Recipe for Chicken and Avocado Salad with Lime and Cilantro

I thought this Chicken and Avocado Salad with Lime and Cilantro had a perfect combination of flavors!

I love the way social media spreads good ideas around the web, and this salad is my version of one my sister Pam got from a friend, who found it on Pinterest.  The e-mail I got from Pam had just a list of ingredients and some suggestions, so when I made the salad I kind of made up my own directions.  Then when I got ready to post my salad, I wanted to credit the source if I could find it, and when I copied what Pam had sent me and entered it into the search on Pinterest I found Avocado Chicken Salad from Becoming Betty.  My version has larger chunks of chicken and avocado, and I made the lime and mayonnaise into more of a dressing, while the original version is more mixed together.  This salad was so good that the amount I made above didn't even last a day at my house (although I *did* have help eating it from Jake.)  If you like these ingredients, I promise this salad is going to be a keeper!

I started with two cups of shredded chicken from a rotisserie chicken.  We kept the chunks of chicken pretty large.

Dice up 2 medium avocados, and toss them with 1 T fresh-squeezed lime juice. 

Slice up about 1/4 cup thinly sliced green onion.

You also want at least 1/2 cup finely chopped fresh cilantro.  (We chopped the cilantro very fine so the cilantro flavor would be all through the salad, but you could chop it coarser than this if you prefer.)

I mixed 2 T mayo and 1 T fresh squeezed lime juice to make the dressing.  (Remember there is already some lime juice on the avocado, so if you're not that crazy about lime you could use a bit less.)

Put the chicken in a bowl large enough to hold all the ingredients, add the sliced green onions and dressing and mix well, so all the chicken is coated with dressing.

Add the avocado with the lime juice that's in the bottom of the bowl and mix gently to combine.

Then add the finely chopped cilantro and gently mix again, just until it's barely combined.  Serve right away or chill. 

Chicken and Avocado Salad with Lime and Cilantro
(Makes 4 servings; recipe adapted from Avocado Chicken Salad from Becoming Betty, which my sister Pam's friend found on Pinterest.)

Ingredients:
2 cups cooked chicken, shredded into large pieces
2 medium avocados, diced
1 T + 1 T fresh squeezed lime juice
salt, to taste (I didn't use too much salt because you can always add more at the table.)
1/4 cup thinly sliced green onion
1/2 cup finely chopped fresh cilantro (or chop it more coarsely if you prefer)
2 T mayo or light mayo

Instructions:

Shred the chicken apart until you have 2 cups of chicken shredded into fairly large chunks.   Dice the avocados into medium-sized pieces, mix with 1 T of the lime juice, and season avocado with salt to taste.  Thinly slice the green onion and finely chop the cilantro.  Mix mayo and 1 T lime juice to make the dressing.

Put the chicken into a bowl large enough to hold all the salad ingredients.  Add the sliced green onions and dressing and toss until all the chicken is coated with dressing.  Add the avocado and any lime juice in the bottom of the bowl and gently combine with the chicken.  Then add the chopped cilantro and gently mix into the salad, just until it is barely combined.

Serve right away or chill for a while before serving.  This could be served inside pita bread or sandwich bread, or inside crisp lettuce cups, but we just ate it as a salad.  (I would imagine this would be fine in the fridge overnight but I didn't have any left over when I made it!)

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South Beach Suggestions:

This salad eaten plain would be approved for any phase of the South Beach Diet, but remember that avocados and mayonnaise are both a limited food due to the fat content.  I would not eat more than 1/4 of this as a serving if you're eating it for Phase One.

Nutritional Information?

I chose the South Beach Diet to manage my weight partly so I wouldn't have to count calories, carbs, points, or fat grams, but if you want nutritional information for a recipe, I recommend entering the recipe into Calorie Count, which will calculate it for you.

More Salad Ideas with Avocado:
(Recipes from other blogs not always South Beach Diet friendly; check ingredients.)
Heart of Palm Salad with Tomato, Avocado, and Lime - with or without Cilantro from Kalyn's Kitchen
Not-so-Dumb Salad with Cucumbers, Tomatoes, Onions, Avocado, and Balsamic Vinegar from Kalyn's Kitchen
Five Fresh and Simple Avocado Salads from FoodieCrush
Creamy Avocado Chicken Salad from Cheeky Kitchen
Boston Butter Lettuce Salad with Avocado, Corn, and Tomatoes from Sass and Veracity
(Want even more recipes? I find these recipes from other blogs using Food Blog Search.)