Greek Chicken Chopped Salad
Posted By Savita
A carb free clean chicken chopped salad marinated with bold Greek flavors, balanced with creaminess of feta, sweetness of grapes and spicy peperonicini peppers!
Honestly, this is a kind of salad my family can enjoy two times a day... two days in a row.... no questions asked. Hands down, this clean salad makes me drool every time I plan to make some.... Loaded with healthy-dose of (lots and lots) chopped veggies, topped with salty feta, garlic-oregano marinated zesty chicken, and sweetness of grapes to bring those sweet-savor notes........ what not to like?!
Chopped salads are my special favorite for the easy of eating green without struggling with the stems. you know what I mean ;) So, whenever I pack salads for lunch... I always try to spend extra 5 minutes and chop everything, greens and rest of veggies evenly for decent-bite-size a.k.a fork-size chops. This little extra spent time makes life much easier (and less messy) when eating in office. ;)
Greek Chicken Chopped salad first appeared in Salad Every Day Cookbook. I clearly remember when I planned to test this recipe, we had Greek chicken salad day and night for at-least a week. I made atleast 4 batches of chicken and vinaigrette until I got the balance of flavors. Oh,that reminds me that this chicken recipe is perfect to cook and freeze some chicken for weekdays salads or pita-tacos. I happen to freeze a lot of leftover greek chicken when I was testing this recipe and it was real delight whenever I used it later.
An important flavor component of this greek salad is sweetness of grapes. Honestly, you can skip greens in this salad but please don't skip seedless grapes. All Greek flavors can be pretty sharp at times... so sweetness of grapes makes this salad looking-forward-to-every-next-bite kinda delicious!
You can replace greens in this salad with darker leaf greens too. Like sometimes, I replace lettuce with chopped kale mix or generous addition of baby spinach. Just in case you not looking to eat chicken, the same marinade works perfect with firm pressed tofu or even chickpeas. After 15-30 minute marination, pan fry tofu or chickpeas until golden crispy, then top on salad as you would chicken. I promise you, even the vegetarian version of this chopped salad is very satisfying, of course healthy and packed with ton of flavor.
I hope you all are set to watch games and enjoy time with friends and family?!
Wish you all a great SuperBowl weekend. Happy to see you around! -Savita
Ingredients
- Greek Salad
- 1/2 Cup Feta Cheese
- 1 Cucumber (sliced to bite-size pieces)
- 2 Tomatoes (Roma or Wine-Ripe tomatoes, seeds removed and diced)
- 2 Shallot Onions (sliced to thin rings)
- 4-6 Pepperoncini
- 2 Lettuce (2 heads, rough chopped)
- 1/2 lbs Black Seedless Grapes
- Greek (Red Wine Vinegar) Vinaigrette
- Salt and Black Pepper (adjust per taste)
- 3 tbsp Red Wine Vinegar
- 1/4 Cup Olive Oil
- 2 Garlic (cloves of garlic)
- 1 tsp Mustard (dijon mustard)
- 1 tsp Oregano (dried leaves)
- Greek-style Chicken
- 1.5 lbs Chicken (boneless, breast meat)
- 1 tbsp Rosemary
- 1 tbsp Oregano
- 4 tbsp Lemon (juice)
- Salt and Black Pepper
- 1/2 tsp Smoked Red Pepper (smoked paprika)
Directions
- 1. Season and Grill Chicken: Season chicken in spices and lemon juice and set aside for 30 minutes to 2 hrs. Grill outside or indoor, until fully cooked. (about 4 minutes each side)
- 2. Make Vinaigrette Dressing: In a food processor, add all dressing ingredients but oil. With motor running, add oil at a slow stream to emulsify. Set Aside.
- 3. Assemble Salad and Serve: in a large salad bowl, arrange chopped lettuce, cucumber, onion, grapes, chicken, and tomatoes. Top with crumbled feta and drizzle mustard dressing over the chicken and feta. Garnish with sliced or whole pepperoncini peppers. Toss to combine all ingredients just before serving. Serve and enjoy!
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