Hello again and Southwest Chicken Salad

Southwest Chicken Salad with Chipotle Lime Dressing

Hi, fellow food lovers.  I’ve missed you!  My new job has had me working such long hours I haven’t had time to do anything but work, eat, bathe, sleep and the most basic/ essential tasks to keep a household running.  At any rate, we’ve had some good meals lately, some of which, unfortunately,  I forgot to even photograph.  One of those was a big pot of Italian Wedding Soup, which happens to be my very favorite soup in the world.  It’s a bit labor intensive because you have to make over a hundred little tiny meatballs, but the end result is delicious - and well, cute!  I promise I’ll take pictures next time I make it, which will surely be sometime during the long cold winter that’s waiting to pounce on us.  I’ve been chewed out by a friend for neglecting the blog, which actually made me very happy.  I also had a request to post the recipe for the Southwest Chicken Salad I made the other night.  It turned out very well, if I do say so myself.

 In this case, I started with a store-bought rotisserie chicken that was not overcooked for a change!  Typically, I would grill a whole chicken myself using southwest flavors, but I’m beginning to think that’s an unnecessary use of time.  The store-bought one with BBQ flavors was perfectly fine.  I use Romaine lettuce for this, as well as some of our few remaining Juliet tomatoes L, canned black beans, grill roasted fresh corn, orange bell peppers, roasted poblanos from our garden, and red onion.  Derek roasts the poblanos himself over the burner, but you could do it on the grill or even the broiler.  If you’re not familiar with the process of roasting fresh chiles, you just roast them using your preferred method, turning them frequently until they’re spotted with black all over.  Then let them cool and peel the burned skin off of them.  Delicious!  I’m going to post the actual recipe, by request.  I make a chipotle lime cilantro dressing that Derek is really crazy about.  It’s very easy and can also be used as a sandwich spread.  This is a very colorful and pretty salad; I think it’s pretty healthy, too.  Here’s the recipe, as promised:

Southwest Chicken Salad

For the salad:

Leftover roasted or grilled chicken, shredded into bite-sized pieces

1 orange bell pepper, cut into ½ inch strips

1 or 2 roasted chiles, such as Poblano, or Hatch; peeled and cut into ½ inch strips

½ a small red onion, sliced thin

1 small can of black beans, rinsed and drained

3 ears of fresh corn, roasted and cut off the cob

8 Grape tomatoes, cut in half

1 avocado, cut in bite-sized pieces

1 head of Romaine lettuce, washed and cut into bite-sized pieces

Broken tortilla chips to garnish

For the dressing:

1 C mayonnaise; I use Hellman’s Olive Oil, but you could make your own homemade mayonnaise, if you’re so inclined.

Remaining half of the small red onion, minced

2 – 3 toes fresh garlic, minced

Juice from fresh limes to equal about 3 T

1 T lime zest! (it’s easier to juice the lime if you zest! it first)

1 small can chipotle chiles in adobo; use as much as you like, but take it slowly.   These babies are hotter than you might think.  I use about 2 T of the liquid and 1 or 2 of the chiles, depending on how hot I want it.  Start with 1 and go from there.

1 handful of fresh cilantro, roughly chopped

Put all the ingredients in a blender and blend on high speed until smooth; it usually ends up being the color of Thousand Island dressing.  I sometimes add a little more lime or cilantro, but those quantities are a fairly good start.

Assemble the salad ingredients on top of the lettuce and toss with a small amount of the dressing, adding more a little at a time until it’s coated and the degree of heat you like.  You don’t need too much, so start with a little and add it as you go.  You shouldn’t need any salt or pepper.  Top with some broken corn tortilla chips and a little sprig of fresh cilantro.  ¡Disfrute!