Grilled Coconut Lime Chicken Salad with Quinoa and Tropical Fruit

This recipe was a real experiment. I took parts of different recipes and adapted them to what I envisioned.

Thomas had requested a salad with pineapple (and cantaloupe... but that part will have to wait!). Lime coconut chicken sounded like a good complement for pineapple. I hoped to add quinoa but wasn't sold until I found a recipe for lime quinoa. Add some mango and viola! We had this for dinner Monday night and it was amazing!!

Grilled Coconut Lime Chicken Salad with Quinoa and Tropical Fruit

Serves 4.

For the marinade and dressing:
5 Tablespoons peanut oil

1 Tablespoon coconut oil
Grated zest of 2 limes
2 teaspoons ground cumin
3 teaspoons ground coriander
4 Tablespoons reduced sodium soy sauce
3 teaspoons kosher salt
4 Tablespoons sugar
4 teaspoons curry powder
1 cup coconut milk

2 pounds boneless skinless chicken breast, pounded out to an even thickness, about 1/2 to 3/4 inch thick

Whisk together all the marinade ingredient in a medium sized bowl. Place the chicken and 3/4 cup to 1 cup of marinade in a gallon ziploc bag. Squeeze any air out of the bag, then continue turning the bag to make sure the chicken is coated in marinade. Place bag in refrigerator for at least two hours. Reserve the remaining marinade as dressing for the salad. Cover and refrigerate. Grill the chicken approximately 5 minutes per side over high heat, or until cooked thoroughly. Remove from grill; allow to cool and then slice for the salad. 

For the lime quinoa:

1/2 cup uncooked quinoa, rinsed
1 cup low-sodium chicken or vegetable stock, or even water
1 tablespoon coconut oil
1 lime, juiced and zest freshly grated
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper

Add the quinoa and stock (or water) to a saucepan over high heat and bring it to a boil. Once boiling, reduce the heat to low and cover the pot. Cook for about 15 minutes, or until all the liquid is absorbed. Stir in the coconut oil (you can swap butter), lime juice, zest, salt and pepper.

For the salad:

Romaine lettuce, chopped, about 5 ounces

Spinach, about 8 ounces

Prepared chicken

Lime quinoa

Mango (we used 2 nice ripe ones; one would be enough for 4 people)

Pineapple (we grilled half a pineapple the day before and chopped it for this salad; would be fine raw as well)
1 red bell pepper (we used left grilled red and green pepper and onion), sliced

4 carrots, cut into match sticks (or whatever shape you like!) 

1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro

1-2 limes, cut into wedges

To assemble the salad, make a bed of lettuce and spinach on each plate then add each of the toppings. Sprinkle cilantro on the chicken, or the whole salad. Serve with the reserved coconut lime dressing (which is especially delicious on the lime quinoa!). 

Lime coconut chicken recipe from Fine Cooking here; came to me via pinterest from this adaptation from Chaos in the Kitchen here. Lime quinoa recipe found here on How Sweet It Is.