Chicken Recipes: Grilled Chicken and Raspberry Spinach Salad

This was a really easy-to-make dinner salad that I found on the Betty Crocker Website. The salad features chicken, of course, and a tasty raspberry glaze. I think raspberry flavoring pairs so well with chicken or just about any type of poultry.

To prepare this recipe, first combine raspberry fruit spread (I used preserves), some red wine vinegar, and some good quality olive oil to make a dressing for the salad. About one-third of the dressing is used as a glaze for grilled boneless skinless chicken breasts that are brushed with the glaze periodically during the grilling process. The sweet sugary glaze provides the chicken with a mouth-watering aroma and a wonderful color.

When the chicken is done, arrange spinach leaves and sliced red onion on dinner plates (or place the entire salad on a large platter). Cut the grilled chicken into half-inch slices, and place it on top of the spinach and onions; drizzle the salad with the remaining raspberry dressing; and sprinkle a generous helping of fresh raspberries and toasted sliced almonds over the entire salad, or leave the raspberries and almonds on the side for your guests to add as much or little of each as they would like.

You won’t be disappointed with this great salad. If you like grilled chicken and you like raspberries, I guarantee that you’ll love “Grilled Chicken and Raspberry Spinach Salad.”

 

Chicken Recipes: Wild Rice Chicken Salad

Wild Rice Chicken Salad

During the warm and humid midsummer days, I often eat a rather light evening meal: grilled chicken and vegetables when I’m dining al fresco or a chicken stir-fry on stormy days or simply a cool salad on the hottest days. Since the weather has been rather hot and sultry the past few days, I was in the mood for chicken salad, which I prepared for dinner last evening. Since I had quite a bit of leftover boiled wild rice from dinner the night before, I thought I would try to find a chicken salad recipe that would allow me to use it up. My search led me to this: “Wild Rice Chicken Salad,” which I found in the Chicken Recipes Collection on RecipeTips.com. This great chicken salad recipe is easy to make, and it tastes fantastic.

I didn’t have any leftover cooked chicken to use in the salad (the recipe calls for grilled chicken), but it was no big deal to fire up the grill and cook up what I needed for the recipe. I grilled the chicken in the early morning before I went to work; then I let it cool while I ate breakfast. By the time I was finished with breakfast, the chicken was sufficiently cool so that I could chop it into bite-size pieces. The rest of the preparation required only a few minutes. Preparing this salad in the morning provided the necessary time for the flavors of the various ingredients to meld in the refrigerator before serving it that evening.

I love the combination of flavors in this chicken salad—the earthiness of the wild rice, the grilled flavor of the chicken, the sweetness of the pineapple, the distinctive taste of the mango chutney, and so on—and I like the variety of crunchy and chewy textures that all of the ingredients provide. This is a chicken salad recipe that you really must try. It was just the ticket on a hot summer day.

 

Chicken Recipes: Grilled Mandarin Curry Chicken Wraps

My goal of using this blog as a repository for all of the chicken recipes that I hoped would be flooding in from other readers has, so far, not occurred, but that’s okay. I guess my blog has evolved, more or less, into a place for me to share the great chicken recipes that I find while browsing the Internet, as well as an outlet for me to write about some of my weird anecdotes that relate to cooking.

 

Occasionally, over time, projects such as this become something other that what was intended, but I suppose that’s fine, provided that you are pleased with the outcome and that you enjoy the process, and I must say that I’m enjoying the process very much. And, as I’m sure you’ll all agree, WordPress.com makes the blogging process easy and fun so that even a Web log novice like myself can realize a sense of accomplishment.

 

With all of that off my chest, it’s time to provide you with another fantastic chicken recipe, this time from the collection of RecipeTips.com. Over the Memorial weekend, when I was grilling barbecued chicken, I grilled some extra chicken without the seasonings, without the barbecue sauce, without anything—just plain grilled chicken (Egads! He’s cooking plain chicken! What’s gotten into him?). I saved the plain chicken and used it to make “Grilled Mandarin Curry Chicken Wraps,” which I made for lunch the following day.

 

These sandwich wraps are, in one word, excellent. There are so many delicious ingredients in these wonderful wraps that my taste buds were overwhelmed. With mango chutney, curry powder, mayonnaise, celery, scallions, craisins, mandarin oranges, toasted pine nuts, and of course, grilled chicken as some of the ingredients, this sandwich is officially one of my all-time favorites. Of course, you have to like curry and chutney to have a full appreciation for this recipe because both flavors are quite distinguishable, especially the curry.

 

I served this chicken mixture wrapped in tortillas as suggested, but I also served it as a sandwich, piled between toasted flaxseed bread, which I preferred. If you like curry flavoring as much as I do, then you’re guaranteed to like this recipe. Enjoy!

 

Chicken Recipes: Curried Chicken Salad with Pineapple

Here’s one of my own recipes—a tasty chicken salad recipe for all of you who want something a bit different than the ordinary chicken, celery, and mayo varieties. I usually serve this on leaf lettuce or fresh spinach accompanied by crusty bread. I’ve even had it as a sandwich; however, because of the chunks of pineapple and large pieces of chicken, it is a bit unwieldy and tends to spill out of the sandwich. I hope you like it!

 

This recipe provides 4 to 6 servings.

 

Ingredients:

• 2 cups chicken meat, chopped—freshly cooked or leftover chicken is best, but canned chicken (2 cans) or prepackaged frozen cubed chicken can be used.
• 2 stalks celery, chopped
• 1 apple, chopped (You can remove the skin if you want to, but I leave it on because it adds texture and color.)
• 1-15 oz. can, pineapple chunks, drained—reserve the juice!
• 1 package (8 oz.) light cream cheese (Use the “unlight” stuff if you want to—great taste, more calories.)
• 4 heaping tablespoons light mayonnaise (Again, use the real thing if you want to. Also, an accurate measure is not critical. I suppose if I were to measure it more precisely, it would be close to a half-cup. Of course, this depends on your conception of “heaping.” I just dig into the jar and pull out as much as will stay on the tablespoon without falling off.)
• 1/3 cup slivered almonds (Use more or less according to preference. I tend to like more: The extra crunch rattles my brain and keeps me focused.)
• 1 teaspoon curry powder (If you’re adventurous, add a bit more.)
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper (more or less to taste)
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1–2 dashes salt (I usually don’t add any salt until I’m ready to eat.)

Directions:

• In a medium-size bowl, soften the cream cheese and add the mayo. Mix well.
• Add the pineapple juice, curry powder, black pepper, garlic powder, and salt. Mix well.
• Taste the sauce and adjust the seasoning if necessary. It is best to adjust the flavor of the sauce before it is combined with the other ingredients.
• In a large bowl, combine the chicken, celery, apple, pineapple, and almonds. Add the sauce from the other bowl and mix well.
• Serve the chicken salad on a bed of greens.
• Note: It is best to refrigerate the salad for a few hours, or overnight, to enhance the flavor.

Optional Ingredients: Use walnuts instead of almonds. Add whole grapes and/or diced carrots. Or, simply clean out the refrigerator and dump it in.