Tropical Quinoa Salad w/Almond Lime Chicken

Lately I've been doing my own recipes more, but this is a combination of 2 recipes from 2 different food bloggers and my own spin.  For my Wednesday night life group, for June, our potluck theme is ISLAND!  How apropos in these hot summer months here in Arizona where I wish I was on some cool tropical island learning how to surf.

This salad is good hot or warm, but really best after been refrigerated overnight.

BTW, I had this dream last night that I was learning how to surf and I had a really nice bikini body.  My friend, Gina, was also learning how to surf.  Check out Gina's blog - at Fabulous and Fit Over 40.  She's a wonderful resource for health, fitness and a bunch of other things.  She's studying to be a personal trainer - nutritionist and is learning so much.

The Almond Lime Chicken is derived from Chaos in the Kitchen blog.  I actually have containers labeled in my frig "Coconut Milk" and forgot that I put fresh almond milk in them.  Duh.  So, that's how it became Almond Lime Chicken for me.  The Tropical Quinoa Salad inspiration comes from My Colombian Recipes blog.  I made it a little more tropical.  If you want to make this a vegetarian dish, omit the chicken recipe.

This dish, though served warm is very tasty, what I found out this morning is served cold ever better.  The flavors really infuse and the spiciness of the jalapeños really comes out.  The diced fruit tastes great with the coldness.  I'm glad I did not put olive oil and the limes, as that might have given the quinoa a slicker and soggier texture.  With the way I made it without the juice of the limes and the EVOO, this salad when chilled is very light.

Makes 12-16 hearty servings

Ingredients for Almond Lime Chicken:

• 3 lbs of chicken breast, semi-frozen (I cooked 3 lbs, but actually used 2 lbs for this salad)
• 4 Tbspns coconut oil
• zest of 2 regular limes
• 1 1/2 tspn ground cumin
• 4 Tbspn tamari (if you have coconut aminos, use this instead)
• 2 tspn ground coriander
• 2 Tbspn sea salt (actually, I can't remember if I put this in there or not)
• 4 Tbspns xylitol (or any sweetener you want)
• 3 tspns curry powder
• 3/4 cup unsweetened almond milk
• 1 jalepeño pepper, minced (seeds removed if you don't want it super spicy - I kept the seeds)
• 1/2 tspn cayenne pepper

Ingredients for Tropical Quinoa Salad

• 3 cups dried quinoa
• 6 cups water
• 1 cups fresh mango, diced
• 1 1/2 cups pineapple, small bits
• 1 cup fresh papaya, diced
• 2 small avocados, peeled & diced
• 3/4 cup red onion, diced
• 1/2 cup fresh cilantro, chopped
• 1 medium cucumber, diced
• juice of 6 limes (I forgot to put this in)
• sea salt & ground pepper, to taste
• extra virgin olive oil (I forgot this, too)

Directions for Almond Lime Chicken:

• You can cut the chicken breasts with them completely thawed, but it's easiest to cut when they are semi-frozen or half thawed.
• Take each chicken breast half and half it lengthwise.  With each quarter chicken breast, slice the width in half.  I wish I took pictures of this, but my hands were all with chicken juice and there was no easy way to do this.  What this basically is are thinner pieces of chicken breast.  With one chicken half, you will have 4 pieces.
• Then, take each piece and slice strips, then dice each of those strips into small bite sized pieces.   
• Set all chicken aside in a stainless steel bowl.
• For the marinade - combine the rest of the ingredients from the coconut oil to the cayenne pepper in a small bowl and whisk until well mixed.
• Pour the marinade over the chicken, mixing all the chicken with the marinade.  Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 30 min.  I did mine overnight.
• When you're ready to cook the chicken, heat a large skillet on medium high heat.
• Add lard (bacon grease) or coconut oil.  
• When fat is hot, add chicken in batches, pouring some of the marinade in with the chicken.

I had prepared the chicken the day before - cutting, dicing, marinating.

• Stir fry until there are no pink pieces of chicken.  This should take a few minutes.

My 8-yr old son was in charge of making sure all the chicken was cooked, while I chopped veggies

• Set the cooked chicken in a large glass or stainless steel bowl.  

This is 3 lbs of chicken breast - it tasted a bit spicy

• Cook until all chicken is done.

Directions for Tropical Quinoa Salad

• I basically cook quinoa just like I cook rice in my rice cooker.  I just press the button and it does it all, so you're going to have to look up how to cook rice the manual way, sorry, but you can also go to the blog I got this recipe from Quinoa Salad with Pineapples, Mango & Avocado

Quinoa cooked in the rice cooker - doesn't look like a lot, but this is an XTRA large bowl

An easy way to cut and dice a mango

Love the colors - L to R:  red onions, roma tomatoes, avocados, mango, papaya, cucumber, cilantro

My daughter was in charge of taking the pics, my go-to girl, and assembling the whole dish

• In a large bowl, combine everything else.
• Toss with quinoa & almond lime chicken.
• Serve warm or cold.