned chicken in a dutch oven.  Cover with water and simmer for about an hour and a half or until the chicken easily pulls apart.  Let the chicken cool slightly and then place in the refrigerator for a few hours.  When you are ready to use the chicken and broth you can skim the fat off the top and then shred the chicken.  I usually make dumplings or chicken and noodles with the chicken and the broth.  You can also cook the chicken like this with some veggies in the water for a little extra flavor.  This is just how I like to do it.  Doesn’t get much easier and it tastes delicious:-)

Some other  great recipes from BWL if you need to use up leftover chicken:

Chicken and Brown Rice Bowls with Chipotle Cream Sauce

Chicken and Refried Bean Enchiladas

Chicken and Dumpling Casserole

Mexican Chicken Tortilla Soup

Mexican Spicy Chicken Pizza

Source:  Adapted from Your Homebased Mom

Linked Up at: Six Sisters’ Stuff Strut Your Stuff Link Party

Cilantro Lime Chicken Chopped Salad
 
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Ingredients
  • 1 cup cilantro
  • 2 -3 tsp chipotle chilies in adobo sauce, chopped small (depending on how spicy you want the dressing)
  • ⅓ cup rice vinegar
  • ¼ cup fresh squeezed lime juice
  • 1 tsp minced garlic
  • 2 tsp honey
  • ½ tsp salt
  • ¾ cup canola oil
  • For Salad (Enough for the amount of salads you will be serving)
  • Chopped Romaine and Iceberg Lettuce
  • Pinto Beans – drained and rinsed
  • Roasted and shredded chicken
  • Shredded Monterrey Jack Cheese
  • Crushed Tortilla Chips (we used baked blue corn chips)
  • Chopped Tomato
  • Frozen corn – thawed

Instructions
  1. To prepare dressing roughly chop cilantro. Puree chilies in food processor and then add vinegar, lime juice, garlic, honey and salt. Blend and then slowly add the oil to to make an emulsion. Add cilantro and pulse until combined.
  2. Prepare salad and then toss with the dressing. Enjoy!

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Asian Steak and Noodle Salad

January 26, 2013 by · 7 Comments

I am trying to give you all some flavorful and healthy recipes this month – because I know everyone is trying to be good right now:-). This is a salad that I could eat once a week. It is an adapted recipe from Pioneer Woman and Iowa Girl Eats and possibly Epicurious.

I made a very similar recipe last year and I could have sworn that it was from Epicurious. However when I went to dig up the recipe I could not for the life of me find it! I knew it had flank steak, noodles and spinach. It was also Asian flavored. But for whatever reason I couldn’t find the darn recipe. So, I searched through some of my favorite blogs and found two recipes – one here and the other here.

I think what I love most about this recipe is that it is a noodle and green leaf salad. I get my pasta and my salad all in one meal! The sweet/salty soy dressing and marinated flank steak is just perfect and somewhat addicting – especially when you kick up the heat a few notches with the sriracha – YUM!

You can serve this with all of the ingredients cold or you can serve it while the steak and noodles are still slightly warm. This wilts the veggies a bit which I love.

As I am writing I am thinking about the different combinations you could do with this. You could swap out the flank steak for chicken or even tofu. You could swap out the green onions for some fried onions or even some thinly sliced red onions. I might also like this with some cashews or water chestnuts. Wow, I am getting hungry and I need to stop thinking about this salad.

Seriously, you need to try this one – sooo good!

Asian Steak and Noodle Salad
 
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Ingredients
  • 1 Asian Flank Steak Recipe – Prepared
  • Dressing:
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 2 tablespoons soy sauce
  • 1 tablespoon teaspoon honey
  • 1 Tablespoon lime juice
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 2 teaspoons fresh ginger, minced
  • Salad
  • ½ bag of baby spinach – washed
  • 12 oz angel hair pasta
  • red or yellow pepper – sliced into thin 2 inch strips
  • 3 green onions sliced thin (white and green parts)
  • Chopped Cilantro
  • handful of sunflower seeds
  • Sriracha

Instructions
  1. Cook flank steak according to directions here. Slice into thin strips.
  2. Combine dressing ingredients and set aside.
  3. Cook pasta according to directions on box.
  4. Slice peppers and green onion. Chop cilantro.
  5. To put salad together place spinach in the bottom of your salad bowl and then add pepper and green onions. Place pasta and steak on top of your vegetables. sprinkle with cilantro, sunflower seeds a sriracha if desired. Add dressing and toss to coat evenly.
  6. Enjoy!

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French Potato Salad

May 23, 2012 by · 6 Comments

This is the potato salad that my mom makes and it’s the one that made me realize that not all potato salads had to have mayonnaise or sour cream in order to be good. As a matter of fact, I prefer my potato salads this way. I posted Julia Child’s French Potato Salad a while back and while I will probably keep making that recipe (because I always have the ingredients on hand,) this is the recipe that I will always ask my mom to make. They taste pretty similar, but this particular recipe uses beef consomme which gives it a slightly different deeper flavor than Julia’s which uses chicken broth….or as Jim and I like to joke “the broth of a chicken…” Sorry, inside joke:-).

If you have never tried a vinegar based potato salad – you must try either one of these recipes! You can serve this at room temperature or cold. You won’t need to worry about taking these to a picnic because no mayo means a lot fewer worries over spoiling in the hot summer sun. It’s going to be in the 90′s here in NC this weekend so that will definitely be something to think about!

Here are a few more fun recipes for the holiday…I have a few more that I will try to post before the weekend, too!

Picnic Chicken

Picnic Chicken – mom’s recipe

Texas Sheet Cake

Feta Pepperoncini Dip

Htipiti – Feta Pepperoncini Dip

italian Breeze

Italian Breeze

Enjoy!

French Potato Salad
 
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Ingredients
  • 9 medium potatoes
  • ½ cup oil
  • ¼ cup tarragon vinegar
  • ¼ cup beef consomme
  • ¼ cup thinly sliced green onion
  • 2 tablespoons snipped parsley
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • ½ teaspoon pepper

Instructions
  1. Cook potatoes covered in boiling salted water until tender. Cool slightly. Peel and slice. Combine oil, vinegar, consomme, green onions, parsley, salt and pepper. Toss gently. Cover and chill.
  2. Enjoy!

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Grilled Ceasar Salad

April 12, 2012 by · 6 Comments


Wow this was good.  We will be doing this one many times this summer I’m sure.

 

Its nice now that the girls are older as they can keep themselves busy on car rides without wanting to kill each other.  Sometimes I feel guilty about all of the electronics that they have for our rides, but then I remember the rides where they weren’t so content and that guilt subsides very quickly.  We did have a rousing game of “What Am I” on the ride up and that was fun.

 

One of the things that Jim and I do on long road trips is make lists.  On Monday while we were on our way back to North Carolina from Maryland we did two things: wrote a new workout plan (trying to step things up a bit) and a grocery list.  Somewhere along the way we decided that grilled Caesar salads sounded good for dinner.  I don’t know about you, but I crave salads when I come home from a trip.  I can’t explain it, but I crave them like I crave sugar (which is a lot.)  Its strange really.

 

So, if you have never grilled romaine, then I suggest you go and buy some and try this very soon.  We buy the ones in the package that are still in tact.  They come in packages of three or four and they are perfect for grilling.  All you do is cut the head of lettuce in half (the long way so they stay together) and then lightly brush with olive oil.   Place on the grill and cook both sides for about 30 seconds.  I didn’t have time to make dressing so I got Ken’s Light Caesar Vinaigrette and I have to say it was pretty darn good.  I was a little worried that the bottled dressing would take away from the great flavor of the grilled lettuce, but it didn’t at all.  Next time I might like a little more anchovy taste, but otherwise it was perfect.

 

The chicken was grilled and then sliced.  If you want a simple and quick marinade, this balsamic grilled chicken goes great on this salad.  We also grilled some onion which added a nice flavor.  Finally, we finished the salad off with some black olives and shredded Parmesan cheese.

 

Seriously, this salad was tasty and I can’t wait to have it again.  Grilling the romaine wilts it a bit, but also gives it a deeper flavor.  The ends even got a little bit crispy which was my favorite part.

 

The other thing that I liked about this meal was that everything cooks right on the grill which makes it easy to throw together and easy to clean up.  It’s also pretty healthy and a  perfect light grilled meal.

 

The bruschetta on the side had goat cheese and diced tomatoes – recipe will be later this week.

Grilled Ceasar Salad
 
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Recipe type: Salad

Ingredients
  • 2 romaine hearts – washed and dried
  • 1 tablespoon of olive oil
  • 2 grilled chicken breasts sliced thin
  • ¼ cup shredded Parmesan cheese
  • Your favorite Caesar Dressing (we used Ken’s light Caesar Vinaigrette)
  • Grilled onion rings
  • Black Olives
  • Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions
  1. Slice each romaine heart in half the long way so that the root keeps them intact. Lightly brush each half with olive oil. Season lightly with salt and pepper.
  2. Place romaine on grill over medium high heat and cook on each side for about 30 seconds.
  3. Place one romaine half on each plate and top with half of a sliced chicken breast. Add olives and onions. Sprinkle with Parmesan and salad dressing.
  4. Enjoy!

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Mexican Pork Salad with Avocado Dressing

March 7, 2012 by · 5 Comments

Salad

On Monday I posted the Chili Rubbed Pork Tenderloin and I said that I would post the salad that we made with the leftover pork. When we buy tenderloin it comes in a package of two. We usually only eat one  so we always have leftovers. I don’t always love reheating it, so a salad is always a great way to use up the second half. Plus, adding lean protein to a salad is a great way to make it a meal.

The real recipe here is the Avocado Dressing which Reeni posted on Cinnamon Girl Recipes. The recipe is originally from Everyday Food, however looking at Reeni’s picture of her chicken salad is what really prompted me to make this. She also did what I would have done and swapped the mint out for the cilantro.

If you are looking for a different way to get some avocado in your life, definitely try this dressing.   It’s extremely flavorful and you can pour it on so many things. It will keep for a couple of days, too.  Buttermilk is usually fat-free so it’s a nice healthy way to add some flavor. Plus you know how good avocado is for you, right?


Here is what I put on the salad :

Mixed field Greens
Avocado Pico de Gallo
Chili Crusted Pork Tenderloin – sliced as thin as you can get it
Shredded Cheese (I actually took a string cheese stick and pulled it apart and then chopped it up)
Crumbled Baked Blue Corn Chips
Sautéed Corn and Peppers – optional (I will share the recipe for this later, but you can also just add some canned or frozen and defrosted corn.)
Avocado Dressing – below

Avocado Buttermilk Dressing
 
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Ingredients
  • 2 ripe avocados
  • 1 cup buttermilk
  • 2 scallions chopped
  • 1 good handful cilantro
  • ¼ cup chopped parsley
  • 3 Tablespoons lemon juice
  • salt and pepper to taste

Instructions
  1. In a blender or a food processor combine avocados, buttermilk, scallions, cilantro, parsley and lemon juice until smooth. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

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