Summer Living Recipe: Thai Chicken Salad

2 cans coconut milk
2T curry paste (I only had powder so I used that instead and it was fine)
4 tsp orange zest
1 1/2 cups of orange juice

4 boneless, skinless chicken breast
2 mangos cut into 1 inch chunks (I cut up 4 mangos)
1 pineapple cut into 1 inch chunks (I used canned)
Mix of salad greens

Mix together the coconut milk, curry paste, orange zest, and orange juice together in a small bowl with a lid.

Take the chicken breast and fillet it. That means cut the thickness in half. If you don’t do this when you grill your chicken it will be raw on the inside and burned on the outside. When you reduce the thickness it will cook evenly and still be tender.

Put the chicken into a large ziploc bag. Pour about a third of the coconut milk mixture into the bag. Allow the chicken to marinade for at least 30 minutes. Mine actually sat in the marinade for over 24 hours since we had a huge thunderstorm roll through and I didn’t feel like standing out in the storm waving my grill tongs like a lightening rod.

The rest of the marinade you will reserve for dressing the salad. Cut up the mango and pineapple. Or open the can if you are also using canned. Dump these into the bowl with the marinade. The recipe I had followed suggested grilling the mango and pineapple and I tried that the first time I made this recipe and decided that it wasn’t really worth the effort.

Here is a fun trick for cutting up mango. Slice the mango in half to the pit and pull it part. Cut the mango in a criss cross pattern down to the peel, without going through the skin.

Then flip it inside out.

This is a great way to give mango to the kids to eat. They can eat it right off of the peel like watermelon. And doesn’t it look cute enough to serve at the breakfast table?

Cover the bowl and put it in the refrigerator.

When you are ready cook your chicken on the grill.

After it is done cooking, slice the chicken into strips.

Cut up the salad greens. Toss with the reserved dressing. Add the grilled chicken.

Delicious. The perfect combination of grilled meat and sweet fruit, perfect for summer. I serve this with a nice bread. My kids like to eat the chicken and lettuce on bread like a sandwich.

And best of all? The kitchen has not been heated up by using the stove.