(yelps)
(lettuce thudding)
(laughs)
- You try catching something flying
at you fast from the side.
Hey everyone, it's Natasha from natashaskitchen.com,
and I am gonna teach you how to make a salad,
but not just any salad.
This is a salad that we created
after going to one of our favorite places,
The Cheesecake Factory.
It is a chicken mango avocado salad,
and wait until you taste the dressing.
We're gonna start on the chicken.
Let's do this.
You'll need one pound or two medium chicken breasts.
Cut those in half lengthwise.
Now season both sides with garlic salt and black pepper.
(optimistic music)
Now place a large skillet over medium high heat
with two teaspoons of olive oil.
Once the oil is hot, add the chicken,
and cook about three minutes per side
or just until it's cooked through.
The chicken is done when it reaches 165 degrees Fahrenheit
on an instant-read thermometer,
and I'll link to our favorite thermometer in the notes.
Transfer it to a cutting board and let it cool slightly
while you make the rest of your salad.
For the base of this salad,
we're using one large head of romaine lettuce.
Chop it up into bite-sized pieces and discard the core.
Then rinse and spin dry.
You'll end up with about six cups of chopped lettuce.
And if you love salads,
a salad spinner is a must-have tool in your kitchen.
It saves so much time.
I'll share our favorite salad spinner in the notes.
(upbeat music)
Transfer the lettuce to a large salad bowl,
and now we're just going to layer on
the rest of the ingredients.
The chicken is just about at room temperature,
so slice that into bite-sized strips,
and place it over the romaine lettuce.
Now my favorite ingredient in this salad
is a fresh mango and I use this mango slicer
to make it easy to cut it.
If you love mangoes, you should get one of these.
Also, this handy fruit scoop makes it easy
to remove the mango from the skin.
Quickly dice up the mango and place it into the salad bowl.
Now my next favorite ingredient, an avocado.
And watch how we slice it.
This is the safe way to remove the avocado pit.
A ripe avocado is easy to peel and dice,
and you don't need any special tools.
(upbeat music)
Transfer those to the salad bowl,
and we'll quickly finish up the rest
of the salad ingredients.
Thinly slice half of a small purple onion,
and this adds great flavor and color to the salad.
Next, slice and add half of an English cucumber
or a large garden cucumber.
(optimistic music)
We'll also add half a cup of halved cherry tomatoes.
My favorite herb for this salad is cilantro
because it adds amazing, fresh flavor.
You'll need about a quarter cup of chopped, fresh cilantro.
Now just layer all of the ingredients over the salad.
And an optional but nice touch at the end
is adding some toasted, sliced almonds.
The salad is done and we're gonna make
a quick homemade dressing to go with it.
In a small mason jar combine half a cup
of extra virgin olive oil,
three tablespoons of apple cider vinegar,
two teaspoons of Dijon mustard, two teaspoons of honey,
one minced clove of garlic or about a teaspoon.
Season with a teaspoon of sea salt
and a quarter teaspoon of black pepper.
Cover that up and shake, shake, shake
until it's well-combined.
And if you're not serving it right away,
give it a good shake just before serving.
Whoo!
(laughs)
That smells so good and fresh.
All right, all that's left
with this gorgeous, gorgeous salad is to add the dressing
and then just toss it together, so here we go.
And add this to taste.
I don't usually use the full amount which is good
because you want leftovers of this dressing, it's so good.
All right now just toss gently to combine,
and make sure everything is coated in that amazing dressing.
(upbeat music)
All right, that looks so good.
(laughing)
And onto the best part of the show.
I mean, it is for me.
I don't know about for you
because for you it's probably pure torture.
(laughing manically)
Sorry.
The taste test, if you haven't guessed already,
that's what we're doing next, so here we go.
All right, in generous amounts
'cause we do everything in generous portions.
(laughs)
A little more, little more.
Okay, that looks about right.
Okay, I'm gonna go in for the taste test, here we go.
Is it just me or is this salad glowing?
(laughs)
It's the mango and the dressing.
Seriously, it's really good.
A little bit of everything on my fork
because this salad is just a flavor sensation.
(upbeat music)
(humming happily)
That chicken is so juicy, perfectly seasoned.
And I love the sweet notes from the mango.
It makes it feel like a tropical salad.
And then of course, the creamy avocado.
I like to put avocado everywhere I can.
Yum, I can't wait to eat this for lunch.
(laughs)
I'm excited, are you excited?
A dressing is perfect here.
It's lightly sweet from the honey, compliments the mango.
Oh, and then I love that little crunch from the almonds.
This is amazing.
Now I know you guys love salads
because here are some of our most popular, viral popular,
like really, really good right over there
and right down there.
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We'll see you in our next video!
(laughing)