We recently went through an extremely hot spell. This is the San Francisco Bay Area, so we are not really accustomed to having EXTREMELY hot weather. Many homes in this area don’t have air conditioning. Most often when we do have hot days, we get cooler nights so it makes the hot days somewhat bearable because the night air has cooled everything down. But with this last heat wave there was no reprieve from the heat of the day at all. So it was hot and it stayed hot for days. Record breaking temperatures were recorded all over. So the idea of making dinner was really unappealing. And the idea of using anything that created heat was just unthinkable. I was trying to come up with something we could eat that wouldn’t require heat at all. The only thing I could think of was Chicken Salad. Now this was all I could think of without me having to go to the store. But I thought that was kind of average because when I make chicken salad I use mayonnaise, pickles, and garlic salt. Not just that, but that is the basic idea. But I wanted a different flavor. I was thinking I could give it a Mexican flavor and we could put it on a tortilla with a little cheese and salsa on top. Had we had avocado and sour cream that would have gone on top, too, for my hubby. So here is what I came up with.
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Mexican Chicken Salad
1 can of chicken
1 can of corn
1/4 cup of chopped white onion
1/4 cup of chopped red onion
1 teaspoon minced garlic
2 teaspoons garlic salt
1 teaspoon coriander
1 teaspoon cilantro
1 teaspoon cumin
Sprinkle of pepper
Half of a green bell pepper
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2 teaspoons white vinegar
2 teaspoons lime juice
Flour tortillas
Shredded cheese
Salsa
(The dashes indicate ingredients that were good on their own. They didn’t even need the rest. But it was good all together.)
Chop the bell pepper. Mix the chicken, corn, onion, garlic, garlic salt, coriander, cilantro, cumin, pepper, bell pepper vinegar, and lime juice together. Let it chill for at least an hour, to let the flavors meld together a bit.
Then spoon the mixture onto a flour tortilla and top with shredded cheese and salsa. Roll it up to eat it like a burrito.
As I said, if you have avocado and/or sour cream you could put that on top.
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As I mentioned, these ingredients are what I had. I did not go to the store so I used dried cilantro. When I make this in the future I am going to use fresh cilantro and I think that will make a big difference flavorwise. I was kind of flying by the seat of my pants because it was just too hot. Too hot to go to the store and too hot to create heat and cook.
I like this because it is chicken salad without mayonnaise. So this means we can have chicken salad twice as often because it won’t be the same ol’ same ol’ chicken salad.
This was even better two days later when the flavors REALLY had time to settle in. So you can make it a day or so before you want to eat it.
Do you like chicken salad? What do you put in your chicken salad?
Terre Pruitt's Blog 