Wellness Wednesday: Lemon Garlic Chicken Salad with Coconut Mayo

When I shared this chicken recipe a couple of weeks ago, I said I'd be back with more recipes to use the chicken in. And here's the first! It's simple and yummy (I think restaurant-worthy, but what do I know), and crave-at-night worthy too. Many nights after Daniel goes to bed have involved whipping up this salad and eating it while watching whatever free Youtube movie struck my fancy. ;)

I also have to briefly explain why I call this coconut "mayo." I've mentioned Brittany Angell on here before and all of her amazing recipes, and one time I saw her mention on Instagram that she just combines coconut milk and olive oil for mayonnaise. I don't know if she adds more to those, or how much of each, but I decided to just put them together and add some salt and came out with this concoction that I find pretty stinkin' handy. One warning: it really does not taste very good on its own. It just complements this salad so well once it's mixed in with the other ingredients. So if you dip your finger in it and think gross! do still give it a try.

You'll need:
1/2-3/4 cup of this chicken
Lettuce
15-20 grapes
optional: 2 slices of turkey lunchmeat (I use this)
optional: Some chopped onion

For the dressing:
1 can of coconut milk (like this)
Olive oil
Himalayan salt or sea salt

1) Place the can of coconut milk in the freezer.
2) Tear up the two pieces of lunchmeat and lay them on a paper-towel covered plated. Lay another paper towel on top and microwave for 2 1/2 minutes or until it's crispy. (Like I made it for this recipe.) Once it's cooled enough to not burn yourself, of course, crumble the meat into bits.
3) Prepare the lettuce as you normally would and top it with the chicken (I like to microwave it if I didn't just make it), chopped onion, grapes, and "bacon" bits.
4) Once the coconut milk has been in the freezer for about 10 minutes, the top half probably won't be hardened, but it should be mostly separated from the lower, clear half. So just pour the upper, creamier half into a container, then add the oil and salt to your liking, and stir. I do about 1/4-1/2 cup of olive oil and probably 1/2 tsp. of salt, but the amounts are up to you. Just remember my warning about it not tasting very good by itself--it will taste like coconut milk, oil, and salt, it's just a matter of what combo you prefer. ;) Then drizzle as much as you like on the salad. This amount of dressing will last for several meals.

All done! Of course, you could just have this without any dressing, but I think it really adds to it.

Oh, and did you know salad always tastes better served on a plate instead of in a bowl? I think it probably has something to do with restaurants serving it that way, but I still think it's true. ;)

The beauty of the Shredded Lemon Garlic Chicken is that you can make a whole bunch at once and then have it to use in things like this salad for days. (Thanks, Mommy! :) Yep, I'll be sharing another simple but very tasty way to use it on another Wellness Wednesday!

{linking up with Delicious Dish Tuesday, Real Food Recipe Roundup here and here, Time to Sparkle, Share It Link Party, Do Tell Tuesday, Let Your Light Shine, Treat Yo' Self Thursday}