We have a wonderful cafe, Jeannine’s, here in SB that has the most wonderful coffee, pastries, soups, sandwiches and salads. One of my all time favorite salads is their Mexican bbq chicken salad. It’s light and extremely flavorful! I picked the salad apart one day while eating it and came up with the “recipe”, or my version at least.
BBQ Chicken Salad
Ingredients
- 1 head shredded romaine lettuce
- 1 head shredded red leaf lettuce
- 1 can black beans
- 2 ears of fresh shucked corn
- 3/4 cup finely shredded monterey jack cheese
- 1/2 -1/4 cup jicama sliced into 1/2 pieces
- 1 lb boneless skinless chicken breast
- 3 white corn tortillas
- 1/4 cup olive oil + more to drizzle over corn
- 1/8 tsp cayenne
- 1/8 tsp paprika
- 1 avocado sliced
- 1/2 cup Bbq sauce plus more to garnish salad
- Ranch dressing
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
- Clean chicken breast and place into a large plastic ziplock bag. Pour 1/2 cup bbq sauce and let marinade in the fridge for up to 30 min.
- Mix olive oil, cayenne and paprika in a small bowl. Brush the olive oil mixture on both sides of each of the tortillas. Stack tortillas on top of each other. Spray a baking sheet with olive oil. Cut tortillas in 1/2 in width and 1 1/2in length pieces and place on baking sheet. Try not to overlap the tortilla pieces. Place in oven for about 7-10 minutes. Turn tortilla pieces over halfway through cooking time. Take out of the oven and set aside. Do not turn oven off.
- Place shucked corn drizzled with olive oil on a lightly oiled baking sheet and roast for 10-15 minutes. Just until corn is slightly browned. Set aside.
- Heat and prepare grill on med-high heat. Place chicken on grill and slather with remaining bbq sauce. Grill for about 7-10 minutes each side. Set aside in a sheet of aluminum foil.
- Drain black beans and place in a small sauce pot and simmer for 5-7 minutes. (You can always skip this step but I like my beans slightly cooked.)
- Place lettuce, corn, black beans, jicama in a large salad bowl toss with desired amount of ranch dressing. Place lettuce mixture on plate sprinkle 1/3 of cheese, 1/3 of tortilla strips, chicken and top with a few slices of avocado. Drizzle bbq sauce on top and enjoy!
Recipe and Photo: Epicurean Mom
