Café Rio Meets BBQ Chicken Salad
I haven’t lived near a Café Rio in over 2 years now. I crave Café Rio. When we lived in South Carolina before moving to Finland I would make a knock-off at home. But you can’t buy all the ingredients here in Finland to make a proper knock off. One day when we move back to America I will share my Café Rio copy-cat recipe for their house dressing. I’ve been working on perfecting that recipe for about 7 years and it needs to be shared with the world. This dressing is a combo of all the things I can get here in Finland that are similar to what goes in the green dressing but with added touches of other ingredients to make it perfect for a BBQ chicken salad. Basically, you may want to drink it.
My recipe has evolved and become a family favorite over the last several years. This salad is also a fantastic meal to let everyone customize with their favorite toppings. I’m the only one in my family that will eat tomatoes so you better believe they won’t be adding those to theirs. In fact, my almost 3-year-old won’t even eat ketchup if she sees a picture of a tomato on the bottle because “I don’t like ‘matoes”.
Café Rio Meets BBQ Chicken Salad
If Café Rio sold a BBQ chicken salad
Ingredients
Cilantro BBQ Dressing:
1/2 cup mayonnaise, light or regular
1/3 cup sour cream
¼ cup milk
¼ cup cilantro (packed, not chopped)
1/2 lime, juiced
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
1 clove garlic, minced
1 Tablespoon honey
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/8 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 cup BBQ sauce
Cilantro lime rice:
2 Cups of white rice (I typically use basmati or jasmine)
3 1/4 cup of chicken broth
Juice and zest of 2 limes
2 tablespoons chopped cilantro
Pinch of ground cumin
Pinch of black pepper
BBQ Chicken Marinade-
1/3 cup barbecue sauce
Juice and zest of 1 lime.
4 chicken breasts
Salad:
6 cups of chopped greens (I love butter leaf, romaine, spinach, or a combo of greens for this)
1 can of black beans, rinsed and drained
1 can of corn, drained (thawed frozen corn works too)
Chopped or cherry tomatoes
Shredded cheddar cheese
Sliced avocados
Chopped cilantro and lime wedges for garnish, optional
Instructions
Dressing:
To make the dressing, combine all ingredients in a blender and blend till combined. If you blend it too much the cilantro won’t be visible so don’t over-blend.
Rice:
You can make this rice on the stove or in a rice cooker. ALWAYS rinse your white rice before cooking it till the water runs clear. Washing your rice will make the rice less likely to become glue-y if you rinse the excess starch off of it. If making the rice on the stove, combine all ingredients and let come to a boil, reduce heat to low and cover with lid until cooked through. If making the rice in a rice maker, combine all ingredients and turn on rice cooker.
Chicken:
Place marinade ingredients in a Ziploc bag and place in fridge for 1-4 hours. Pre-heat oven to 350 F and line a baking sheet with foil. Bake in oven till cooked. Cooking times will vary based on thickness of chicken breasts. You can also grill these, just watch them close because barbecue sauce has sugar in it so the outside will burn if your heat is up too high.
Salad:
Combine salad ingredients and top each bowl with a scoop of rice and chicken. Smother with the dressing. Serve with a fresh tortilla if you prefer.
Notes
If you want to skip cooking chicken you can use a rotisserie chicken and just toss it in a bit of BBQ sauce.
Dressing can be stored in the fridge in an air-tight container for about a week.
Probably one of my favorite salads! So yum!