chicken, recipe, salad, vegetables —

Wild Arugula, Chicken Breast, Red Onion, and Tomato Salad

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Close up of Wild Arugula, Chicken Breast, Red Onion, and Tomato Salad

I’ve only recently realized the tremendous gratification in eating a well prepared salad for lunch (including a recent Wild Arugula, Chicken Breast, Red Onion, and Tomato salad).  Yes, I know the realization isn’t mind blowing but I’m upset at myself for not having more stand alone salads for lunch (hence the excitement and public declaration).  I’ve been missing out on highly satisfying and filling, one bowl, meals that also happen to be good for the mind and body (not that I’m a Cartesian Dualist or anything like that).

I do have one qualification about my new found lunch salad epiphany, namely, the salads have to include a nice variety of ingredients and be well dressed (usually in a simple vinaigrette comprised of exceptional extra virgin olive oil, real red wine vinegar from Italy, Kosher salt, lots of freshly ground black pepper, and dried oregano or thyme).

Prior to serving up our Wild Arugula, Chicken Breast, Red Onion, and Tomato Salad

My latest salad creation included the following elements.

Ingredients:

  1. Wild arugula
  2. Parsley leaves
  3. 1 inch pieces of roasted chicken breast
  4. Red onion
  5. Sliced cherry tomatoes
  6. A spoonful of leftover Italian rice salad (optional).

Process:

Very simple: make the dressing in a large bowl and add the aforementioned ingredients (try and cut the ingredients into roughly the same sizes so the eating part isn’t very difficult).  Mix well and serve.

Closeup of Wild Arugula, Chicken Breast, Red Onion, and Tomato Salad. The wild arugula is from Trader Joe's (great bargain and very good quality)

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Author: Lead Italophile (and/or lover of all things Italian).
  • Dr. K

    Just what have you been doing with your leftover roasted chicken all these years? Welcome to the club! Salad is our default lunch. Typically we will make dinner salads and prepare extra for lunch to bring to work the. Ext day. Part of the fun is watching the ingredients evolve as the seasons change. Winter features lots of roasted vegetables, and summer always involve cherry tomatoes! Healthy and fulfilling lunch, and easy to bring to work. Glad you’ve come around. Enjoy!

    • http://www.scordo.com/ Scordo.com

      Ha, usually we heat up our leftover chicken and create a few new side dishes (and have a new meal)!  Adding a protein to a salad is kind of foreign to us (hence the post) but it makes for a great lunch (when you can’t have a proper meal)!

      Yes, on adding different ingredients (can’t wait to see our salads evolve as well)!

      • Dr. K

        Reheating leftover chicken can be a little tricky.  Simply reheated by itself, it easily gets dried, overcooked, and tough.  So long as you have it bathed in some sort of liquid or sauce it does a lot better when subjected to further heating.  But it’s quite nice chopped or shredded and served cold on a salad, which is our more typical use for the leftovers.  And we do the same for pork (I’m finishing up a lettuce salad with carrots, leftover pork chops, roasted parsnips, homemade sun dried tomatoes, and a homemade ginger-soy viniagrette right now), ham, beef, lamb, fish leftovers too.  It’s a great way to reuse the food while introducing some variety.  And if you don’t have any cooked dinner leftovers, some quality canned tuna or sardine, or a couple of hard boiled eggs go a long way too.  That and a slice of good bread, and lunch is served (and if you do it the way we do, it’s ready the night before which makes the mornings much less hectic).

        You may have just changed your life, my friend.