A huge, filling salad full of tasty toppings like avocado, black beans, homemade tortilla chips, and salsa-ranch dressing
In the summer before my senior year of college, I lived in Nashville with two of my friends. We rented a nice little 3 bedroom apartment that had a "real kitchen."
Did I say real kitchen?
What I meant was a space with barely enough room for one person to make their lunch and the other to make coffee at the same time.
Needless to say, it was a real kitchen. I wasn't in a dorm, a sorority house, or a disturbingly unclean house with 8 other girls. I had a pantry, refrigerator, and freezer full of food that I didn't have to worry about being stolen in the middle of the night by a random neighbor.
This was a very exciting time for me; it's when I actually started cooking a lot. Even better was that it was the first time that I lived in a city with a Whole Foods. {How did I ever live without?}
Anywho, back to the me beginning to cook: I finally had my chance to play in the kitchen, and it was so much fun!
Luckily, my roommates were great guinea pigs for my random creations/takes on the recipe that I had on my computer but then it died so I had to guess measurements, directions, etc. {Thanks again for eating my food, friends!}
Besides the random creations, there was one meal that really sticks out in my memory from the summer of 2008 - the Mexican Chicken Salad.
One fateful night I made it, and we loved it. It was really good, and we then proceeded to make it one million times before the summer was over.
Now, every time I make it and I taste the salsa + ranch dressing on my salad, it makes me happy even though the salad is a little different each time.
Like my lazy pantry dinner, this one is easily adaptable to whatever you have in your kitchen. No red bell peppers? Leave 'em out. Want to add some corn? By all means, go right ahead; it's your salad.
Here is the basic recipe for one of my favorite salads. This one's for you, Callie:
Mexican Chicken Salad
Ingredients
- 2 tsp olive oil divided
- 3 small corn tortillas
- 3/4 tsp chili powder divided
- 1/4 tsp cumin
- 1/2 cup salsa
- 1/4 cup Ranch dressing
- 1/4 tsp kosher salt
- 1 lb chicken breast chopped or use tenders
- 1 tsp oil
- 1 onion sliced
- 1 1/2 cups bell pepper I used red, green, and yellow, chopped
- 1/4 cup low-sodium chicken broth or water
- 15 ounce can reduced-sodium black beans drained and well-rinsed
- 2 Romaine hearts chopped
- 1 avocado diced
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400°F. Cut the tortillas into small triangles. Rub both sides with 1 teaspoon of oil and sprinkle with 1/4 tsp chili powder. Make sure every chip is well coated. Put chips on a baking sheet, and bake 7-10 minutes in the preheated oven until they are golden and pretty crispy. Allow chips to cool completely on baking sheet. They will get crispier.
- In a small bowl, combine salsa and ranch dressing. Set aside.
- Sprinkle cumin, kosher salt, and 1/4 tsp of chili powder on chicken. Heat the remaining 1 teaspoon of oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add chicken and cook for about 5 minutes per side. Remove chicken.
- Add onion and bell peppers to skillet. Cook for about 3 minutes, stirring often. Add chicken broth & remaining 1/4 teaspoon chili powder to the pan, and scrape any bits of chicken off the bottom of the pan. Turn the heat up to medium-high. Allow mixture to simmer for about 5-10 minutes until the broth has reduced by about half.
- Add the black beans to the pan and stir well. Cook another 5 minutes. Return chicken to the pan. Reduce heat to medium and cook for 5 minutes. Remove from heat.
- Meanwhile, stir together Ranch dressing and salsa.
- Serve the mixture over chopped Romaine hearts and top with salsa and Ranch dressing mixture. Sprinkle with homemade chips and avocado.
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