Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Amazing Recipe: Blackened Chicken Salad w/ Mango Salsa

Geia sas ladies! I have such a yummy & healthy recipe for you today, you're gonna love it; Blackened Grilled Chicken Salad with Black Bean, Mango and Tomato and Homemade Creamy Chili Cilantro Dressing.
I found this recipe from Trish over at My Daily SAHM Life.
I'll just post her exact recipe & tell you what i tweaked after:
For dressing:
1 cup buttermilk
3/4 cup reduced fat sour cream
1/4 cup mayo
1 4oz. can diced green chilies, drained
1 cup loosely packed fresh cilantro
1/2 packet of Hidden Valley Ranch Fiesta Ranch Dip mix
I think you could use a half packet of taco seasoning here if you have it.

Place all ingredients in blender and puree till well blended and smooth.
Pour into covered container and place in refrigerator.
1 point for 2 Tablespoons

For Black Bean, Mango and Tomato Salad:
1 large mango(es), diced, divided (about 1 3/4 cups)
3 tbsp fresh lime juice
3 tbsp water
2 tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp table salt
15 oz. can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 cup tomato(es) diced
1/2 cup sweet onions, diced
1/4 cup mint leaves, or cilantro, fresh, cut into thin slivers
I used cilantro this time. I'll definitely try mint sometime this summer.
1 tbsp canned jalapeno peppers, or fresh, minced
I used canned. Fresh would be great too.

In a large bowl, mash 1/4 cup of diced mango with a fork; whisk in lime juice, water, oil, cumin and salt.
My mangoes were plenty ripe but I still found it too difficult to mash them with a fork so I put all this in the blender and pureed it. Then poured this over all the other ingredients in a large bowl.

Add remaining diced mango, beans, tomato, onion, mint or cilantro and jalapeno to bowl; toss to mix and coat. Serve immediately or cover and refrigerate up to 1 day. Yields about 1/2 cup per serving.

For grilled blackened chicken:
1 lb boneless skinless chicken breast
blackened seasoning
I used Cajun's Choice brand

Heat outdoor grill to 400 degrees.
Generously coat both sides of chicken breasts with Cajun seasoning.
Grill 5 minutes per side or till cooked through.
Let stand 5 minutes.
Cut into 1/2 inch slices.

For each serving place 2 cups of salad greens on plate. Top with 1 cup of the black bean salad, 4 oz. of the cooked chicken. Top with 2 Tablespoons of dressing.

Okay sounds great right?!? Well the most significant change i made was instead of adding 1 4oz. can of green chilies i used tomatoes & green chilies in can. So not that big of a deal but it was incredible, i also added a bit more cilantro. I did use fresh jalapeƱo pepper instead of canned too.


The color is a bit off in this picture; it was a little more orange colored. But wow the flavor!


In this awesome salsa i used both mint(fresh from the garden!) & cilantro though the recipe says either or. AND i used no salt (yay!) because it had flavor enough without it & of course we should try to reduce salt intake when we can. I loved how all the strong flavors held there own but at the same time combined well without being too over-powering.

I really hope you girls try it, its so worth it!

*Huge Sigh* sadly Greece lost in today's match vs Argentina but it was a great try since Argentina is expected to be in the very top of this competition. They worked so hard it was hard to see them lose, but at least Sotiris Ninis & Nikos Spiropoulos got to play :)

Talk to you all soon & let me know if you try this!!

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