Easy Grilled Chicken Tortellini Salad
PIN IT!Guess what I’m doing today?
It’s probably the most fabulous thing I’ve done in years. Went to Scotland with Disney? Ha. Was in Cannes mingling with celebs? LAME. Today? I’m MOVING! (If you are good at inferring tone over blog posts, you’d know that those first few sentences were constructed solely from sarcasm and despair.) We’re about 78% packed up but still have 300000 things to clean. Including another bathroom. Which on a ranking system of 1 (Laying by the beach) to 10 (Getting a lobotomy without any sort of pain medicine in a dark alleyway of some third world country), cleaning bathrooms is about a….15. So clearly I’m procrastinating But, I couldn’t let you go through another weekend without sharing this easy grilled chicken tortellini salad. That would be like a 16 wouldn’t you say?
Doesn’t this just look like a big bowl of happy? The bright colors of the tortellinis, tomatoes, basil and red onion make it one very visually appealing meal. But don’t worry, it tastes as good as it looks too. It not only walks the walk, but talks the talk.
If you wanted, you could omit the chicken and add some roasted eggplant for a vegetarian take. Or add in some grilled steak instead of chicken if that’s more your thing. I mean, you could just eat the tortellinis on their own and you’d be pretty satisfied. But blah, how boring would that be? Adding some chicken to this gave it a much needed protein boost, which easily turned it into a main entree salad and not just something you’d eat on the side.
As much as I wish I could just sit here and chat with you about salads, my husband is beckoning me to get up and start cleaning. He didn’t find my “YOUR MOM NEEDS TO CLEAN!” or my “WAHHHHH!” as endearing as I had hoped. He just pulled the “If you don’t get up, I’m going to unplug your computer and ground you from watching Investigation Discovery” bit.
Hmph. Being an adult sucks. Can’t I just trade lives with my dog who will sleep through the entire thing?
Easy Grilled Chicken Tortellini Salad
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Serves 4.
Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time: About 15 minutes
Ingredients:
For the salad:
- 1 box tri-color tortellini
- 2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (4 – 5 ounces each)
- 1/2 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
- 1/4 cup finely chopped red onion
- Fresh basil, chopped
- 2 mini babybel lights, thinly sliced
For the dressing:
- 2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- 1/2 medium shallot, chopped
- 1 teaspoon honey
- 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil (good quality)
- 2 teaspoons Greek seasoning
Directions:
- Liberally rub chicken breasts with salt and pepper. Preheat a grill to medium heat and coat with nonstick cooking spray. Add chicken and cook until completely done, about 5 – 6 minutes on each side. Remove from grill and slice into thin pieces.
- While chicken cooks, bring water to a boil in a large pot. Add tortellini and cook for about 8 minutes, or until they are fully cooked (they’ll float to the top). Rinse.
- In a large salad bowl, mix the tortellini with the chicken. Add tomatoes, onion and sliced cheese.
- Whisk the dressing ingredients together in a shallow bowl. Pour over salad and stir in fresh basil.
Nutritional information per serving (about 1/2 cup serving with 1 tablespoon dressing):
Calories: 421
Fat: 20 grams*
Carbohydrates: 28.75 grams
Fiber: 3.25 grams
Protein: 23.25 grams
Weight Watchers Points: 10
*To lessen the fat, omit the dressing. Most olive oils have 14 grams of fat per tablespoon.
Claire
Tags:chicken recipes, healthy recipes, low fat recipes, salad recipes for summer, tortellini recipes
And I totally agree with you. Sometimes being an adult and having to do boring things like moving sucks. However, you also get to stay up late and eat whatever you want for dinner, so it works out OK on balance.