Grilled Chicken Salad with Rustic Guacamole, Romaine and Queso Anejo

When I saw that the next Regional Recipes event was Mexican, I was all over it! I envisioned enchiladas simmering in a rich sauce or maybe sizzling fajitas. What I didn't envision was a riff on a grilled chicken ceasar salad.

I've made many Mexican recipes before, but I am ashamed to say that even though Mexican Everyday (Recipes Featured on Season 4 of the PBS-TV series "Mexico One Plate at a Time")is on my cookbook shelf, I had never used it. I imagined that it would be too difficult. Boy was I wrong.

You wanna know how I chose this recipe? I simply flipped open the book and this is what it opened to. I thought, why not? It was wonderful. The idea of making a master dressing which is then used to brush over the chicken, stir into the guacamole and then dress the salad is pure genius.


Grilled Chicken Salad with Rustic Guacamole, Romaine and Queso Anejo
MAKES 4 SERVINGS

DRESSING
½ cup vegetable or olive oil, plus a little more for onion
4 garlic cloves, peeled and halved
Fresh hot green chiles to taste (I like 2 serranos or 1 large jalapeno), stemmed and halved
½ cup fresh lime juice
¾ cup (loosely packed) cilantro, roughly chopped
Salt
¼ teaspoon ground black pepper

GRILLED CHICKEN SALAD
4 medium (about 1¼ pounds total) boneless, skinless chicken breast halves
1 medium white onion, cut into ½-half-inch slices
2 ripe avocados
8 cups romaine hearts, sliced crosswise at ½-inch thick
1/3 cup grated Mexican queso anejo or other garnishing cheese (Romano or Parmesan)

Heat oil in small skillet over medium heat. Add garlic and chiles; cook, stirring frequently, until garlic is soft and lightly browned (usually 1 to 2 minutes). Pour oil, garlic and chiles into blender jar or food processor. Add lime juice, cilantro, black pepper, and 1 scant teaspoon salt. Process garlic mixture until smooth.

Pour 1/3 of garlic mixture over chicken breasts, spreading it evenly over all sides.

Heat a grill pan or gas grill to medium to medium-high heat (or start a charcoal fire and let it burn until coals are medium hot and covered with white ash). Lightly brush or spray onion slices with oil; sprinkle with salt. Lay chicken and onion on grill pan or grill. Cook until chicken is just cooked through and onion is well browned (3 to 4 minutes on each side). Chop onion into small pieces and scoop into bowl. Set the chicken aside to cool.

Pit and peel avocados, scooping flesh into bowl with onion. Add another 1/3 of garlic mixture, then coarsely mash everything together with old-fashioned potato masher, large fork or back of spoon. Taste and season with salt (usually about ½ teaspoon).

Scoop the sliced romaine into large bowl. Drizzle on remaining 1/3 of garlic mixture and toss to combine. Divide between 4 dinner plates. Scoop a portion of guacamole into center of each plate. Cut each breast into cubes and arrange over guacamole. Sprinkle each plate with garnishing cheese. Serve.

This is my entry for this month's Regional Recipes hosted by Wandering Chopsticks.