Summery Chipotle Chayote Chicken Salad

Originally I was going to use romaine lettuce, as I have a beautiful head of this in the frig, but I remembered I still had a half a head each of purple and regular cabbage.  Though I love slaws, I wasn't in the mood for anything with mayonnaise.  So, this concoction is basically a mixture of the plethora of veggies in my frig.
This salad is very versatile and you really can toss together any ingredients for your salad as well as any protein source.  These are some of the things I happen to have on hand, and I really love color in my foods.

Refreshing, yet hearty salad

This salad was really built around 2 ingredients - the dried chipotle pepper and chayote.  I bought 2 chayotes at Food City (Latin store) and wanted to use these.  Apparently 1 of these is a lot for a salad.  This is basically a Mexican type squash plant and it can be eaten raw.  Perfect for this salad.  It doesn't really have much of a taste, but it is crisp and crunchy.

Serves 9-12.

Ingredients:

• 1/3 head of green cabbage, thinly sliced and shredded
• 1/3 head of purple cabbage, thinly sliced & shredded
• 1 bunch of green onions, thinly sliced
• 3 roma tomatoes, diced
• 1 orange bell pepper, diced
• 1 chayote, thinly sliced then diced
• 1 eggplant, small cubes
• 2 lbs chicken thighs, cut into small chunks
• sea salt
• garlic powder
• olive oil
• 1/2 lb of bacon slices, chopped
• 3/4 cup Chipotle Cilantro Avocado Pesto

Directions:

• In a very large bowl, combine cabbages, green onions, tomoatoes, bell pepper, chayote until mixed.

green cabbage, purple cabbage, green onions

Chayote, Roma Tomatoes, Orange Bell Pepper

This is a chayote - it looks like a butt

The inside of a chayote - looks like a Granny Smith Apple

On top - tomatoes, green onions, orange pepper, chayote

• Cook chopped bacon slices in a large skillet (I didn't do this, but realized this would've been easier than what I did)
• When the bacon slices are half cooked, add chicken thighs to skillet.
• Sprinkle chicken with sea salt and garlic powder.

• Cook chicken on medium high heat until about 2/3rds cooked through.  There will still be some pink to the chicken.

• Add the cubed eggplant.  Sprinkle eggplant generously with sea salt and add some olive oil to the eggplant.

• Saute everything for about 5 min, stirring periodically.

• Reduce heat to medium.  Cover skillet and let cook for 10 min.
• Remove mixture with a slotted spoon to a stainless steel bowl.

• Coat with the  Chipotle Cilantro Avocado Pesto.

• Toss enough chicken and salad mixture to what will be immediately eaten.
• Store chicken mixture and salad mixture in separate containers.