Healthy Mexican Chicken Salad

Even though this dish may look like a big mish-mosh, looks can be deceiving, and I want to tell you that it's actually quite delicious.  Just something I made up out of ingredients I had on hand, it's a Mexican style chicken salad, with roasted chicken, tomatillo sauce, garlic, fresh greens and cheese on top.  Being an extremely low maintenance dish, it'll take you under an hour to prepare and it keeps well for leftovers for the next day or two.  You can put it in a sandwich too!

Healthy Mexican Chicken Salad (serves 2)

Ingredients:
3-4 pieces of chicken thighs
Mixed greens or baby arugula or spinach
1 head of garlic
3-4 thin pieces of fresh mozzarella cheese
1/2 cup of tomatillo sauce (I use Trader Joe's brand)
Olive oil
Good quality balsamic vinaigrette
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Place the chicken in a lightly oiled baking dish (I use ceramic) and season with salt and pepper.  Cover with tomatillo sauce and bake for about 35 minutes or until the top is golden brown.  Add the cheese at the last 5 minutes of baking, just to melt it.  In addition to the chicken, prepare the garlic, for roasting by slicing the top off the garlic, covering it with a modest amount of olive oil, salt and pepper and then wrap it in aluminum foil.  Bake together with the chicken.

Let the chicken cool slightly and then place on the bed of greens.  Do the same with the garlic and then lightly coat the salad with a little bit of olive oil and balsamic vinaigrette.

Grilled Chicken Salad Tortillas

Fridays are my best cooking nights and this week I decided to make something semi-healthy yet hearty--grilled chicken salad tortillas with cous-cous. Dan loved this dish and as did I. It's very easy to make and you don't need any special ingredients to create it--you'll probably have most things in your fridge or pantry. Here's the recipe to try:

Grilled Chicken Salad Tortillas: (serves 2-3)

Ingredients:
3 large chicken breast fillets
2-3 heaping tbs of good barbecue sauce (I prefer Salt Lick BBQ sauce)
Salt, pepper and paprika to season the chicken
Olive oil or cooking spray to grease grill pan, panini press or George Foreman Grill
1/2 large red pepper, cubed into small pieces
1/4 large onion, diced
2 - 2 1/2 large tbs of mayonnaise
1 large tbs of sweet and sour mustard (or any kind of mustard that you have or like)
4-6 small-medium sized whole wheat tortillas

Directions:
Season the chicken generously with salt, pepper, paprika and then rub with BBQ sauce. Marinate for 20-30 minutes. In the meantime, heat up the grill and grease it with olive oil or cooking spray. Grill the chicken for 5 minutes on each side or until well done. Remove from grill and let cool for 10 minutes so it's easy to handle. Cube the chicken into 1/2" pieces and place into a medium sized bowl. Mix with onions and the red peppers. In a separate small bowl, combine the mayonnaise and the mustard, mix thoroughly and season with salt and pepper. Place the mayo/mustard mixture into the bowl with the chicken and veggies. Mix the chicken salad well until the mayonnaise mixture is incorporated. The last step is to place the chicken salad into lightly toasted tortillas.

And as for the cous-cous, I used a whole wheat type, followed directions on the box and then mixed it with the remainder of diced onions and red peppers. So light and so delicious. Enjoy!