Chicken and Chickpea Green Goddess Power Salad

This Chicken and Chickpea Green Goddess Power Salad recipe is loaded with fresh healthy veggies! It is topped with cucumbers, paper thin ribbons of carrot and crumbled feta cheese. The chicken is marinated in a garlic and red wine vinegar marinade. The dressing is a homemade Green Goddess with avocado, tahini and buttermilk.

Why We Love This Recipe For Green Salad with Chickpeas

I was inspired to come up with this power salad recipe when Jase and I took the girls to lunch at Healthy Living after BodyPump last weekend. My 7-year old surprised the heck out of me by asking for a salad for her lunch. I helped her build a big beautiful salad with marinated tofu and tahini dressing. I was starving and ended up making myself a giant salad as well, but with feta and cucumbers too. As we all sat in the cafe devouring our salads, my daughter said, “Mommy you should make a big salad like this for your blog.” I thought that was a good idea. So if you read my post yesterday about how to write a better recipe, then you already basically know this recipe. The first test I did was okay but not really worthy of sharing with you guys. Frankly the chicken was under-seasoned and bland, and there was too much dressing. The dressing was too thick at first so I added water and buttermilk to it. But then there was way too much. It was a little bitter too. So I knew I had to make some adjustments.

I ended up fixing it and dropped the amount of dressing, added a bit more acid and salt, and viola! Amazingness in a bowl. Really. Don’t think since I didn’t wax on about it for the last five minutes it doesn’t rock. It totally does. And it will give you big, strong, goddess-like muscles too. It has 36 grams of protein!

Ingredients For This Recipe

Sesame tahini

Tahini is made entirely of sesame seeds and is kind of like a paste. It’s full of healthy fats and antioxidants, and is great for salad dressings and baked goods.

Boneless skinless chicken breast

I opted for boneless skinless chicken breast for extra juice, and fuss-free chicken. I love getting organic free-range chicken when I can, but really anything you can get your hands on is great!

Non-fat buttermilk

Buttermilk is really only cultured milk, similar to kefir or yogurt. It adds tang and acidity to recipes, and if you don’t have any a great substitute is milk with a bit of lemon juice.

Other Ingredients

• 3 cloves garlic, peeled
• ¼ cup cold water
• ¼ cup red wine vinegar, divided
• 2 teaspoons Italian Seasoning herb mix
• 1 teaspoon salt, divided
• ½ avocado, skin and pit removed
• 2 tablespoons chopped chives
• 1 tablespoon chopped parsley
• 1 teaspoon chopped tarragon, optional
• 8 cups spring greens, washed and spun dry (you can use whatever lettuce you have on hand.)
• 1 carrot, peeled, and cut into paper-thin ribbons with vegetable peeler
• ½ European cucumber, seeded and cut into chunks
• 1 cup canned chickpeas, drained and rinsed
• ½ cup crumbled feta cheese

Step By Step Instructions To Make This Recipe

Step 1: Marinate chicken

Place the garlic cloves in a large re-sealable bag, then press the air out and seal the bag. Smash garlic with the smooth side of a meat mallet or a heavy skillet. Open the bag and add the chicken breasts. Press air out of the bag and reseal. Pound meat through the bag until the thickest part of the breast is level with the thinnest, about 3/4 -inch thick. Open up bag again and add tenders, ¼ cup water, 3 tablespoons vinegar, Italian herb mix and ½ teaspoon salt. Press out air and reseal bag; agitate until the chicken is coated in the herb-garlic mixture. Refrigerate for 30 minutes or up to 2 hours.

Step 2: Grill chicken

Preheat grill to medium-high heat. Remove chicken from marinade and discard marinade. Oil the grill rack . Grill chicken until browned and no-longer pink in the center, 4 to 5 minutes per side. Let rest about 5 minutes before cutting into pieces.

Step 3: Make power salad dressing

Puree avocado, buttermilk, the remaining 1 tablespoon vinegar, tahini, chives, parsley, tarragon and the remaining ½ teaspoon salt in a mini prep or food processor until smooth, scraping down the sides as necessary.

Step 4: Assemble salad & serve

Arrange the greens in four bowls. Top with carrots, cucumbers, chickpeas, feta and the grilled chicken. Drizzle dressing over the salads and serve.

FAQs and Expert Tips for This Green Goddess Salad with Chicken

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