Mediterranean Grilled Chicken Salad with Feta

Mediterranean Grilled Chicken Salad with Feta

Every once in a while I hit upon a recipe that is amazing.  Most of my recipes come about by trial and error and Mediterranean Grilled Chicken Salad with Feta is one such recipe.  It is a combination of two recipes with a few extra ingredients thrown in.

Clients hire me as a personal chef for many reasons such as special diets, a fear/dislike of grocery shopping and cooking, and busy work and personal schedules and they would like to eat healthy, home cooked meals and not drive thru or restaurant food.  The main advantage of having EAT! in your kitchen for a few hours is that you get fresh, home made meals, snacks, salads, and whatever else you would like that are personalized to your tastes.  There is no set menu like at a restaurant so your dining options are limitless.

I cook for today's EAT! client on a weekly basis.  A typical menu includes a variety of entrees and sides for dinners for the week, ingredients for making sandwiches for daily lunches and a salad of some sort.  This week my client will be enjoying my latest creation of Mediterranean Grilled Chicken Salad with Feta.  Grilled chicken is tossed with a chimichurri dressing along with kirby cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, scallions, chickpeas, fresh dill and feta cheese.  The salad will stay fresh for a few days in the refrigerator.

Toss up a batch of Mediterranean Grilled Chicken Salad with Feta and be your own personal chef.  Unless you want EAT! to do it for you  ;) 

Mediterranean Grilled Chicken Salad with Feta

serves 4

for chimichurri dressing -
1 cup fresh flat leaf parsley
1/2 cup fresh cilantro leaves
1/4 cup fresh oregano leaves
3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
3 garlic cloves
1/2 jalapeno
salt and pepper
1/4 cup olive oil

for the salad --
olive oil
1 1/2 pounds chicken tenders, cut in bite-sized chunks
1/4 cup chopped fresh dill
1 (10 ounce) can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1 kirby cucumber, seeded and chopped
4 scallions, sliced
1 cup cherry tomatoes
1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese
1/4 lemon

In a food processor, combine the parsley, cilantro, oregano, vinegar, garlic, jalapeno, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1/4 teaspoon pepper.  Pulse to combine.  Drizzle in olive oil and process until dressing is slightly creamy but still coarse.  Transfer to a bowl and set aside.  ** Note -- This recipe makes more dressing than needed for the salad.  Store remaining dressing in a covered dish in the refrigerator for about a week.  Serve it on grilled steak, chicken, fish, or pork chops.

Heat a grill pan to medium high heat.  Add a small drizzle of olive oil and the chicken.  Cook for 5 - 8 minutes, stirring occasionally, until chicken is cooked through.  Transfer to a large bowl.  Toss with about 3 - 4 tablespoons of the dressing.  Add fresh dill, chickpeas, cucumber, scallions, tomatoes, and feta cheese.  Squeeze lemon over salad and toss to combine.  Add more dressing if you would like.  The salad can be served immediately or chilled.

Chunky Greek Salad

Many of our weekends during May and June are spent at lacrosse or softball tournaments. These hot days include visits to a variety of "snack shacks" which typically offer a menu that is less on the healthy side and appeal more to the kid in all of us. I love a good hotdog, bag of Cheetos, and a Coke just as much as the next person. But after one too many Fruit Roll-Ups, slices of greasy pizza, and nacho chips covered in neon orange cheese, my body is craving just about any vegetable or fruit.

Packing an ice-filled cooler with sub sandwiches, cut up celery, carrots, and broccoli with hummus, wedges of chilled watermelon, single serving yogurts, snack bags of trail mix, and mini pumpkin, zucchini, and lemon poppy seed muffins makes the dining experience along the sidelines of a dusty ball field a much more enjoyable experience. I have been including a few travel-worthy salads in the cooler with the latest favorite being Chunky Greek Salad.

Some sports-filled Saturday mornings start just as the newspaper hits the driveway at 6 a.m. On these early days, I am glad that this salad is prepared in practically minutes. By combining a few crunchy peppers and cucumbers with feta, olives, and bottled vinaigrette dressing, we are out the door and off for our day's adventures.


Chunky Greek Salad

makes about 6 cups or 4 - 5 servings

1 large green pepper, cut in 1-inch dice
1 large red pepper, cut in 1-inch dice
2 kirby cucumbers, cut in large chunks
1/2 of a 15-ounce can of black olives, pitted, more if you love olives
about 1/3 pound feta cheese, crumbled in large chunks
about 3 - 4 tablespoons of Newman's Caesar Dressing or your favorite vinaigrette

In a large bowl, combine the peppers, cucumbers, olives and feta. Add vinaigrette to the ingredients and toss to coat.

Store in the refrigerator. Salad can be served chilled or at room temperature.

Balsamic Steak and Red Onion Salad

Eating dinner in shifts will be something of the norm until the fall sports season ends. I would rather we sit down to a meal as a family, but time usually does not permit. These days I'm satisfied with at least two of us eating together. Prerequisites of mine include the absence of text messaging the BFF de jour, and my dinner meal contains all four food groups even if everyone does not eat them all.

With a household of varied schedules, creative cooking comes into play. Using flavorful, quick marinades, slicing onions or salad ingredients in between driving to softball and picking up from field hockey, and using the trusty microwave on low power settings to reheat dinner without turning steak into shoe leather were keys to preparing last night's dinner.

Balsamic Steak and Red Onion Salad was eaten at 3 different times between 5 and 8:30 p.m. Here is the note I left for my family members so that they would know how to put their dinner together if I happened to be driving around town.No Thank You Boy said, "I don't have to eat all that stuff do I? Can't I just eat the steak?"

As I was slicing the steak at 5 p.m., the reviews of the upcoming dinner could be heard throughout the kitchen. "I'll have two portions," said My Middle One before heading off to softball practice. "That steak is cooked perfectly," side The Husband as he walked in the door from work. "Make sure there is some left for me when I get home from football," said No Thank You Boy. My Oldest arrived home from a field hockey game and had two salads before she was off again to softball practice. Family members ate their dinners in different ways -- one had steak only, another had steak and onions, and the remaining three of us had crisp lettuce topped with marinated flank steak, balsamic glazed onions, and crumbled blue cheese and drizzled with a sweet balsamic vinaigrette.

Dinner was a hit with everyone, even if it was eaten over a 3 1/2 hour span. You gotta take what you can get.

Balsamic Steak and Red Onion Salad

serves 5

2 large red onions, cut in 1/4 inch slices
1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
2 garlic cloves, minced
5 tablespoons brown sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 cup olive oil
1 flank steak, about 2 - 2 1/2 pounds
1/2 teaspoon spicy mustard
about 1/2 cup crumbled blue cheese
10 cups of chopped romaine lettuce

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Place onions on a large baking sheet. Set aside.

In a mason jar, combine balsamic vinegar, garlic, brown sugar, salt, pepper, and olive oil. Screw on a tight fitting lid and give the marinade/dressing a good shake. Pour about 1/3 cup of the mixture over the onions and toss to coat. Roast in oven for 25 - 30 minutes or until the onions are soft and slightly browned. Remove from oven and set aside. Leave oven on for cooking the steak.

Meanwhile, place the steak in a resealable bag and add 1 cup of the marinade/dressing. Seal bag and marinate at room temperature for 1 hour.

To the remaining marinade/dressing add the mustard and mix well.

After the steak marinades for 1 hour, remove it from the resealable bag, place it on a baking sheet and roast for about 5 minutes. Turn steak over and roast another 5 - 6 minutes or until the internal temperature is about 125 degrees. Remove steak from oven and cover with foil for 15 minutes.

After the steak rests, slice it against the grain in very thin slices. This insures that the meat will be tender.

To make salads, place about 2 cups of the romaine on a large plate. Top with the sliced steak, roasted red onions, blue cheese, and a drizzle of balsamic vinaigrette.