While I love cooking and baking, after a long day of work I must admit I’m not always in the mood or have the energy to cook. So, I’ll have to admit that me and my husband are kind of take out junkies.
Keep in mind we lived in a small town with few meal options the last four years or so. Thus, when we moved last year to an actual city with many restaurants we got a little crazy.
Teriyaki Chicken
One of our weekly meal choices is Chinese take out and we especially like Panda Express, which isn’t far from where we live.
With Chinese food it’s easy to over buy, since there are so many options. So, a lot of times we end up with leftovers. In this particular case we ended up with leftover teriyaki chicken, the question was what should I do with it?
Chicken Salad with a Twist
I turned to Pinterest for ideas and then I came across several teriyaki chicken salad recipes.
Each one was slightly different and I decided to come up with my own version using the ingredients of my choosing.
- 1-2 cups of leftover teriyaki chicken
- 1 stalk celery chopped
- Crushed Almonds
- 11 oz can of mandarin oranges
- 2 teaspoons of mandarin orange juice
- 20 oz can of pineapple chunks
- 2 teaspoons of pineapple juice
- 1 tablespoon teriyaki sauce
- ½ cup greek yogurt
- Chop up the leftover chicken to a size of your liking, place in bowl.
- In a separate bowl mix ½ cup of greek yogurt and 1 tablespoon of teriyaki sauce. To the yogurt teriyaki mix add 2 teaspoons of the mandarin orange juice and 2 teaspoons of pineapple juice, mix well.
- Combine chicken , celery , and the mandarin oranges and pineapples without any juices. Stir in the yogurt mixture and combine well. Top with crushed almonds
- Serve over a bed of lettuce or in a sandwich.
Tangy Tropical Taste
Chicken salad is one of my favorite dishes, but I must admit that this is the first time I’ve made a teriyaki version. While I do like apples and grapes in my traditional chicken salad, I wasn’t sure how I’d feel about the mandarin oranges and pineapple.
As it turns it out I love this recipe! It’s has a tangy tropical taste, that is both fresh and different. I also love how easy this recipe was to whip up and put together.
I definitely think this will be one of my go to leftover recipes and I’m already contemplating getting Chinese food again this week to have more leftovers to make this salad again. I know I’m crazy.
Yum! You’re such a wonderful cook, Akram. I just love every recipe – sweet or savoury – that you share with us (and join you in enjoying fruit in your chicken salad).
♥ Jessica
I’m glad you liked it Miss Jessica. I’m not by any means an awesome cook, but I do like food 😉 This recipe was pretty good and a great way to use leftovers.