Caribbean Chicken Quinoa Salad #SundaySupper

This Caribbean chicken quinoa salad is perfect for a summer dinner or picnic. Full of colorful fruit and vegetables and topped with spicy jerk chicken and chewy quinoa.

I was excited for this week’s Sunday Supper theme which was Summer Dinner Salads. Anyone who knows me, knows that I love salads and I eat one everyday. I even have favorite salads at various restaurants. The more stuff they have going on the more I like them. I knew I wanted to use quinoa, mostly because I have a lot of quinoa in my pantry and freezer. So I came up with this Caribbean Chicken Quinoa Salad. It has it all: grains, vegetables, fruits, legumes and chicken. And it’s finished with an orange honey vinaigrette. Delicious!

Quinoa is a gluten free grain that is high in protein and contains all nine essential amino acids. Not many plant foods can say that. It’s also high in fiber and lots of other vitamins and minerals. You can find more health benefits here. The taste is rather mild making it a great blank canvas as it takes on the flavors of what you mix with it. It’s chewy and great for salads and pilafs.

 I am using both red and white quinoa because I had it already cooked and in the freezer. If you like quinoa I suggest you make a big batch in your Instant Pot or on the stove and freeze it in batches. It comes in handy when you need a quick side dish. I also use it in my orange cranberry quinoa breakfast. It’s a great change from oatmeal for breakfast. For more quinoa dishes scroll down and you can have quinoa for breakfast, lunch and dinner! 

To make this salad you start by pan frying or grilling your chicken breast. I just rubbed in some jerk seasoning into the breast and pan fried it while I chopped my veggies. By the time the chicken was done the whole salad was sitting there waiting for it. The ingredients are quinoa, sweet peppers, red onions, cucumbers, avocados, mangos and cilantro. The dressing consists of orange juice, olive oil, apple cider vinegar, sesame oil, sat, pepper and honey. To be honest I wish I had more cilantro because I love cilantro but I only had a bit so I used it for a garnish.

Caribbean Chicken Quinoa Salad

So I hope you enjoy this Caribbean flavored salad. It’s so tasty but it’s also full of healthy nutrients.  You can easily double this recipe and it will make a huge batch that you can take to a summer party or picnic. It would be perfect for that. For more great summer dinner salads, please scroll down for recipes from my friends at Sunday Supper.

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Caribbean Chicken Quinoa Salad #SundaySupper

This Caribbean chicken quinoa salad is perfect for a summer dinner or picnic. Full of colorful fruit and vegetables and topped with spicy jerk chicken and chewy quinoa.

Prep Time 15 minutes

Cook Time 15 minutes

Total Time 30 minutes

Servings 4

Author Denise Wright (MyLifeCookbook.com)

Ingredients

• Salad
• 1 chicken breast
• 1 teaspoon of olive oil
• 2 cups of quinoa cooked
• 1 tablespoon of jerk seasoning
• 1/4 red onion diced
• 1/2 cup of sweet peppers diced
• 1/2 cup of cucumbers diced
• 1 can of black beans rinsed
• 1/2 mango cubed
• 1/2 avocado chopped
• cilantro optional
• Dressing
• 1/4 cup orange juice
• 1/4 cup of olive oil
• 2 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar
• 1 tablespoon of sesame oil
• 1 teaspoon of honey
• 1/2 teaspoon of salt

Instructions

1. Add a bit of olive oil to the chicken breast and rub in the jerk seasoning.
2. Either grill the chicken or pan fry and set aside to cool.
3. In the meantime whisk the ingredients for the dressing and set aside.
4. Then to a large bowl add in the quinoa, beans, fruit and vegetables. Toss with the dressing. Cautiously add the dressing to the amount you prefer. I don't like it swimming in dressing so I did not use the whole thing.
5. Then shop up your chicken and quickly toss with the rest of the salad.
6. If using cilantro mix in with the salad or garnish.
7. Refrigerate until ready to eat.

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