Loaded Chicken, Tuna and Avocado Salad
Serves 3 to 4 · Prep: 20 minutes · Cook: 10 minutes · Total: about 30 minutes
Warm mushrooms and crunchy seeds keep this from tasting like another sad fridge-cleanout salad.
Ingredients
Salad
- 6 cups mixed greens or chopped romaine
- 1 ripe avocado, sliced
- 1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
- 1 cup corn kernels, cooked and cooled
- 2 hard-boiled eggs, quartered
- 1½ cups cooked chicken, cut into bite-size pieces
- 1 can tuna, drained and broken into large flakes
- 5 ounces brown beech mushrooms, also called brown shimeji
- ½ cup sliced wood ear mushrooms, optional
- 1 tablespoon neutral oil
- Salt and black pepper
- ¼ cup mixed pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, sliced almonds, or cashews
- ¼ cup crispy fried onions or shallots
Sesame-soy dressing
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 1½ tablespoons rice vinegar
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon honey or maple syrup
- 1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
- 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
- 1 to 2 teaspoons water
- Black pepper
Instructions
- 1
Make the dressing
Whisk the olive oil, rice vinegar, soy sauce, honey, sesame oil, Dijon mustard, 1 teaspoon water, and a few grinds of black pepper. Add the remaining water if it tastes too strong.
- 2
Prepare the mushrooms
Trim the tough base from the shimeji mushrooms and separate them into small clusters. Heat the neutral oil in a skillet over medium-high heat.
- 3
Cook the mushrooms
Add the shimeji and leave them undisturbed for about 2 minutes so they can brown. Cook for another 3 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the wood ear, if using, and cook for 1 to 2 minutes more. Season lightly with salt and pepper.
- 4
Build the salad
Spread the greens in a wide bowl. Arrange the avocado, tomatoes, corn, eggs, chicken, tuna, and warm mushrooms over the top.
- 5
Finish
Scatter over the seeds and crispy onions. Drizzle with half the dressing, then add more as needed.
Recipe notes
Cook’s notes
- Shortcuts: rotisserie chicken, prewashed greens, peeled hard-boiled eggs, and thawed frozen corn turn this into an assembly job rather than a cooking project.
- No time to make the dressing? A bottled sesame, ginger, or Japanese onion dressing works in its place.
- Tuna: canned salmon or crab, or leave it out.
- Brown shimeji: cremini, oyster, shiitake, or white beech mushrooms. Skip the wood ear or use more shimeji in its place.
- Corn: edamame, peas, or roasted sweet potato. Rice vinegar: lemon juice or apple-cider vinegar. Soy sauce: tamari or coconut aminos. Seeds and nuts: use whatever combination you have on hand.
Make ahead & storage
- Chicken: swap in shrimp, salmon, tofu, chickpeas, or an extra egg. Canned chicken or leftover roasted salmon also work if you'd rather not cook a protein at all.
More recipes to try
Save this recipe, and any recipe from anywhere, in Shio.
Get Shio