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Chopped Chicken Salad with Lemon Pesto Vinaigrette

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Our favorite classic chopped chicken salad…right here, right now. Loaded with all of the favorite things we love about a chopped salad and more.  This salad is so simple and impressive you will find yourself craving it constantly.  To add a different twist, you can serve it either deconstructed or all together in one big bowl.  We get requests from friends to bring this one as side dish to parties all the time.

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Stephanie Heymann Photography

No need to make anything else for lunch or dinner when serving this salad.  It’s packed with tons of protein and vitamin rich veggies.  The Israeli couscous adds a nutty flavor that should not be skipped. The couscous can be made ahead of time so it’s ready to go when you construct this salad.  We love to throw the couscous in other meals throughout the week too, so it’s great to have it prepped and ready.

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Stephanie Heymann Photography

Now you can have this salad too, but don’t come yelling at us when you find yourself craving it constantly like we do!

Chopped Chicken Salad with Lemon Pesto Vinaigrette
 
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Serves: 2 for full salad 4 for side salad
Ingredients
For the Salad:
  • 1 hardboiled egg, sliced
  • 1 roasted chicken breast, chopped into bite size pieces
  • ½ red bell pepper, chopped
  • ½ C cooked israeli couscous (can substitue quinoa or wheat berries or another grain)
  • ¾ C chopped cucumbers
  • 1 ear corn steamed and kernels removed
  • ¼ C pepitas (pumpkin seeds)
  • 4 C romain salad, chopped
For the Lemon Pesto Vinaigrette:
  • Juice of 1 extra large lemon or 2 medium lemons
  • 1 clove garlic chopped
  • 1 C loosely packed fresh basil leaves
  • ¼ C 0% plain greek yogurt
  • 1½ Tbsp honey
  • ¼ C good quality olive oil
  • S & P to taste
Instructions
For the Salad:
  1. Either in a large serving bowl or on individual plates, align ingredients into strips (pictured). Drizzle with lemon pesto vinaigrette.
For the Lemon Pesto Vinaigrette:
  1. Add all ingredients except for olive oil into a blender or use an immersion blender. Blend until basil is thoroughly mixed. Slowly drizzle olive oil in blender until combined. Add S & P to taste.

Garlic & Lemon Herb Butter

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Garlic and lemon herb butter is so easy and well, like the best thing ever! How can such a small ingredient change up a recipe so much? Adding flavor to butter like this garlic and lemon herb butter can totally transform your dish taking it form boring to complex and so totally flavorful! It’s an easy process but it packs a big punch. You can experiment with different flavor combinations creating either savory as in this case, or a sweet butter like maple cinnamon or orange vanilla.

Lemon, garlic and fresh herbs make chicken, fish, veggies, pasta, or just about anything better. The process is simple, leave a stick of unsalted butter out until it reaches room temperature. Add butter, juice and rind of 1 lemon, 2 cloves pressed garlic and chopped herbs (rosemary, basil & dill). Add a pinch of kosher salt and mix until incorporated. Place the butter on a piece of parchment paper and roll into a log, tie each end and store in the fridge for 10 days.

Let us know how you use your her butter or what flavor combinations you come up with. We would love to hear from you!


Garlic & Lemon Herb Butter
 
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Serves: 1 stick of butter
Ingredients
  • 1 stick unsalted butter, softened
  • 2 cloved garlic, pressed (pushed through a garlic press or finely minced)
  • zest of 1 medium lemon
  • juice of 1 medium lemon
  • 1 Tbsp chopped fresh basil
  • 1 Tbsp chopped fresh dill
  • 1 Tbsp chopped fresh rosemary
  • ¼ tsp kosher salt to taste
Instructions
  1. In a medium bowl mash softened butter with a fork. Add all remaining ingredients except salt and stir until mixed. Add kosher salt to taste - approx ¼ tsp.
  2. Spoon butter onto a piece of parchment paper. Form butter into a log shape. Wrap tightly in parchment paper and store in a ziploc bag. Store in refrigerator for up to 10 days or freeze for up to 6 months.
Good Thyme Tip - Use your favorite herb combinations such as tarragon, sage, parsley, etc. herb butter is great with pasta, seafood, poultry, really anything!

Lemon Basil Zoodle Salad

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It’s zoodle time again! We just cannot get enough of these!  Not only are they fun to make, they are just so versatile and pair well with a variety of ingredients. (Note- If you’re not familiar with a spiralizer look up Spiralizer How-To under the video tab of our website)  We like to break out the spiralizer and curl up a bunch of zucchini to have on hand for a few days.  They actually keep very well in an airtight container.  How great is it to have something like this ready to go?  It’s really true that you will make better food decisions if you do a little preparation.  For this salad, we simply used zoodles in place of lettuce.  It’s a salad that we make all the time its  unbelievably good and easy.  The lemon basil dressing is bursting with flavor and a very critical part to this recipe!

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Sauté spiralized zoodles in a teaspoon of olive oil until they begin to break down, about 5 minutes.  While the zoodles are cooking chop cherry tomatoes, avocado, basil and feta. Add all ingredients to a medium bowl with cooked noodles.  top with pine nuts, drizzle with the lemon basil dressing and season with S&P. Tada, done!!! Healthy and delish meal done and ready to eat in 15 minutes!

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Lemon Basil Zoodle Salad
 
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Serves: 4
Ingredients
Zoodle Salad Ingredients:
  • 2 large zuchinnis, spiralized
  • 1 tsp good quality olive oil
  • 1 C cherry tomatoes, halved
  • 1 avocado cut into ½ inch chunks
  • 3 oz feta cheese, crumbled
  • ¼ C loosely packed fresh basil, cut into strips
  • 2 Tbsp toasted pine nuts
  • S & P to taste
Lemon Basil Vinaigrette Ingredients
  • juice of 1 extra large lemon or 2 medium lemons
  • 1 clove garlic chopped
  • 1 C loosely packed fresh basil leaves
  • ¼ C 0% plain greek yogurt
  • 1½ Tbsp honey
  • ¼ C good quality olive oil
  • S & P to taste
Instructions
  1. Heat oil in large sautee pan over medium heat. Add fresh zuchinni noodles "zoodles" and sautee for 5 minutes. Remove from pan and place in bowl. Add halved cherry tomatoes, avocado, feta, basil and toasted pine nuts.
For the vinaigrette, add all ingredients except for olive oil into a blender or use an immersion blender. Blend until basil is thoroughly mixed. Slowly drizzle olive oil in with blender on until combined. Add S & P to taste.
  1. Drizzle lemon basil vinaigrette over the zoodle salad. Season with S & P to taste.

Mediterranean Stuffed Chicken

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How can you go wrong with stuffed chicken? Well, we happen to think that you really can’t! We have made a lot of stuffed chicken recipes in our time but this one is a current stand out. The combination of these ingredients is just so perfect and the best part is, it’s super easy to make! This is one of those dishes that can be an easy weeknight dinner for the family yet it’s pretty enough to serve to friends if you are entertaining. That’s a total Win in our books…it’s like a two for one! We are just so into the combination of tomatoes, mushrooms, olives, feta and fresh herbs and quite frankly, we were totally inspired to make this dish because these were ingredients that we had on hand.

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How lucky for us right? Sometimes you just have to get those creative juices flowing and you may surprise yourself! We assure you that you are going to want to make this dish soon! Like, this week. Or, tonight. Or right now!

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Mediterranean Stuffed Chicken
 
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Serves: 4
Ingredients
  • 2 Tbsp butter
  • 2 portabello mushrooms - stems removed and chopped
  • ⅓ C chopped kalamata olives
  • 1 C cherry tomatoes halved
  • ¼ C chopped basil
  • 1 sprig rosemary, stem removed and chopped
  • 2 oz feta cheese
  • 4 skinless, boneless, preferably organic chicken breasts pounded out
  • 1 Tbsp good quality olive oil
  • S & P
Instructions
  1. Heat oven to 375 degrees. Heat a skillet over medium heat, add butter until melted. Add mushrooms and tomatoes, sautee for 5 minutes. Add olives, basil, and rosemary and sautee for an additional 2 minutes. Remove from heat and add feta. Season with pepper to taste - no need to salt because of the salt in the olives.
  2. Lay pounded chicken on wax paper. Place ¼ of mixture on the chicken and roll, secure with a toothpick. Follow same steps with remaining chicken breasts. Salt and pepper both sides of chicken.
  3. Heat 1 tbsp of olive oil in ovenproof skillet over medium high heat. Place chicken on skillet, flip after 3 minutes or until golden brown and cook the other side equally. Transfer chicken to oven for an additional 10-15 minutes until chicken is cooked through.
Good Thyme Tip - You can modify this recipe by grilling or roasting chicken and placing the olive/mushroom mixture over the top instead of stuffing the chicken.

Basic Basil Pesto – Homemade

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Make your own basic basil pesto. Fresh basil, pine nuts, garlic, Parmesan and olive oil, that’s it folks! Seriously, that’s all it takes to make ridiculously delicious, unbelievably fragrant (like, cannot stop smelling it…is that weird?) basil pesto. We are obsessed with this basil pesto, and it is just so much better when it is homemade. You will find that it’s really easy enough to make that you don’t need to waste your money buying it. Basic basil pesto is a versatile sauce.  There are so many things that you can do with it to totally transform a meal into something seriously awesome!

Here are our top 10 favorite ways to incorporate this deliciousness into your routine:

  1. Smothered on a wrap or panini
  2. Topped on your favorite fish
  3. Mixed into salad dressing
  4. Drizzled over caprese
  5. Used as a garnish on soup
  6. Tossed into a cold potato salad
  7. Served as a base for pizza or bruschetta
  8.  Topped over roasted chicken
  9. Mixed with avocado and spread on toast
  10. As a sauce for pasta, like our Pesto Pasta with Sausage, Spinach, and Jammy Tomatoes.

Don’t be afraid to experiment. We are confident that you cannot go wrong when cooking with basic basil pesto you made from scratch.

basicbasilpesto

Basic Basil Pesto
 
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Serves: 1 Cup
Ingredients
  • 2 C packed fresh basil leaves
  • ¼ C toasted pine nuts
  • 1 cloved garlic, chopped
  • ½ C grated parmesan cheese
  • ½ C good quality olive oil
  • S & P to taste
Instructions
  1. In a food processor combine basil, cheese, garlic, pine nuts and ¼ C olive oil. Slowly drizzle in the remaining ¼ C olive oil while the food processor is running. Season with kosher salt and fresh ground pepper to taste. Store in airtight container in refrigerator for up to 1 week.

Heirloom Tomato Caprese

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Caprese salad makes me think of an unforgettable summer vacation my husband and I took to Santa Margherita, Italy. I have memories of sitting at the quaint little restaurant overlooking the water at our hotel in beautiful Portofino while eating our caprese and enjoying a glass of wine. Oh how I would love to be back there now. I mean, the food and wine in Italy is some of the best I’ve ever had. Caprese is a basic salad served all over Italy. We even had a caprese sandwich at the train station one afternoon and it was the most delicious thing ever. I really don’t think there is anything better than beautifully ripened summer heirloom tomatoes, mozzarella cheese and fresh basil? This amazingly simple salad is so easy to make and you can really elevate the flavor by making the simple balsamic reduction glaze to drizzle over the top.

heirloomtomatocaprese

Heirloom Tomato Caprese
 
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Serves: 4
Ingredients
  • 2 heirloom tomatoes
  • ¼ cup good quality balsamic vinegar
  • 1 tbsp good quality olive oil (we use basil infused for this recipe)
  • 1 package quality mozzarella cheese
  • 1 tbspn fresh basil - chopped or thinly sliced
  • salt and cracked pepper to taste
Instructions
  1. In a small saucepan, heat the balsamic vinegar over medium until thickened and coats back of spoon - it will be like syrup - set aside to cool
  2. Slice heirloom tomatoes into thick round pieces
  3. Slice mozzarella cheese into thick round pieces
  4. Arrange tomatoes and cheese on serving platter, top with chopped fresh basil. Drizzle with balsamic reduction and olive oil
  5. Season with salt and freshly cracked pepper

Lemon Basil Vinaigrette

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Introducing our GTK Lemon Basil Vinaigrette. Let us just preface this with some quotes from friends who have tried this dressing:

“I could drink this entire bottle right here, right now”

“This is THE best salad dressing I have ever had in my life”

“I can’t wait to go home and make this”

“Please look the other way because I’m going to lick my plate now”

Really, this dressing has been a hit with everyone. Whenever we serve it, for whatever occasion, the raves keep coming. I keep a bottle of this lemon basil vinaigrette in my fridge all the time.  Like all of our recipes, it’s simple and requires very few ingredients.   Lemons, garlic, fresh basil, greek yogurt, honey and olive oil….that’s it! Oh, and a dash of S&P. You will be thanking us for this one!

This lemon basil vinaigrette is a staple on a lot of our salads and bowls. Here are a few ideas for this versatile dressing:

IMG_6277

 
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Serves: 10
Ingredients
  • juice of 1 extra large lemon or 2 medium lemons
  • 1 clove garlic chopped
  • 1 C loosely packed fresh basil leaves
  • ¼ C 0% plain greek yogurt
  • 1½ Tbsp honey
  • ¼ C good quality olive oil
  • S & P to taste
Instructions
  1. Add all ingredients except for olive oil into a blender or use an immersion blender. Blend until basil is thoroughly mixed. Slowly drizzle olive oil in with blender on until combined. Add S & P to taste.

Turkey Burger

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This could possibly be the best turkey burger you’ve ever tasted. Really, we are not biased, we have just made it our life mission to perfect the turkey burger!! Sad? No, we don’t think so. We just love a good burger but wanted to find a way to make a healthier alternative to a beef burger. We are very happy with our results because it’s not your typical dry, bland, boring turkey burger. This one is bursting with flavor. We both make these regularly for our families and they are always a big hit. Another perk, they are really easy to prepare!

turkeyburger

Turkey Burger
 
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Serves: 4-6 depending on patty size
Ingredients
  • 1-2 pieces french bread, crusts cut off and chopped into very small pieces (approx ½ C)
  • 1 egg, beaten
  • 1 Tbsp 0% greek yogurt
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • ½ C minced yellow onion
  • 1 tsp olive oil
  • 1.25 lean organic ground turkey
  • ½ C finely chopped fresh basil
  • 1 tsp kosher salt
  • ½ tsp ground pepper
  • 6 brioche buns
Instructions
  1. In a large mixing bowl add bread crumbs, egg and greek yogurt. Mix together and let the bread absorb the egg and yogurt.
  2. Heat oil in a small sautee pan over medium low heat. Add onions and sautee for 3 minutes. Add garlic and sautee for an additional 2 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside to cool.
  3. Add ground turkey to the bread crumb, egg and yogurt. Add sauteed onions and garlic, basil and
  4. S & P. Mix all ingredients together, be careful not to overmix.
  5. Shape the turkey meat into pattys. Heat a grill pan over medium high heat. Once the pan is hot place the burgers on the pan. Cook for approximately 5 minutes, flip burger and continue cooking for an additional 5 minutes (may have to adjust cook time depending on size of the patty). Throw the burger inside the brioche bun and serve with your favorite toppings and condiments. We served ours with slow roasted tomatoes, caramelized onions and fresh spinach. Yum!
Good Thyme Tip ? - Lighten up and wrap the turkey patty in lettuce instead of a bun.

Lemon Basil Zoodle Salad

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Time to break out your spiralizer and get to work on this epic dish. Let us first just prepare you for the best salad dressing ever. You will be licking your bowl and possibly drinking the dressing straight, this is no joke! Then combine your new favorite salad dressing with sprialized zucchinis, tomatoes, feta and toasted pine nuts and we are in business. It’s fresh, it’s healthy, it’s ridiculously good…you need to try it. What are you waiting for…get busy!

lemonbasilzoodle

Lemon Basil Zoodle Salad
 
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Serves: 4
Ingredients
For the Zoodle Salad:
  • 2 large zucchinis, spiralized
  • 1 C cherry tomatoes, halved
  • 1 avocado cut into ½ inch chunks
  • 3 oz feta cheese, crumbled
  • ¼ C loosely packed fresh basil, cut into strips
  • 2 Tbsp toasted pine nuts
  • S & P to taste
For the Lemon Basil Vinaigrette:
  • juice of 1 extra large lemon or 2 medium lemons
  • 1 clove garlic chopped
  • 1 C loosely packed fresh basil leaves
  • ¼ C 0% plain greek yogurt
  • 1½ Tbsp honey
  • ¼ C good quality olive oil
  • S & P to taste
Instructions
  1. Heat oil in large sautee pan over medium heat. Add fresh zucchini noodles "zoodles" and sautee for 5 minutes. Remove from pan and place in bowl. Add halved cherry tomatoes, avocado, feta, basil and toasted pine nuts.
For the Lemon Basil Vinaigrette:
  1. Add all ingredients except for olive oil into a blender or use an immersion blender. Blend until basil is thoroughly mixed. Slowly drizzle olive oil in the blender while the blender is running until combined. Add S & P to taste.
  2. Drizzle lemon basil vinaigrette over the zoodle salad. Season with S & P to taste.