Hawaiian Chicken Salad

A gorgeous, colourful salad loaded with tropical Hawaiian flavours! Lots of healthy greens, chicken marinated in pineapple and coconut, coconut rice, drizzled with a tasty cilantro / coriander lime dressing.

Now THIS is what I call a proper salad! Plus it’s transforming leftovers from a recipe I posted a few weeks ago. Thrifty, convenient, healthy, satisfying and super tasty. What more can you ask for in a salad??

A TROPICAL CHICKEN SALAD!!

This recipe is based on this Hawaiian Coconut Pineapple Chicken Skewers and Coconut Lime Cilantro (Coriander) Rice I posted a few weeks ago. It’s a re-purpose of leftovers and I enjoyed the salad so much, I decided to share it here.

Truth be told, much of what I share here on RecipeTin Eats is a consequence of a never-ending plan to use up ingredients I have in the fridge or freezer. Between client photography assignments, my monthly feature in Super Food Ideas magazine and the recipes I share here, excess ingredients is a regular “problem” I have. I actually have a whiteboard on my fridge on which I map out ideas all stemming from a list of “MUST USE” items.

I hate waste. I was brought up being scolded if I didn’t clear my plate. “A farmer worked hard to grow that rice!”, my mother scold, if I dared to leave a single grain of rice in my bowl.

OK, a little off track here. Back to the salad!

So it starts with a tasty coconut-pineapple marinated chicken using the same marinade as the Hawaiian Chicken Skewers. There is actually enough marinade in that recipe to sneak in the chicken breast for this recipe. 🙂

Or you could marinate the chicken for the skewers for 24 hours, take it out then marinate the breast for the next 24 hours.

Then add a stack of greens. After all, this is a pretty full loaded salad! I rummaged through my fridge to use what I had on hand, but really, the sky’s the limit.

I also used leftover Coconut Cilantro/Coriander Rice which I served as a side for the Hawaiian Chicken Skewers. It’s a perfect match for this salad, and a great way to fill it out!

PS This recipe calls for a can of pineapple pieces. So I use the juices for the marinade and sear the pieces to throw into the salad. 🙂

Regular readers know that salad isn’t really my “thing”. I should share more of them. It just takes a lot for me to get excited about a salad.

THIS I’m excited about. A salad worth sharing! – Nagi x

MORE CHICKEN SALADS YOU’LL LOVE

• Lemon Chicken Salad

• Chicken Salad with Avocado Dressing

• Chinese Chicken Salad

• Thai Chicken Salad

• Mexican Avocado Chicken Salad

• More giant Salads for Meals

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Hawaiian Chicken Salad

Author: Nagi | RecipeTin Eats

Prep: 15 minutes mins

Cook: 10 minutes mins

Total: 25 minutes mins

Dinner, Salad

Hawaiian

5 from 20 votes

Servings2 -3

Tap or hover to scale

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A giant salad loaded with the tropical flavours of Hawaii! This recipe is based on the marinade for these Hawaiian Chicken Skewers I shared a few weeks ago – see note 1 for how to REUSE the marinade for this recipe. This recipe also uses leftover Coconut Lime Cilantro/Coriander Rice that I shared as a side for the skewers.

Ingredients

Hawaiian chicken marinade:

• ▢ 1/3 cup coconut milk (from a can)
• ▢ 1/4 cup pineapple juice (from can, save pineapple pieces)
• ▢ 1 tbsp tomato sauce/ketchup
• ▢ 1 tbsp all-purpose or light soy sauce , or tamari for gluten free (not dark soy sauce)
• ▢ Zest of 1 lime
• ▢ 2 garlic cloves , minced
• ▢ 1/4 tsp EACH onion powder , cumin, paprika, ginger powder, salt

Chicken and Salad

• ▢ 1/2 tbsp olive oil
• ▢ 1 large chicken breast , halved horizontally
• ▢ 1/2 cup corn kernels , from can, drained
• ▢ 1/2 – 3/4 cup pineapple pieces (from can, drained)
• ▢ 4 – 6 cups chopped lettuce (iceberg or cos/romaine)
• ▢ 1/2 avocado , cut into wedges
• ▢ 1/2 red onion , finely sliced
• ▢ 1/2 cup cherry tomatoes , halved
• ▢ 1 small carrot, finely shredded
• ▢ 1 – 1 1/2 cups Coconut Lime Cilantro / Coriander Rice (Note 2)

Dressing:

• ▢ 1 1/2 tbsp lime juice
• ▢ 2 1/2 tbsp olive oil
• ▢ 2 tbsp finely chopped cilantro/coriander
• ▢ 1/2 garlic minced
• ▢ 1/2 tsp sugar or honey
• ▢ 1/4 tsp cooking salt / kosher salt
• ▢ Black pepper

Cook ModePrevent screen from sleeping

Instructions

• Mix together Marinade ingredients, marinate chicken for minimum 3 hours, preferably overnight.
• Shake Dressing ingredients together in a jar, set aside for at least 15 minutes.
• Heat oil in a non stick skillet over high heat (or BBQ). Add chicken and cook each side for 3 minutes or until golden. Remove and cover loosely with foil for 5 minutes, then slice thickly.
• Sear 1/2 cup pineapple pieces and corn in the skillet until golden.
• Pile salad ingredients on a platter and top with sliced chicken. Drizzle over Dressing. Serve and pretend you’re in Hawaii!

Recipe Notes:

1. The Hawaiian Chicken Skewers recipe uses the same marinade. So you can squeeze the chicken for this recipe in that marinade OR recycle the marinade as follows: marinade chicken for skewers for 1st 24 hours, then the chicken for this recipe for the next 24 hours. After which the marinade must be discarded immediately.

2. The Coconut Lime Cilantro / Coriander Rice used as a side for the Hawaiian Chicken Skewers goes beautifully with this salad BUT if you don’t have any leftover, just use plain cooked white rice and make extra dressing to pour over the rice.

3. Nutrition is per serving, assuming 3 servings, with 1 cup of plain white rice used.

Nutrition Information:

Serving: 346gCalories: 494cal (25%)Carbohydrates: 35.5g (12%)Protein: 36g (72%)Fat: 24.7g (38%)Saturated Fat: 3.5g (22%)Polyunsaturated Fat: 21.2gCholesterol: 86mg (29%)Sodium: 868mg (38%)Fiber: 4.5g (19%)Sugar: 9.2g (10%)

Did you make this recipe?I love hearing how you went with my recipes! Tag me on Instagram at @recipe_tin.

Life of Dozer – Because he didn’t realise there was chicken in this salad, he was off snoozing in the sun somewhere. Probably on the sun lounge. As he does.

He lives a hard, hard life……

PPS Dozer makes regular appearances on Instagram too…..in case FOOD isn’t enough of an incentive for us to be friends on Instagram! 😉