Wild Rice and Grilled Chicken Salad

The other night I found myself wanting a nice grilled chicken salad, however, Dylan likes salad, but they never truly fill him up unless we are having another entrée with it. I had not planned on anything else, so I had to get creative!! I went looking through my cookbook and found a recipe from Southern Living magazine for a grilled chicken salad with wild rice. Huh! I have all of those things required in the recipe! And.. it worked! Dylan was skeptical at first, but ended up having seconds and declaring he would totally eat the dish again! Success!! :)

(FYI: If you go looking for this recipe in Southern Living, you will find it has a mayo and cream cheese kind of dressing that goes with it. Uh, not in my house!! Mayo has NO place in the Carey house whatsoever!! )

I started off by thawing 5 small chicken breasts and then cutting them into equal strips, lengthwise. (I always do a little more meat than necessary for the meal because I like to have extra for the next night's meal! This way I only cook meat once for hopefully 2 meals, sometimes 3!)

Marinade: 1 1/2 spoonfuls (small spoon) of fresh minced garlic, 1 Tbsp of olive oil and cracked ground pepper. I let chicken marinate in a bowl for about 20 minutes. Then I slapped about 4 or 5 pieces on a hot 400 degree George Foreman grill and let it sizzle! Once again, I cooked the chicken until they were golden brown on both sides with slight grill marks. I did this for all of my strips, placing them on a cutting board to rest when finished.

While the meat cooked, I chopped the rest of my Romaine/Iceberg lettuce mixture, which ended up being about the last 1/3 of the bag. I added 1 cup of chopped spinach leaves to the mix as well. Now, I just gave the greens a rough chop because I think salad is hard to eat when the pieces come out whole. I added 1 1/2 cups of chopped carrots. I buy 2 different kinds of carrots at HEB. Dylan and I love to eat the round ones in our lunches, but those are hard to cook with, so I also buy the carrots that come in long strips. I take those strips and rough chop them, so they are easier to eat in everything, which is what I did for this salad.  I also added 1/2 cup of diced white onion (could use whatever kind you have). And I added 1 cup of chopped pecans... YUMMO!! Gives you just enough of a sweet crunch in some of your bites.. ah! Delish!

By this point, my meat had rested long enough so I did not lose the juices when I cut the chicken into cubes, small enough to fit on your fork and still give you a bite to chew!! I mixed chicken and all veggies and greens together in bowl. Then, I added the secret to my success! Long grain wild rice. Now, I cheated here on the rice because I used Uncle Ben's box recipe. So bad, I know!!! But, I cannot do the 45 minute rice cooker!! It takes way too long, and I have to make recipes that can be done in an hour or less because of work. So, Uncle Ben's Long Grain Wild Rice box mix it is! (Just follow instructions on box for cooking)

Once rice was finished, I added the whole thing of rice into the salad... makes around 2 cups cooked. Mixed the whole thing together with salad tongs and added freshly chopped tomatoes on the top for garnish, flavor, color and healthiness. And you have this....

No cheese necessary. No dressing necessary. The smokey flavors from the grilled chicken combined with the earthiness of the wild rice and the slightly sweet and refreshing taste of tomatoes and pecans gives you all you need!!

Hearty! Flavorful! Healthy! Bon Appetite!!!!