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Healthy Chicken Avocado Taco Salad

Why did Olive Sunshine create a Healthy Chicken Avocado Taco Salad recipe? There are always those people who go to a Mexican Restaurant and order a taco salad. I am not one of those people – but they exist. I mean, if you are going to go to a Mexican restaurant, get a deluxe burrito or an order of shrimp quesadillas. How about some ooey goey nachos? But a salad at a Mexican Restauant? I will need some convincing.

Taco Salads areNot Always Healthy

There are often unpleasant FACTS behind taco salads. Usually in a deep fried saturated taco shell, with greasy ground beef and loaded with sub-par cheese – they are not even healthy. What is often thought to be the healthier choice is actually a horrible choice when you can have shrimp tacos as a much healthier choice. Often the Taco Salad is the worst thing on the menu! To put it in perspective, a McDonald’s Big Mac is lower in calories and fat.

Healthy Chicken Avocado Taco Salad Pops with Freshness

The Healthy Chicken Avocado Taco Salad is the best of both worlds. Savory deliciousness and all of the healthy attributes one would expect from a salad. Now all those people who order salads will make us burrito lovers second-guess our choice. It is wonderful to to enjoy something that is good for them as well as just plain delicious.

Healthy Chicken Avocado Taco Salad Broth

My first big a-ha on this salad is starting with quality chicken. Instead of getting store bought rotisserie chicken, boil your own chicken. You are in control of the quality of chicken and what is on it. I added onions, carrots, low sodium chicken broth and cilantro – so much low sodium flavor – to my pot of boiling water. Every bite of shredded chicken was moist and savory.

Black beans, manzella tomatoes, avocado, and fresh cilantro leaves makes the salad pop with freshness. All of these delicious ingredients just wake up that crispy iceberg lettuce and serve as the perfect backdrop to the savory shredded chicken. I use Penzy’s Arizona Dreaming for southwestern season on the oven-baked white corn tortilla strips. The tortilla strips add the crunch one craves on a taco salad without the guilt of the deep fried shell.

The Secret Sauce (Not the Big Mac’s)

The secret sauce (literally) is the Creamy Cilantro Avocado Dressing. I dress the iceberg lettuce with a bit of extra virgin olive oil and then this delictable dressing. Now when you go to the Olive Sunshine recipe, you will find the Creamy Basil Avocado Dressing. That was the original recipe. When I subsitute the basil with dill, I was impressed so I thought – why not cilantro? Cilantro is perfect for Mexicali dishes and this did not disappoint. The moral of this story (or paragraph) is this dressing can have the herb which best fits the occassion. I used a FULL CUP of cilantro resulting in a deep green of powerful flavor that literally made this salad FIRE!

Now I am a convert. I would certainly order a “taco salad” if that salad were the Olive Sunshine version Healthy Chicken Avocado Taco Salad. Who knew I would ever mature in this manner? I have Mediterraneanized Taco Tuesday and am so happy to have found the perfect salad choice for all the salad lovers out there!

Ooey-Gooey Vegan Sheet-Pan Nachos

Taco Tuesday

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5/5

6 servings

Ingredients

Cooking the Chicken

3 cups water

3 cups low-sodium chicken broth

1 red onion, peeled and cut into chunks

1 carrot peeled, cut into chunks

One large handful of cilanto stalks (leaves removed to be used for the dressing).

3 large skinless, boneless chicken breasts, each cut in half

Tortilla Strips

3 small white corn tortillas

Southwest seasoning (low or no sodium)

Creamy Avocado Cilantro Dressing

Olive Sunshine’s Creamy Avocado Cilanto Dressing is linked below.

Salad Fixings

3 heads romaine lettuce

1.5 cups black beans (cooked or canned) drained

2 dozen Manzella tomatoes, quartered

2 Hass avocodos, cut each avocado in 6 generous slices

6 scallions, small diced

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Lightly spray a baking sheet with olive oil.

In a large pot, add the water, chicken broth, onion, carrots and cilantro stalks. Place on high heat and bring to a boil. While the liquid heats, pat the chicken dry with a paper towel and salt and pepper both sides. Set aside.

Brush both sides of the 3 corn tortillas with olive oil and sprinkle liberally with the southwest seasoning. Stack the tortillas and cut into thin strips using a pizza cutter if you have one. Arrange the strips evenly (not touching) on the prepared baking sheet. Place in the 325 oven. Watch them closely as they will cook quickly (3-5 minutes). Cook until browning (they will continue to crisp when removed from oven). Leave on pan. Set aside to cool. Turn off the oven.

At this point, the liquid should be boiling in the pot. Add the cut pieces of chicken. Reduce the heat to medium-low and cook for 10-12 minutes.

While the chicken is cooking make the Creamy Avocado Cilantro Dressing. When following the Olive Sunshine recipe (linked below) swap out the basil for cilantro (if you prefer basil instead that will work as well)! Set aside.

Turn your attention to the pot, the chicken is cooked if it is no longer pink and is cooked through. If the pieces are thick it may take longer than the prescribed 12 minutes. Once cooked thoroughly, carefully remove the six pieces of cooked chicken from the broth allowing the liquid to drain off. Place on a plastic cutting board to cool.

While the chicken is cooling. Cut all 3 heads of lettuce into bite sized pieces. Lightly coat with olive oil. Dress the entire salad with as much avocado dressing as desired. You will have dressing left over.

Once the chicken is cool enough to handle safely, using two large forks, shred the chicken.

Place the dressed salad into bowls. Build the salads using equal parts of the shredded chicken and manzella tomatoes, 2 slices of avocado, 1/4 cup of blackbeans. Top with the scallions, a sprinkling of cilantro leaves and the baked tortilla strips.

Creamy Avocado Cilanto Dressing

The salad will keep overnight refridgerated, if using extras for lunch the next day. Keep the tortilla strips in an airtight container on the counter until ready to eat the salad.

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