Green goddess chicken salad
Finely chopped cabbage, cucumber and seared chicken tossed in a creamy, herby green goddess dressing made with yogurt, basil and lemon.
- 35 min total
- 30 min hands-on
- Follow-a-recipe easy
- Serves 4
- About $3.30 a serving
- 360 calories
- Good the next day
- Gluten-free
Dolly says: Make the full amount. It’s just as good for lunch the next day.
Ingredients
For 4 servings.
- 1¼ lb chicken breasts
- ¾ cup plain Greek yogurt
- ½ cup fresh basil, leaves
- ½ cup fresh parsley, leaves
- 4 green onions
- 1 lemon, juiced
- 1 clove garlic
- ½ head green cabbage
- 2 cucumbers
From your pantry
- 1¼ tsp salt, divided
- ½ tsp black pepper, divided
- 3 tbsp olive oil, divided
Each serving has about 360 calories, 40 g protein, 17 g carbs and 15 g fat, and costs about $3.30 at typical US grocery prices. Both are estimates from what the recipe uses.
Missing something?
- No chicken breasts? Boneless chicken thighs or chicken tenderloins work.
- No plain Greek yogurt? Plain yogurt or sour cream works.
- No fresh parsley? Cilantro works.
- No green onions? Chives work.
- No lemons? Limes work.
- No green cabbage? Red cabbage or coleslaw mix works.
- No cucumbers? English cucumbers or mini cucumbers work.
Steps
Tap an underlined word for a quick explanation.
the chicken dry and with ½ teaspoon salt and half the pepper.
Pat dry. Patting dry means pressing paper towels onto food to soak up the moisture on its surface. Wet food steams instead of browning, so this is how you get a good sear and crisp skin.
How you’ll know: The surface feels tacky, not wet, and the last paper towel comes away barely damp.
Season. Seasoning means adding salt, pepper or spices to bring out a food’s flavor. A little at a few stages tastes better than a lot all at the end.
How you’ll know: When you taste it, it tastes bright and like itself, not flat and not salty.
Food safety: Wash your hands, the board and the knife with hot soapy water after touching raw meat, and don’t rinse raw chicken in the sink.
Heat 1 tablespoon of the oil in a large over medium-high until it , then cook the chicken 5 to 6 minutes without moving it, until .
Skillet. A skillet is a frying pan: wide and flat with low, sloped sides. The shape lets steam escape, so food browns instead of stewing.
How you’ll know: It’s the pan you’d fry an egg in, and a 10 or 12 inch one handles most recipes.
Shimmering oil. Oil shimmers when it’s hot enough to cook: its surface looks rippled and wavy, like heat over a road. That’s your cue to add the food, just before the oil would start to smoke.
How you’ll know: The oil looks wavy and runs thin like water when you tilt the pan, with no smoke yet.
Golden brown. Golden brown is the color of good toast, somewhere between yellow and light brown. It means the outside is cooked and crisp but not burnt.
How you’ll know: It looks like toast and smells toasty; dark brown with a bitter smell means it went too far.
Medium-high heatTimer: 5 min 30 sec
Flip, turn the heat to medium and cook 5 to 7 minutes more, until the thickest part reads 165°F. Let it cool on a board.
Medium heatTimer: 6 min
Food safety: Chicken and turkey are done at 165°F in the thickest part. A thermometer is the only sure check. Without one, cut into the thickest piece: it should be white all the way through, with no pink.
Pile the basil, parsley, 2 of the green onions and the garlic on the board and them together as finely as you can.
Chop. Chopping means cutting food into bite-size pieces that don’t need to be neat. Keep them roughly the same size so everything cooks evenly.
How you’ll know: Your pieces are about half an inch and roughly alike, even if none of them are pretty.
Dolly’s tip: Keep gathering the pile and chopping until it looks almost like a paste. A blender works too, if you have one.In a big bowl, the herbs into the yogurt with the lemon juice, the rest of the oil, salt and pepper. That is your green goddess dressing.
Stir. Stirring means moving food around with a spoon or spatula so it cooks evenly and doesn’t stick. Unless the recipe says constantly, every so often is plenty, and it gives food time to brown.
How you’ll know: When you drag the spoon across the bottom, nothing is sticking or scorching.
Very the cabbage, cucumbers and the rest of the green onions.
Finely chop. Finely chopping means cutting food into small pieces, a little bigger than minced, about the size of a lentil. Small pieces spread their flavor through the dish and cook quickly.
How you’ll know: Nothing is bigger than a lentil, and the pile looks like confetti rather than paste.
Dolly’s tip: Small pieces are the point here. It should look like a chopped salad you could scoop with a chip.the chicken into small pieces and everything with the dressing.
Chop. Chopping means cutting food into bite-size pieces that don’t need to be neat. Keep them roughly the same size so everything cooks evenly.
How you’ll know: Your pieces are about half an inch and roughly alike, even if none of them are pretty.
Toss. Tossing means gently lifting and turning food so everything gets coated, like pasta in sauce or vegetables in oil. It coats every piece evenly without mashing anything.
How you’ll know: Every piece looks glossy or evenly coated, with no dry spots hiding underneath.
Dolly’s tip: Cabbage holds up in dressing, so this keeps 3 days. Pack it in single containers and eat it cold.
Plan this in Dollop, and get the grocery list
Dollop puts this dinner on a night that suits your week, lists only what you still need to buy, and walks you through each step while you cook.
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