A knockoff of my favorite salad from Chipotle! This one requires a little more work and ingredients than my typical meal prep, but it’s worth it!
Serves: 4
Prep Time: About 1 1/2 – 2 hours
Ingredients
Copycat Chipotle Chicken Marinade
1 1/2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1/4 of a red onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, smashed
1 chipotle pepper in adobo sauce
1 tablespoon adobo sauce
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons ancho chili powder
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon Mexican oregano
1 tablespoon salt
A few grinds of black pepper
Juice of 1 lime
Water to thin, as needed
Copycat Chipotle Hot Salsa
4-5 golf ball-sized tomatillos, husked, washed, and quartered
1/4 of a yellow onion, roughly chopped
1 jalapeno pepper, roughly chopped
2 cloves garlic, smashed
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon Mexican oregano
1 dried guajillo chili, stemmed and seeded
7-8 chile de arbol chiles, stemmed and seeded
1 cup water
2 tablespoons white vinegar
Salad
Romaine, chopped
Pico de gallo (homemade, or Whole Foods makes a good one!)
Sour cream
Shredded cheese
Whatever other toppings you like!
Instructions
Copycat Chipotle Chicken Marinade
Add all ingredients except water and chicken to a blender. Blend thoroughly, adding enough water to bring the marinade to a thick liquid consistency. Pour over chicken and allow to marinate for a couple hours, then grill chicken until cooked through. Dice chicken to serve.
Alternatively, pour sauce over chicken in a crock pot. Cook for 1 hour on high and 1 hour on low. Dice or shred chicken and serve.
Copycat Chipotle Hot Salsa
Add vegetable oil, tomatillos, onion, garlic, and jalapeno pepper to a skillet and saute over medium heat, for about 5 minutes. Add salt and spices and stir, and continue to saute for another 3 minutes. Add water, vinegar, and dried chilies. Cover and simmer for 10 minutes. Remove the lid and let the rest of the water cook off until you have about a half of a cup of water left. Blend thoroughly! Then store in a jar and refrigerate until ready to use!
Salad
To assemble this salad, I layer all the cold components first. Romaine, pico de gallo, shredded cheese, sour cream, hot salsa, and whatever else I end up using. Then I stir it all together. Then, I warm the chicken in the microwave for about a minute on medium heat (I just want to take the chill off, and don’t want it piping hot!), and then add it to my salad and stir it up again. This tastes exactly like the salad I get at Chipotle!