Easy Asian Chicken Salad

This was inspired by my Grandpa's famous chicken marinade after I saw how easy the salsa crock pot chicken was.  I also needed to use up the cilantro from the salsa chicken before it went bad because all of us herb lovers know it is a crime to let cilantro go bad, along with most other fresh herbs.

While the recipe isn't exactly low carb, I thought that eating it on a salad could balance it out a bit.  At least consider it a healthy dietary cheat. 

The basis in this recipe is think of the flavors you like and go with it.  Seriously, it seems that you can take what you like and make that chicken good.

So, what did I use?

For the Chicken:

chicken

fresh garlic

fresh cilantro

crushed pinapple

low sodium soy sauce

powdered ginger (although I would have liked to find fresh)

put all in a crock pot for four hours

The salad

Sam's Club cabbage mix salad

top with: 

Easy Asian Chicken

cilantro if left over

Thia Noodles

ENJOY!

The Salad's the Limit

So, salads.

It is February, and I bet a few New Years resolutions are probably starting to wear thin.  I admit that my diet has definitely waned.  The thing to remember is that salads can be fun.  They are colorful, tasteful, and have infinite possibilities.  Ladies, you can basically paint with food when it comes to salads, and guys, you can make some super manly entrees.  The next few blogs will be featuring salads that I have had over the past few months, and all pictures are my amateur attempts at healthy, tasty, and restaurant-looking made food.  If I can do it, then you can do it; the salad is the limit...

TACO SALAD

One thing that helps me make salads that I like is something that Moe's Southwest Grill gave me: make it naked.  They have a wonderful option of making your burrito "naked".  This is a turkey taco salad, pretty easy.  Turkey is something to consider as a leaner option, but definitely keep an eye on the recalls because salmonella is a possibility.  The best way to keep safe from any of this bacterial sickness from ANY ground meat is to certainly cook the meat thoroughly.  If the ground meat bleeds, the bacteria breeds.  

So, this salad is a mixed spring green salad sporting taco seasoned ground turkey, tomatoes, sauteed onions and bell peppers, and shredded cheddar. The dressing is a tablespoon of sour cream mixed with salsa.  I didn't have them at the time, but I also like to put fresh cilantro and black olives on my taco salads.  Do like Moe's and just make your burrito "naked".

The Experiments

The following salads are little experiments of mine that may not sound the most conventional, but sometimes, after a week of hard testing, inspiration will come in the strangest ways.

The Lean, Mean, Red, and Green

If you are hard pressed for a salad idea, pick some colors, and make a masterpiece.  Obviously here, I decided to go with red and green.  So, I made a list of my favorite red and green things that could go on a salad that I could easily get: craisins, grapes, tomatoes, avocadoes, and raspberry vinegrette.  I added some chicken and sunflower seeds to provide protein.  

Taco Salad Twist 

The taco salad is probably one of my favorites.  Earlier in the week, I made some crockpot salsa chicken (which will be featured later) and was thinking of my visit to Costa Rica a few years ago.  It seemed that they would put a fried egg randomly with your food, so I thought with a shrug, "Why not?"

The egg was kind of two experiments.  1: an egg on a salad that isn't egg salad.  2: seasoning the egg with something other than salt, pepper, and Cavender's.  I wanted to match the spicy flavors of the chicken on the egg, so I used cilantro, chili powder, cavender's, and cinnamon.  Yes, you read correctly, cinnamon.  The concoction was a surprising success! (At least, to my easily pleased taste buds).  In fact, I've taken to putting cinnamon on my fried eggs now simply because I liked the way the warm spice mixed with the neutral egg.  

So, this salad's final make up is: spring mix lettuce, salsa chicken, olives, cilantro, spiced fried egg, and a dollop of light sour cream.  yum yum!