Smoked chicken salad

This smoked chicken salad is my personal favorite. It is easy to assemble, and makes use of any smoked chicken leftovers that you might have. In fact, even if you don't have any smoked chicken or bbq chicken leftovers, you can make this with store bought rotisserie birds, or poach a breast or two and use that.

While this salad would be great made in a large quantity for a ladies luncheon (we had quite a few orders for this at our restaurant for bridge clubs) it is hearty enough that one of our customers nicknamed it the "man salad."

So, this pile of greens has it all. The recipe below is directly scalable. Feel free to substitute ingredients. However, the lettuce you use should be somewhat "sturdy" like the romaine used below, and NEVER, NEVER use wet lettuce!

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Recipe: Smoked chicken salad

5 oz. romaine lettuce cut

1/4 cup bacon bits

1/4 cup diced tomatoes

1/4 avocado, cut into chunks

1/4 cup black beans, blackeyed peas, or kidney beans

4 oz. smoked chicken cut into cubes

bbq sauce

2 oz. ranch dressing

Tortilla stings - not shown

(Make tortilla strings by cutting corn tortillas into the thinnest strips possible. Fry in a saute pan in oil until crisp. These can be made ahead and stored in an airtight container)

*note you can substitute crumbled tortilla chips for the strings, but the result will not be nearly as good.

Toss chicken with bbq sauce until very moistened and loose. This sauce will serve to mix with the ranch dressing so you need a bit extra.

Warm the chicken mixture.

Toss all of the ingredients except the chicken and strings. Put on a chilled plate. Top with chicken mixture. Make a "nest" of strings on top.

Enjoy..

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