Roasted Chicken And Veggie Salad With Radish Tops and Cilantro Dressing

Adapted from The Castaway Kitchen

 

 

 

Ingredients


For the Sheet Pan

• 2 cups cauliflower rice (pre-made or you can make your own...I got mine at TJ's)
• 1 pound boneless skinless chicken thighs
• 1 red onion, sliced
• 1 bunch radishes, quartered, tops removed and washed
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon dried cilantro
• 1 teaspoon ground turmeric
• 3 tablespoons olive oil 

For the Dressing

• 1 bunch cilantro, stems trimmed
• juice of 2 lemons
• 1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar
• ½ teaspoon fine salt
• 1 tablespoon coconut aminos (or soy sauce)
• ½ cup olive oil

For the Greens

• 3 hearts of romaine, washed and chopped
• the radish tops, washed and chopped

 Method

1.  Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
2. Prep veggies. Wash and separate radishes from tops. Put to the side. Chop radishes, slice onions, and prepare cauliflower rice. Spread out onto sheet pan.
3. Prep chicken. Spread out onto sheet pan.
4. Drizzle veggies and chicken with olive oil, season with salt. Season chicken thighs with dried cilantro and turmeric. 
5. Place tray/s into oven and roast for 30 minutes, then broil for 5 minutes.
6. Prepare the sauce. Rinse and remove cilantro from stems. Place cilantro, lemons, vinegar, salt, and coconut aminos into a food processor, and blend until smooth. Slowly add the olive oil until a nice emulsion forms. Season to taste.
7. Place greens in bowl and top with roasted and cut chicken and veggies. Drizzle with dressing, toss, and consume.

What a sexy salad!!! I am becoming one of those people who fetishizes a good salad, and I don't even care that's how yummy this was. I was looking for a quick and easy week-night recipe, so I literally googled "easy-sheet-tray-dinners" and this is what popped up! I actually cooked mine on two because my cookware is severely lacking, but if you carefully line the pans with foil you don't even have to clean the trays!! (Shh don't tell).

This meal is a great way to use chicken thighs in a unique way. It also highlights the radishes--both tops and bottoms--a vegetable I've been seriously obsessed with lately. I typically eat them raw, but the roasted radish flesh was extremely tender and still somewhat refreshing. And the peppery radish tops add a special something to the salad. This meal might not take a long time but I bet you could fool even the most discerning of dinner guests. I was excited to make it, and even I was impressed at how well it turned out. The original recipe called for sliced avocado on top, and while that would have been divine, I completely forgot to grab them when I was at the store, so my salad was sadly avocado-less. And I didn't even miss them! A first for me!

On tonight's kitchen playlist: Bistro Fada! I've been listening to the French Cafe Lounge playlist on Spotify lately. Listening to it while you cook automatically makes you 100% more confident in your cooking skills, or at least makes you feel like you're an extra in Ratatouille or Chocolat or something. It is essential French strolling music, most famously featured in Midnight in Paris. 


Well--à bientôt!