Day 19: BBQ Chicken Salad

Those of you have been reading my blog already know what a fantastic cook my mother is and how much I love her cooking. But it is not just me, my family and our close friends ask my mother to cook/bake for them all the time. She bakes for the dentist(close friend) every time she or Dan visits him. In fact, my mom is such a great cook/baker that almost everything she makes is her " specialty." We basically define specialty as a dish that many people like and only that person can make "the best." Dan's sister, Cindy, took my mom's cream puff recipe and after getting lots of compliments on it from her husband's family, proudly called my mother and told her, " now cream puffs are my specialty." We still joke about it to this day.

Well, I have a specialty too. One that my mother actually requests from me. Are you ready for it? My specialty is BBQ Chicken Salad. It feels very silly and wrong to call this my specialty when several of my mother's specialties take hours of prep and lots of tender, love and care. Not mine...it's a salad. A "recipe" that I came up with all on my own because I was sick of paying $15.00 each time I ordered it at a restaurant. I have given this recipe to a friend of mine three times because her husband thinks she left out ingredients because it never tastes like mine. I'm not going to lie, I'm smiling as I type this. It's really nice to know that someone else, other than your family who is forced to eat it, likes your recipe. But that's just it, there isn't a recipe. It's veggies and dressing...done. So as much as I would really love to gloat over how LOVED my BBQ Chicken Salad is by others, it's hard to truly accept the victory when it is not really a recipe at all. There isn't any real cooking or baking, nothing is made from scratch, and all it requires are some knife skills which I really don't have. Actually, should this even count towards this challenge? Shit, I hope so or I just failed!

Today I made this for lunch not dinner. My friend Dianna and her daughters came over for our weekly play date. Lauren and AJ came too but had to leave before lunch. Dianna always makes remarkable lunches when we go to her house, so I wanted to dazzle her with my signature dish. She is one of my very best friends so I knew that she wouldn't judge me if I made mac n cheese or chicken nuggets like I normally do for our play dates, but still I wanted to make something a little more upscale for her today.

BBQ Chicken Salad(Serves 4)
4 Chicken breasts(grilled or baked, cut in chunks)
3 hearts of Romaine lettuce
1 head Iceberg lettuce
Cucumber
Avocado
Tomato(regular, cherry or plum)
Red Onion
Jicama
Can of black beans, strained and rinsed
Can of yellow sweet corn, strained and rinsed
Mexican Blend shredded cheese
Tortilla strips(Sante Fe or Original)
Sweet Baby Rays BBQ Sauce
Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing

Step 1: Slather chicken breasts in bbq sauce and cook(I prefer to grill mine). Let cool and cut into chunks

Step 2: Tear and wash lettuce. Cut cucumber, avocado, and tomato into chunks. Dice red onion

Step 3: Strain and rinse corn and beans. Toss together

Step 4: Mix Ranch dressing with BBQ sauce to desired taste.

Step 5: Toss lettuce together in bowl. Top with veggies,chicken, bean mix, cheese and tortilla strips. Drizzle with BBQ sauce.

Step 6: Toss with dressing or serve dressing on the side.

Note: Adjust the amount of ingredients in this recipe according to your tastes and the number of people you're feeding. I like my chicken cold on the salad, but it could also be served with warm chicken.

Kitchen Play by Play: I did almost all the prep the night before except for the lettuce, bean mix and avocado. By the time the kids were asleep and Paul and I watched some TV, it was too late to use the grill so I cooked the chicken in the oven for 20 minutes. I missed the charred taste of the grilled chicken, but enjoyed how moist the chicken got in the oven. Doing the bean mix ahead of time will make the corn/beans soggy unless you dry them after rinsing. The lettuce can be done ahead of time and thrown in a garbage bag or large Ziploc with a few paper towels to suck up any moisture. I always save the avocado for the last second so it doesn't have time to get brown. I didn't deal with jicama for today's salad because I hate peeling it, and it is usually hard to find. I mixed the dressing(I use low fat ranch) the night before too, so it could meld overnight. The tortilla strips really make the salad. They are in the produce section at my Jewel. Overall, the whole salad prep takes about 15-20 minutes depending on how fast you can chop, wash, and toss.

The finished product
The Verdict:
Nicole- I am never disappointed by this salad. Whether it is a freezing day in January or a 90 degree day in July, it is always refreshing to me. It's crisp, crunchy and sweet. Plus, it has a week's worth of veggies in it. My only disappointment with today's salad is that I tossed the dressing before serving so I destroyed the leftovers. I don't do soggy salad. However, the two helpings I had at lunch today get a huge 5.

Paul-Wasn't home for lunch, but based on past experiences with the salad he gives it a 4.

Dianna-"Solid 5 on the salad...I could seriously live on that, and the addition of the tortilla strips was phenomenal"

The kids- Ate the cucumbers and the cheese. They dined on "make your own lunchables(crackers, ham, cheese)" instead.