Tropical Chicken Salad

First, I just want you to know I’ve missed you! Oh, how I have missed my friends. We went on a much needed vacation and shut down all electrical devices and just hung out with the fam. We thought we were going to stay home, but on a whim decided to throw everyone in the truck and head to Oregon. for Easter, because that’s how we roll. I got to see me nephew for the first time, he’s 8 months old. Adorable to say the least. Our trip started off bad, really bad. Mo, the family dog, decided he was going to be sick the whole 10 hour trip, which then made for a 12 hour trip, having to make pit stops every few minutes for a puking dog. Yeah, bad! We managed to keep him calm and laying down after five hours into the trip. I so wished I had slipped the dog a mickey before we left. It was that bad! I was thanking my dear God that the kids were being super good. We’ve had some pretty bad road trips, but this seriously took the cake. I told y’all, “I should really have a video camera in the car when we travel.” This is the first time we traveled with our Mo. Coach and I were seriously ready to turn back, but I’ll take a puking dog any day just to see that precious baby face I got to see. Now that I totally made you sick, are you ready for a recipe, or did you lose your appetite? Sorry, I seem to be immune to talking bodily functions or dog bodily functions, for this matter, after having five kids and watching both my grandparents taken care of by my mother who is also a nurse. Let’s just say, “I’m immune, very immune.” Good or bad? I don’t know, but immune, yes. Hope you have a marvelous Monday!

The weather is warming up in our neck of the woods and you know what that means?! Salads, glorious salads. I really enjoy them and really try hard to incorporate one with every meal, even if it’s the standard garden salad. Coach and I came up with this one. He’s the master on the grill and I am behind the scene taking care of bizz-ness, like marinading. But I totally have to admit, all the marinating in the world can’t make a piece of chicken taste good unless I have a big hunk, I mean Coach, BBQing our meal. I seriously don’t know how he does it. He has a rotation technique, and I know he cooks it low and slow, but other than that, I officially passed the torch on to him many years ago. No fail, every stinkin’ time the chicken comes out super moist, tender and juicy. I think it’s because he totally babies it all the way through the process!? I think I just scored some Major brownie points with the hubs. Fist bump! This salad was yummy. It had the tropical flavors going on with a bit of spice. I used the marinade as a dressing so it wasn’t wasted. Typically, I wouldn’t have done this, but since I cooked boiled the heck out of it, I was good with that. What I like about this meal is that it’s versatile in the fact that if you’d like you can serve it over a bed of rice and it totally rocks. Both were tasty, both satisfied the adults and the kids that didn’t feel like eating rabbit food this particular night.

Ingredients For Tropical Chicken Salad
5 pounds boneless skinless chicken breast, wash and pat dry (about 6 large breasts)
1 cup soy sauce (we used a gluten free brand for Coach)
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 cup pine orange banana 100%  frozen juice concentrate (let thaw)
1 tablespoon garlic, minced
1 teaspoon lime juice
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
fresh cracked pepper, to taste
avocado slices, desired amount
pineapple chunks, desired amount
1 large beef steak tomato sliced, desired amount
sweet onion, sliced thin, desired amount
organic packaged salad mix, desired amount

Directions
1. In a large bowl, mix together soy sauce, brown sugar, juice concentrate, garlic, lime juice, and red pepper flakes. Season each chicken breast with fresh cracked pepper front and back side. Add chicken to marinade and let marinate for at least 1 hour. Overnight is ideal.
2. Preheat outside grill and grill chicken until no longer pink and juices run clear.
3. Meanwhile, pour marinade in a medium sized sauce pan and boil the heck out of it over medium high heat while stirring continually until the marinade slightly starts to thicken. Reduce heat and continue cooking. By the time you’re through you should have reduced the marinade by half. Remove from heat and let cool.
4. On a plate, place desired amount of organic salad mix, avocado slices, and chicken slices. Top salad with 1 large tomato slice and desired amount onion slices, next top salad with desired amount of pineapple chunks, season salad with fresh cracked pepper to taste and drizzle desired amount of cooked/cooled marinade sauce over the top. Serve

Note: If serving over rice, cook rice per packaged directions. Follow the above ingredients/directions leaving out the salad and toppings. Cut chicken breast into slices and place on top a bed of rice drizzling the marinade over the top.