Thursday, May 26, 2011

Chicken, Rice & Black Bean Salad


This is not technically 100% "heart healthy", but Scot said since there's not a whole lot of chicken in it we can use it as one of our "heart healthy meals" from now on. Whew! It was fairly easy and tasty. I did a lot of tweaking from the original recipe as far as the spices go because for this entire thing, they only wanted me to add a little cumin. Psh. I don't think so. Not in my house. I may be doing this diet that limits me on what foods I use, but my taste buds are still going to have fun! It ended up having a slight eastern taste to it. It's was great! It was even better the next day!

Chicken, Rice & Black Bean "Salad"
Feeds 6-8 main servings
  • 1 cup rice - uncooked. I used brown rice, and will do that or quinoa in the future
  • 4 c shredded chicken (I used 2 boiled chicken breasts)
  • 1 can black beans, rinse and drain
  • 4 scallions - thinly sliced
  • 6 plump tomatoes. Halved, deseeded and cut into strips
  • 1/4 cup white wine vinegar
  • 3 T EVOO
  • 1/2 t cumin
  • 1/2 t turmeric
  • 1/2 t cinnamon
  • 1 t mixed herbs (I used herbs de provence, but Italian would be just fine, too)
  • s&p to taste
--Cook rice and then lay on a plate or cookie sheet and place in the fridge to cool.
--Meanwhile, shred chicken and chop and slice veggies.
--Place everything in a bowl and toss to combine.

A couple notes: I put the leftovers in a whole wheat tortilla today for lunch and it was fabulous! You could use pitas, too! Also, Scot and I were both curious what a can of corn would do to this dish, so next time I'm going to try it.

Another note: You can add a can or 2 of rinsed/drained garbanzo beans instead of the chicken to make this heart healthy!

7 comments:

  1. I made this last night, and it was so esay and delicious!

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  2. I see recipes for tomatoes to be "deseeded" sometimes... what is the point of this? Is it worth the effort and is there an easy way to do?

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    1. in a lot of recipes, i usually try to figure out the why for the deseeding since it is a little time consuming. Essentially, for this recipe, it helps the dish to to be too soggy. And for aesthetics (the usual main reason) of course. To do it easily, I halve, scoop, and then slice into strips. if you're short on time. skip it.

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  3. I assume you drain/rinse the black beans for this?

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    1. YES. you're so good for me. these old recipes did not go up with the same care i take now. hence the occasional errors!

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  4. Sorry to be ridiculous... but 1/4 what white wine vinegar? A cup?

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    1. no. it's good. yes, a cup. :D i'll change that, too.

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