Improv Cooking Challenge: Chicken and Noodles

This months ingredients chosen by Lesa for the Improv Cooking Challenge were chicken and noodles. Well, it just so happens that I had bought some couscous a while back and had been meaning to try it, but just never got around to it. I thought why not use it in the cooking challenge?  So, I headed over to one of my favorite cooking sites Epicurious to see what I could find for couscous and chicken. There were so many recipes that choosing was not easy. Let's just say I had to try a few different recipes. They were all soooo doggone good. My family, who are my unofficial, official taste testers, are my toughest, but most honest critcs. And I was pleasantly surprised because they actually enjoyed each recipe I tried.  In the end they chose the recipe I am sharing today as their favorite one. 

Yep, it's a keeper recipe. I've already tucked it away in my recipe binder for next time. I did tweak the recipe just the tiniest bit to leave out the olives and I replaced the currents with dried cranberries. Also, I used canned chicken chunks, because I had then on hand. I think next time I would definitely use the roasted chicken. Other than these changes the recipe remains the same. 

 

Couscous and Chicken Salad with Orange Balsamic Dressing

4-1/2 cups water

3 cups couscous

1 cup dried currents (I substituted dried cranberries)

1-3# roasted chicken, boned and cubed (I substituted 1 can of chicken chunks, drained)

1-1/2 cups , diced and drained roasted red peppers

1-15.5 oz. can of chick-peas, drained

1 cup chopped and pitted kalamata olives

1 bunch green onions, chopped

1/2 cup fresh cilantro, chopped

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Orange Balsamic Dressing

3/4 cup Orange juice

3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

3 tablespoons orange zest

1 tablespoon ground cumin

1/2 cup olive oil

Bring the water to boil in a large saucepan, add the couscous.  Cover, remove from the heat and let stand for 5 minutes.  Fluff with a fork.  Transfer to a large bowl and let cool.  Mix all remaining salad ingredients into the cooled couscous.  Set aside while you mix the dressing.  Mix together first four ingredients, then gradually whisk in the oil.  Pour over salad and toss to incorporate.  Serve immediately on a bed of romaine lettuce leaf, or can be made one day in advance and refrigerated.  I actually enjoyed it more on the second day when all of the flavors have had a chance to mix and mingle and get happy. 

This makes a really nice spring/summer salad and serves 8 people.

...check out some of the other fabulous recipes in this month's:

Improv Cooking Challenge

An InLinkz Link-up