For this post I am going to express one of my favorite simple recipes, and a very healthy one at that–Grilled Chicken Salad.
Now your probably thinking, this is probably too simple to be expressed on a Blog. Well I disagree. If a little extra time is spent with preparation, this can be one of those great easy meals, that you can remake again and again. This meal is such a staple that in our house, we designate one night a week as Grilled Chicken Salad Night.
In order to make up this meal, you need to grab some boneless chicken fillets from your local grocer’s freezer. Simply grill up the chicken over a charcoal or propane grill until the chicken is cooked through and crisp, but not burned. While cooking, cover the chicken with basic seasoning to improve taste. For my super delicious chicken salad, usually a little well done on the chicken makes for a tastier meal.
If you lack the potential to grill, chicken actually bakes well in the oven under steady supervision of flipping the chicken to ensure the chicken is baked all the way through. To bake it use the same formula as you did for grilling, but just expect a little more production time. In either case, slicing open the raw chicken at various parts will help cook the bird and let the seasoning soak in more.
After cooked, take the chicken and slice it into half-inch by half-inch pieces, perfect for salad.
If all of that sounds boring, well it is, but where you can really spice things up is with the salad part. Make sure to apply the sliced up chicken throughout the salad and not just on top layer of lettuce. Shredded cheese, shredded carrot, sliced tomatoes, peas, cucumbers all are great salad choices with chicken. Being from Wisconsin, I encourage the more cheese the better!
Cut up turkey, roast beef, pork chop, or pot roast can go well here either with the chicken or on their own as a substitute. Another great change of taste is to change ingredients and seasonings for a fun and tasty spicy chicken salad.
For me, grilled chicken salad is one of the great left-over meals–especially if your in a grilling mood and are looking a premade meal for the next day. Megan McWilliams also encourages this as a great next day meal. Bryan Luukinen agrees that this is one of those great additional chicken meals that you can basically prepare far in advance by cooking up a full chicken. They are both correct with their assessments, this is such a great meal!
It is fantastic for a lunch, or in large portion is a great dinner meal. For a side, I really like crispy bread sticks or any kind of bread and butter. Garlic bread also works well for a side.
Good Luck and Good Eating.
CHICKEN is NOT VEGETARIAN!!!