Last night I made one of my wife’s go-to meals; Chicken and Quinoa Greek Salad. This is something that she will often make at the beginning of the week and then use it as lunch for three or four days. When using it for lunches it is best to either leave the dressing off until you are ready to eat it, or leave the lettuce out until you are ready to eat it. Either way, it will still be delicious.
At first glance, this may not seem like a very substantial meal, but I could barley finish the bowl that I had. The chicken and the quinoa make this salad really filling.
One other great thing about this salad is considering how many meals you can get out of it, it is pretty inexpensive. The total cost for all the ingredients was around $30. But, I still had loads of tomatoes, mini cucumbers, feta, lettuce, and yogurt left to use in other things. Also, this salad will stretch four people at least two days possibly longer. So really, that’s a minimum of eight meals for $30 or, $3.75 a meal. That’s pretty good.
All right, enough chit chat. This is how to make…
Chicken and Quinoa Greek Salad in 30 Minutes or Less
6:36 – Quinoa
I meant to start cooking at 6:35 but there were technical issues that set me back slightly. So, I started at 6:36.
The first thing I did was get the quinoa on. I measured 1 cup of quinoa and 2 cups of water into a medium-sized pot and put it on the stove on high.
I brought the quinoa to a boil, put the lid on, reduced the heat to low, and let it simmer for 15 minutes. Then I took it off the heat and let it sit for 5 minutes before fluffing it. Of course, while the quinoa was cooking I was busy doing other things.
6:37 – Cut and wash the lettuce
After I got the quinoa on I cut and wash the lettuce. Pretty straight forward. If you want a more detailed description of how to properly cut the lettuce check out last weeks 30 minutes or less here.
6:39 – Chicken
With the lettuce cut and set aside and the quinoa simmering away I got to work on the chicken. I first put a large cast-iron skillet on the stove over medium heat. Then, I cut the two chicken breasts in half horizontally. I laid the breasts on my cutting board, drizzled them with Picholine Olive oil, dried oregano, and salt and pepper. I rubbed the seasoning into the breasts and then placed them in the hot cast-iron skillet. I didn’t need to add any oil to the skillet because of the oil I had rubbed into the chicken breasts.
6:48 – Flipping the chicken
Full disclosure I messed up a bit here. It took me a good three or four minutes of rummaging through my spice cupboard to find the oregano and my pepper. So, this took a little longer than they should have. However, I did still finish within 30 minutes. But, this should not take you 10 minutes.
The chicken was in the pan for about 4 minutes before I flipped it. Then I put a lid on the pan and cooked it until it was done flipping it once or twice more.
I also washed the chicken off my knife and cutting board before jumping into cutting the vegetables.
6:49 – Cut Veg
I occasionally do some contract work with Super Store which is a grocery store chain here. Mostly I do cooking classes but I also sometimes do culinary demos and sampling. Yesterday I was doing sampling of mini cucumbers and feta. Standing there all day handing out samples of these things gave me a really bad craving which is what led to this dinner. That is why I am using baby cucumbers. Feel free to use regular ones.
At 6:49 I got down to business cutting up all the vegetables. I started by dicing the mini cucumbers. Then I quartered some grape and cherry tomatoes. Finally, I sliced up a green pepper and a quarter of a large red onion. I put all of the vegetables in a bowl.
6:54 – Greek Dressing
Cutting the vegetables took about 5 minutes with stopping to take the pictures. If it takes you a bit longer it isn’t the end of the world. Remember that I blew a bunch of time looking for spices.
I made the dressing right in the bowl with the vegetables. I could give you some fancy made-up reason as to why I did this but I honestly don’t know why I did. I was watching my self do it and thought “Um, why am I doing this.” I didn’t have an answer and I had already gone too far. You can make the dressing in the bowl with the vegetables as I did or, you can make the dressing like a normal person in a separate bowl.
Either way, the ingredients in the dressing were 1/4 cup Picholine Olive Oil, 1 tbsp oregano, 1 tbsp red wine vinegar, the juice of 1 lemon, 2 cloves of minced garlic, 1/4 cup pulled curly parsley, 1 tsp dried dill, salt, and pepper.
I mixed up all the dressing ingredients tasted it and adjusted it as needed. At this point the quinoa was done and had rested and the chicken was done.
I added about half the quinoa into the salad saving the rest for another use. I also added about 1/4 cup crumbled feta and mixed everything together. This cooled the quinoa down a bit which meant it was time to mix in the lettuce.
This all took about 6 minutes.
7:00 –
All that was left was to plate the salad.
I put the quinoa Greek Salad mixture into a bowl, sliced one of the half chicken breasts and put that over the salad. I finished it with a little more feta and a little yogurt. Done and done and well within the 30 minute mark.
Conclusion –
This salad is seriously delicious and seriously filling. You could serve this with some warm naan bread or pita which would make it even more filling. This is a nice dish for hot weather as the only two things that need to cook is cooked on the stovetop. This way your house doesn’t get too hot.
I highly suggest that you try this salad. I’m pretty confident that you will love it and it may get you thinking about ways that you can bulk salads up a little more to turn them into meals rather than side dishes.
As always thanks for reading the blog and remember to subscribe so you never miss a post. Also, if you have any salad tips that you would like to share, post them in the comments section below.
Ingredients
- 2 ea Chicken Breasts
- 1 cup Quinoa
- 2 heads Romaine Hearts or one full head of romaine
- 1 cup Quartered Cherry and Grape Tomates
- 1 cup Diced Cucumber
- 1/4 large Red onion, thinly sliced
- 1 ea Green pepper thinly sliced
- 1/2 cup Crumbled Feta Cheese
- 1/2 cup Good Quality Olive Oil half for dressing half for the chicken
- 2 tbsp Dried oregano half for dressing half for the chicken
- 1 tbsp Red Wine vinegar
- 2 cloves Minced Garlic
- 1 lemon Juiced
- 1/4 cup Chopped Parsley
- 1 tsp Dried Dill
- Salt & Pepper
- 2 tbsp Plain Greek Yogurt
Instructions
Quinoa
- Combine the quinoa with two cups of water and a pinch of salt in a medium pot and bring to a boil over high heat.
- Once the pot begins to boil, cover it with a tight fitting lid and reduce the heat to low.
- Let the quinoa simmer for 15 minutes.
- Remove from the heat and let rest, covered for an additional 5 minutes.
- Fluff with a fork and serve.
Chicken
- Cut the two chicken breasts in half horizontally.
- Lay flat on the cutting board and drizzle with olive oil, salt, pepper, and dried oregano on both sides.
- Heat a large skillet on medium heat.
- Sear the chicken on one side. Flip the chicken and cover. Reduce the heat slightly and cooked covered, flipping once or twice until the chicken is cooked through.
- Let the chicken rest, then slice and serve.
Salad
- Cut, wash, and spin dry the lettuce.
- Combine all the vegetables in a large mixing bowl, except the lettuce.
- Add the olive oil, red wine vinegar, lemon juice, oregano, dill, garlic, parsley, and salt and pepper into the bowl. Taste and adjust seasoning as needed.
- Mix the warm quinoa into the vegetables along with 1/4 cup of crumbled feta cheese. Mix well.
- Add the lettuce and mix.
- Serve the salad in a large bowl, top with sliced chicken, the remaining feta, and a spoon full of yogurt.
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