Look Babe! I made our favorite salad!:) (Barbecue Chicken Chopped Salad)

Out of all the diet food that I have to prefer over normal food, one of my favorites would be a salad.  I used to hate just eating those leaves and vegetables for lunch or dinner, but because of all the dieting phase I have gone through (unsuccessfully), I learned to appreciate salads and have tasted some that I would absolutely trade regular food for.  Best ones for me would be TGIFriday's Grilled Chicken Ceasar Salad, Italiannis Ceasar Salad, the salad buffet from Kenny's Roast and Grill at Rockwell and CPK's Chopped Chicken Barbecue Salad.  The absolute top of the lists were the Balsamic Vinaigrette Salad with Walnuts and Barbecue Chicken salad from K By Cunanan Catering, who catered in our wedding.  

One of the few times hubby and I ate out for lunch (it's more of dinner out for us), we went to California Pizza Kitchen.  I really wanted to order the chopped chicken salad so we did, and although he's not a fan of veggies, he loved it!  He said it was the kind of food he should be eating back in Abu Dhabi, before he plays basketball.  So I made I mental note of looking for the recipe to send to him.  I did and I wondered if he ever tried to make it.

(of course, this is how it looks like when you eat at CPK.  Remind me to not toss everything yet and present it like this the next time.)


Anyway, I loved this salad so much that I know I really should learn how to make it.  It's timely because I really needed to be cutting off from my carbs and start dieting again.  So I looked for the recipe again in the web and I found this:

California Pizza Kitchen Chicken Chopped Salad Recipe http://www.cdkitchen.com/recipes/recs/512/California_Pizza_Kitchen_Chicken_Chopped_Salad31311.shtml

This version was so elaborate.  So last night I thought I'd make a simpler version by getting some of the ingredients at the supermarket.  I substituted the fried tortilla strips with Chippy (or Tortillos, it depends), for the garden herb ranch sauce I just got the ready-made ranch dressing from the supermarket and added just a bit of mustard on it; we had leftover chicken fingers at the fridge so I just heated that, cut it into bits and tossed them in barbecue sauce.  After that, I mixed it with the lettuce, tomato and grated cheese.  It was fast and delicious! 

Despite how it looks like in the picture (I know I have to work on food photography), it tasted really good!;) perfect to make if you have left over fried chicken and veggies in the fridge.  I was wrong to toss in the tortilla strips with the rest of the ingredients though.  After I ate a serving, I left it in the fridge for my family to eat.  They loved it last night.  This morning though, when my sister wanted to eat some more of it, the tortillas were already soggy.  So I reckoned it's just best as a topping and should be mixed with the salad when you're ready to eat it.

After my workout this afternoon, I felt really hungry.  I wanted to get a chicken sandwich at Kenny Rogers, but I wanted to go home right away and I'm cutting back on my spending.  So I thought, why not give that chicken salad recipe another go?  I was already home when I realized I used up all the ranch dressing I bought last night.  I had no choice, I had to make the ranch sauce from scratch.  And so I did; followed what was written in the recipe (except I didn't have sour cream. parsley, dill), wasn't too keen on the right measurements for everything though, but the dressing tasted great!=) even better than the ranch dressing I had bought yesterday.  Cool =) I made a salad dressing from scratch! I stored it in the fridge while I grilled my chicken.

I also did a proper marinade for the chicken breasts that we got from the supermarket yesterday.  Pretty much followed the recipe but adding a bit of barbecue sauce in it.  Mixing and tasting was easy for me; what posed as a challenge was the grilling because I grew impatient. And I don't know when it's already cooked.   I have to fry something soon, to test my skills for this.  Good thing our "Ate Aida" was there to tell me if the chicken is already cooked and is ready to be cut and tossed into the barbecue sauce.  When everything was ready, I mixed the lettuce, tomato, onions, corn and grated cheese into the dressing (I didn't have black beans and cilantro though), then carefully tossed the chicken that was dripping in barbecue sauce.  I was careful not to put all of the barbecue sauce in the salad, I didn't want it to taste too sweet.  I tossed and tossed and tasted it.  Yum!:) Seriously, I would say it here if I failed, but I didn't! It tasted great!  I got a big serving and took some chippy from a sealed container.  My dinner was ready!

Chippy's barbecue crispiness was the perfect topping to the salad.  I finished what was inside that bowl and was extremely satisfied and fulfilled.  I didn't want to feel full because it meant that I over-ate.  So just fulfilled.  That I aced another kitchen duty.  Big smile from here.  Can't wait for my sister to taste it.  I reckoned we should always have a salad ready in the fridge so we wouldn't have the reason to eat rice.  

In my opinion, this is the perfect before-going-to-school/workout lunch salad! The dressing might be a little too sinful for dinner.  I can't wait to eat this in the morning with juice and ice cream!  I have a big run to go to so I'm allowed to eat a lot. 

I hope my husband would get a chance to read my blog.  I was really inspired to ace this recipe because of him.  I can already make one of your favorite healthy food Babe!=) will prepare a batch for you too when you come home ;)

so that's 2 dishes down, and a lot lot more to go!=) I hope I don't lose the appetite and the zest to cook some more, I'm really enjoying it. Hurray for domesticity!