Southwest Chicken Salad - Knock off of GoodWood's Toss and Turn salad

A few weeks back, we went with the Wood's to Goodwood for Lance's birthday celebration. Honestly, I haven't found anything there that was amazing and I was on Christmas food overload so, a salad sounded great to me. I ordered the 'toss and turn' chicken salad.

I was excited when the food arrived just by the looks of the salad. It was put together nicely. Better yet, it tasted wonderful! I thought, I'm going to have to either figure out a way to make this on my own or come back and spend 7 bucks on this salad a few times a week.

 I decided to try and fake it at home.

Here is my version of it.

 I Googled Southwest seasonings and came up with this recipe: Emeril's southwest seasoning recipe.
2 tablespoons chili powder
2 teaspoons ground cumin
2 tablespoons paprika
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 tablespoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper
1 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon dried oregano
 Directions: Mix all together in a bowl.

This mixture of spices is very spicy. Go easy on the seasoning if you'd prefer a more mild taste.

Mix all these together and sprinkle about a teaspoon over each raw chicken breast. I made the salad with two large chicken breasts but had plenty of left over chicken. Cook the chicken breasts in a covered skillet on low and add a few pinches more of the seasoning until juices run clear. Shred the chicken breasts after cooking thoroughly. Reserve the rest of the seasoning.

You'll also need lettuce. I cut up one head of Romaine Lettuce.

Next, take about 3 prepackaged tortilla's and brush them with olive oil. Sprinkle them with the reserved seasonings. Stack them on top of each other with the oil side up. Cut them into strips or triangles. Put them in the oven at 350 for about 10-15 minutes. Watch carefully after about 10 minutes to get them to your liking.


Meanwhile, I used this recipe for the pico de gallo.
1 medium tomato, diced
1 onion, finely chopped
1/2 fresh jalapeno pepper, seeded and chopped
2 sprigs fresh cilantro, finely chopped
1 green onion, finely chopped
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper
Directions:
 In a medium bowl, combine tomato, onion, jalapeno pepper (to taste,) cilantro and green onion. Season with garlic powder, salt and pepper. Stir until evenly distributed. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.(I didn't have enough time to refrigerate mine.)

Finally, assemble your salad!

Greens first, chicken second, and tortilla strips  and pico third. Add whatever other toppings you'd prefer.
Examples are:

Diced red pepper
Black beans
Corn
Cheddar Cheese

Top with Ranch Dressing or your favorite southwest dressing.


So, to sum up. Here are all the ingredients listed. A lot of these you'll already have on hand.

1-2 Chicken breasts
Romaine Lettuce
 chili powder
 ground cumin
 paprika
 black pepper
 ground coriander
 cayenne pepper
 garlic powder
 crushed red pepper
 salt
 dried oregano
3 prepackaged tortillas.
Olive oil
 medium tomato
 onion,
 jalapeno pepper, seeded and chopped
 cilantro, finely chopped
green onion, finely chopped


Optional toppings

Diced red pepper
Corn
Black beans
Cheddar cheese
Your favorite southwest salad dressing.

Happy Eating!!

All these photo's were free stock photos.