Wes Ellis./ a personal notebook
Technology. Stories. Side projects.
A few things worth writing down.
SearchSubscribe
← Back to Short-Order Kitchen

Short-Order Kitchen

High-Protein Mexican Chicken Salad

By Wes Ellis2 min read
A bowl of spiced chicken over lettuce with red cabbage and sweet corn.
Recipe card
Servings
3
Prep
15 minutes
Cook
None (no-cook)
Method
No-Bake
Difficulty
Easy
Jump to ingredients & directions ↓

Part 8 of the thread Bowls, salads and wraps

THE SHORT VERSION4 points
  • One rotisserie chicken does all the cooking for you.
  • The sauce is 1 cup of Greek yogurt, a lime and six pantry spices.
  • Serve it with chips, crisped wrap triangles or lettuce cups.
  • Keeps 2 to 3 days, though the avocado will brown a bit.
THE RECIPE · HIGH-PROTEIN MEXICAN CHICKEN SALAD

Ingredients

Salad

Chili-lime sauce

To serve

You'll need

  • Large bowl
  • Small bowl
  • Whisk or fork
  • Knife and cutting board

Directions

  1. Pull the chicken off the bone, skip the skin, and shred or dice it.
  2. Chop the pepper and cilantro, dice the avocado, rinse the beans and drain the corn.
  3. Whisk the Greek yogurt, lime juice and all the spices together until smooth. Taste it and adjust.
  4. In a large bowl, combine the chicken, beans, pepper, corn, cilantro, avocado and cheese, if using.
  5. Pour the sauce over and stir gently until everything's coated.
  6. Taste again, adding more lime, salt or chili powder if it needs it. Serve right away or chill first.
Notes Keeps 2 to 3 days in an airtight container in the fridge. Add the avocado just before serving if you're making it ahead, and it won't brown.

wesellis.com/blog/high-protein-mexican-chicken-salad/

Chicken salad usually means mayo, celery and a bread roll. This one goes south instead: black beans, corn, cilantro and a chili-lime yogurt sauce that tastes like the good part of a burrito bowl. Grab a rotisserie chicken on the way home and there's no cooking at all.

Taste the sauce on its own

Greek yogurt is tart and plain, so the sauce needs more seasoning than you'd think. Whisk it up and taste it before it touches the chicken. It should be a little too salty and a little too limey on its own, because the chicken, beans and corn will mellow it out. If it tastes right by itself, it'll taste flat in the salad.

Tip

Let it sit ten minutes before serving if you can. The cumin and chili powder need a moment to bloom in the yogurt.

Ways to eat it

This one's more of a filling than a salad. Scoop it with chips, spoon it into lettuce cups, or cut a low-carb wrap into triangles and crisp them in the oven for homemade chips. It also makes a solid topping for the High-Protein Nacho Platter.

The shredded rotisserie chicken trick works just as well in the Rotisserie Chicken Noodle Soup. And if you like these flavors warm, the One-Pan Burrito Bowl is the cooked version.

Heads up

Avocado browns. If you're making a batch for the week, add it when you serve.

LINKED FROM4 notes

Keep reading