This chicken salad recipe includes the amazing avocado, a native fruit of California. The trees originally grew throughout South America and south central Mexico. They were brought north and successfully transplanted in 1871.
Avocado can help maintain a healthy weight. Though high in calories, the fiber found in avocados helps you feel full longer. The carotenoid lutein found in avocados is essential in maintaining healthy eyes, and they're full of unsaturated fat, which helps lower cholesterol levels. This chicken salad recipe is a fantastic choice for anyone looking to eat healthy. Let's take a look.
California Chicken Salad Recipe
Ingredients:
2 cups cooked chicken, chopped
1/2 cup Monterey jack cheese, shredded
1/2 cup cheddar cheese, shredded
1 avocado, diced
1/2 cup olives, chopped
1 tomatillos, chopped
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon onions, chopped
black pepper
2 Tablespoons mayonnaise
1 teaspoon green chiles, minced
2 teaspoons sun-dried tomatoes, oil-packed, minced
Directions:
1. Lightly mix the first 10 ingredients together. Moisten with mayonnaise, using more or less as desired.
2. Mound in 4 decorative serving dishes, sprinkle the minced green chilies and minced sun-dried
tomatoes on top. Chill for 1 hour.
Serve with corn chips or crisp-fried tortillas as a light lunch.
Changes You Can Make to Make This Recipe Even Healthier
Even though the chicken and avocado in this recipe already makes it quite healthy, there are a couple of changes you can make to the recipe to make it even healthier. If you're on a diet or need to watch your calories for some other reason, then you'll want to keep reading. The changes you can make are very simple!
First, substitute the two cheeses in this recipe for low-fat versions. This is such a simple change, but it really does wonders to bring down the saturated fat and calorie content of this recipe. By making this swap, you'll be creating a recipe that's perfect for weight loss and heart health.
If you don't want to swap out the cheeses in this recipe for low-fat versions, you can eliminate the cheese altogether. While we think the cheeses in this recipe help give it a great flavor, sometimes making omissions is necessary. If you really need to cut down on saturated fat and calories as much as possible, then omitting the cheeses in this recipe is the way to go.
If you don't want to make any changes at all to this recipe, then cutting down on your serving size can also help! This salad, like many recipes, can be meal prepped and eaten in smaller servings throughout the week.
Whatever you decide to do with or to this recipe, we hope you enjoy it! Once you're done making this California chicken salad, we encourage you to check out some of the other recipes we have on our site. We have hundreds for you to look through! Any time you're unsure on what to cook for dinner or dessert, we've got you covered.
The image featured at the top of this post is ©Eric Cote/Shutterstock.com.