Meredith Hayden’s Chopped Greek-Style Salad With Grilled Chicken
This is a lettuce-forward, chopped Greek-style salad rather than a tomato-heavy village salad. Romaine, cucumber, green pepper and herbs provide the crunch; feta, capers and peperoncini provide salt and tang. Lemon-and-oregano chicken turns it into a main meal.
The recipe is credited to Meredith Hayden’s The Wishbone Kitchen Cookbook in Us Weekly’s published excerpt. This guide retains the published ingredient amounts and rewrites the instructions. It does not claim independent testing. Plan portions around the two pounds of chicken and your other dishes rather than assuming the salad will feed a large group as a complete dinner.
Chicken ingredients
- 2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs
- ¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil
- Zest and juice of 1 lemon
- 2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh oregano
- 1 medium garlic clove, grated
- ½ teaspoon smoked paprika
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
Salad ingredients
- 2 romaine hearts, finely shredded
- 2 mini cucumbers, halved lengthwise and thinly sliced
- 1 medium green bell pepper, thinly sliced
- ½ cup finely chopped scallions and ¼ cup chopped fresh dill
- 10 peperoncini peppers, stemmed and finely chopped
- 2 tablespoons drained capers
- Extra-virgin olive oil and red wine vinegar, to dress
- ½ teaspoon dried oregano
- Flaky salt and freshly ground black pepper, as needed
- 8 ounces feta, crumbled
Prepare the chicken separately
Combine olive oil, lemon zest and juice, fresh oregano, garlic, paprika and seasoning in a food-safe container. Add the chicken and coat well. Cover and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes or up to overnight. Keep it below ready-to-eat foods and use a tray if the container might leak.
Heat a clean grill to medium-high. Let excess marinade drain from the thighs and discard it. Grill with the lid closed until the first side is well browned and releases readily, approximately eight to ten minutes in the source method. Turn and continue cooking, checking sooner if the thighs are small or thin.
Use a thermometer in the thickest part, away from the grate. The safe minimum for chicken is 165°F (74°C). The source cooks thighs to 175°F, a higher texture preference rather than the minimum safety threshold. Clear juices or a charred surface are not substitutes for a temperature check. Rest cooked chicken on a clean board for about five minutes before slicing if desired.
Chop and dress the salad
Wash and thoroughly dry the romaine and herbs. Excess water dilutes the dressing, and a small quantity can collect at the bottom of a heavily chopped salad. Slice the vegetables into pieces that are easy to pick up together, without chopping them into a wet paste.
Combine romaine, cucumber, pepper, scallions, dill, peperoncini and capers. Add a modest drizzle of oil and vinegar, plus dried oregano and black pepper; toss and taste. Add feta gently at the end. Taste again before adding salt, because the feta, capers and pickled peppers may already supply enough.
The source leaves dressing quantities to taste. For reproducibility, measure what you add and note your preferred ratio for next time rather than reporting an invented ratio as Hayden’s exact formula.
Serve and prepare ahead
Serve the salad next to the chicken or put smaller portions into pita. If preparing ahead, keep the washed greens dry, the chopped briny ingredients separate and the dressing unapplied. Assemble near serving so the salad retains more crunch.
Refrigerate cooked chicken promptly and follow the three-to-four-day cooked-poultry storage limit. Keep it separate from the undressed salad when packing lunch. A tossed salad’s texture may deteriorate sooner than that, and no storage estimate overrides signs of spoilage or an ingredient’s shorter label instructions.
Related reading: Michael Symon’s Smoky Grilled Shrimp With Lime.
You may also want to build a quinoa bowl for another lunch option.
