Copy-Cat La Casita Chicken Salad

La Casita Mexican Restaurant has a delicious yet simple chicken salad that I have duplicated here.

I've posted earlier about one of my favorite Mexican restaurants in Springville, Utah, La Casita. The restaurant is a quaint hole in the wall but the food is great. I have often ordered this salad. It is a simple salad, yet I love it.

Here is a rare instance where I will use a commercially prepared salad dressing.

This salad is super easy to make at home. I like to gently poach a batch of chicken breasts and then chill them in their poaching liquid. Then the chicken is ready for quick meals later.

A trick for tasty poached chicken is to season your poaching liquid. You can even brine your chicken first in this liquid before cooking it.

Here is another post where I write about poaching chicken that you might like: On-The-Go Grilled Chicken Strips



Copy-Cat La Casita Chicken Salad Recipe:

Serves: 1

1 Poached skinless, boneless chicken breast
1/2 head Chopped romaine lettuce (or mixed greens)
1 Diced fresh tomato
1/2 c. Shredded Jack and Cheddar cheese
House Dressing (Kraft Zesty Italian dressing & marinade)
Black olive, as a garnish


Method:

To poach chicken breasts:

Place chicken breasts into a large pot and pour enough cool water to cover the chicken breasts by at least a couple of inches.

Season the water with some salt, black pepper, garlic powder and onion powder, to your liking.

Place the pot on the stove and turn the heat to medium and bring up to a boil. As soon as it comes to a boil, turn down to a gentle simmer and simmer just until the meat is tender and no longer pink inside. Do not cook the chicken in boiling water or your chicken will become tough.

Let the chicken cool down a little bit before placing meat in a storage container. Pour warm poaching liquid over the chicken in the storage container, until the meat is fully immersed. Cover tightly and chill completely.


To make the salad:

When it is time to make the salad, pull out 1 poached chicken breast and dice it into bite sized pieces.

Pile the lettuce on a serving plate. Top with the diced tomatoes and chicken. Top with cheese.

To serve, drizzle the salad with the house dressing and top with an olive.



Note: The House dressing listed on La Casita's menu now is Ranch. The house dressing they served a few years ago, is what I prefer, and it is Kraft's Zesty Italian.


Here's a secret: 

La Casita restaurant drizzles just a hint of Zesty Italian Salad dressing on all their tacos too. This adds an extra flavor dimension that most restaurants don't have, and it is delicious.



Our recent visit to La Casita below:

My husband Ordered a chimi.

I ordered Chicken Taquitos with verde sauce

My husband enjoyed his Chimi!

Chips and salsa for the road...

Enjoy,

Leila

On-The-Go Grilled Chicken Strips

On-The-Go Grilled Chicken Strips 

I have wanted the convenience of pre-sliced char-broiled chicken breasts in my freezer, at my beck and call...for topping salads, adding to wraps, soups, sandwiches, whatever...

So Yesterday I lightly brined a large bag of thawed chicken breasts (I counted 17 breasts), in a large stock pot with some herbs and spices. I let it brine 24 hours, but you could brine the chicken for less time if you wanted. The brining is very easy to do, and it infuses the meat with flavor and keeps the meat tender and moist.

I then poached the chicken in the brining liquid until it was a little over half-way cooked through. Then we got our outdoor grill fired up and finished them off there, to create that nice grilled flavor. I first poached the chicken so that we didn't have to stand outside in the cold for a long time (it is January after all). You can skip the poaching step if you want to stand outside and tend the grill for a longer time.

I let the grilled chicken cool and then sliced it up and portioned the slices into quart-sized freezer storage bags. I Popped the bags in the freezer and they are ready to go at a moments notice.


ON-THE-GO JUICY GRILLED CHICKEN Recipe:

1 large bag of frozen chicken breasts (about 16 breasts)
2 T. sea salt
2 large garlic cloves, smashed
1 t. Italian seasoning (or other seasoning of choice)
1/2 t. onion powder
2 c. hot water
water to cover the chicken

Method:

Rinse the thawed chicken and place in a large stock pot.
Fill the pot with water, to just cover the chicken
Smash the garlic cloves with the salt in a mortar and pestle. (the salt helps with the garlic smashing).
In 2 cups hot water, add the Italian seasoning, onion powder, and smashed garlic-salt mixture.
Stir to completely dissolve the salt. Add the salt water (brine) to the chicken in the pot.
Refrigerate, letting the chicken marinate in the brine for up to 24 hours, (alternately you can marinate the chicken in zip-lock bags)

The next day:
Bring the pot of chicken to a gentle boil over medium-high heat.
Once it starts to boil, turn the heat down to medium-low, so that it is barely simmering.
Simmer about 10 minutes, then check the chicken for done-ness (is that a word?).
You want the chicken to be a little over half-way done.Remove chicken from the pot carefully.
place partway cooked chicken on a preheated outdoor grill.
Grill until cooked through, turning so that both sides have nice grill marks.
Cut into thin slices as soon as the chicken is cool enough to handle.
Portion meat into quart-sized freezer bags and freeze for future use.


Shortcut:
You can just brine the chicken for 1 to 2 hours by doubling the salt in the brine and diluting with less water. Before poaching the chicken, rinse the meat and poach in clean water. You may add more spices to the cooking water if desired. Then proceed as above.


Note: Use Gluten-Free seasonings and onion salt if that is a concern for you.

Chicken in the seasoned brine

Grilling the partially poached chicken

Don't let the chicken dry out while grilling

The grilled chicken is cooling before being sliced

The moist, sliced chicken

Packaged for the freezer

Enjoy!

Leila