Calypso Caribbean Cobb Salad

A delicious Caribbean twist to the cobb salad, this #HotSummerEats Calypso Caribbean Cobb Salad has hearts of palm, pineapple, and jerk marinated chicken; transporting you to the islands.

It’s day two of #HotSummerEats and I can’t wait to share this Calypso Caribbean Cobb Salad!  Did you catch the first day?  I’m sorry what?  “What’s #HotSummerEats” you ask??  #HotSummerEats, rallied by Camilla of Culinary Adventures with Camilla, is a talented group of 18 food bloggers which will be posting recipes for the first week of June.

From the 1st through the 8th, we hope to inspire you for your summer grill dates and cookouts, provide you with ideas for your beach bonfires, and get you planning those ice cream socials and cocktail hours.  Not only will you find over a hundred summery recipe posts, but you can enter to win our awesome giveaway, courtesy of some amazingly generous donations from sponsoring companies.  See details below.

We served up delicious eats on day one.  You should hop back and check out all the summer goodness that was shared among the 18 bloggers.  I truly am blessed to have Camilla from Culinary Adventures with Camilla on my side to include me in events like this one.  I get to play with such yummy goodness!  You can’t even imagine!!

Like this delicious Spicy Calypso Kick from Caribecue.  Honestly, it should be Spicy Calyspo Kick in the you know what!!  Holy spicy goodness!!  Y’all got a sneak peak at this glorious stuff when I put some on my popcorn and shared it on Instagram.  Now, what I didn’t say in that post is this…

I’ve never eaten something, sneezed so much, and laughed so much.  Let me explain.  I made popcorn, as I usually do; in a paper bag.  Oh no.  No standard microwave popcorn for me.  Thank you.  Not only am I a spice snob, but I’m a PB and popcorn snob, too.  I made popcorn in the large bag I have (because I used the smaller ones until they couldn’t stay together any more) and tossed in some of this before sitting down to participate in a Webex meeting.

I muted the meeting mostly because I would take a bite, breathe, inhale the spices, sneeze, cough, and laugh.  All in that order.  For almost the whole hour of the meeting.  I don’t know what it was with this spice combo, but that’s the effect it had on me.  Because of this, I knew, KNEW, I had to make jerk chicken with this spice mix.

And this it the result!!

I love jerk marinades, don’t you?  They’re so easy to prepare; just toss it all in a blender or food processor, press a button, and you’re done.  They have such complex flavors and spices.  It’s like reggae party in your mouth complete with the Marley’s in attendance.  I kid you not!  If you haven’t made jerk anything (no not made a jerk out of yourself), and no, jerky DOES NOT count, then you really should try with this recipe.  This means you should head on over to Caribecue to pick up some Spicy Calypso Kick so you can make this recipe.  I’m sure some other *cough STORE BOUGHT cough* variety will be sufficient.  So, I GUESS that’s okay for now.

Yeah, ya caught me.  I’m trying to lay the old guilt trip on ya because this stuff is fabutastic and the nice peeps over there have totally sent my Instragram posts and tweets VIRAL.  So, it’s only proper food blogger etiquette to send you their way, too.

Oh yeah, baby.  Just look at that delicious goodness in this #HotSummerEats Calypso Caribbean Cobb Salad.  Yes, I did snip off that little charred bit and ate it that litttle piece of chicken all in the guise of tasting it to make sure it was okay.  Truly, I just can’t resist those blackened bits.  They have such amazing flavor to me.

Now, I didn’t rinse these buggers off before I grilled them.  I pulled them out of the marinade, tried to wipe as much of the chunky goodness off as I could, and then slapped them on the grill.  Consequently, my grill is a mess right now.  And the hubs isn’t too pleased because he cleaned it all off this weekend.  Oops.

It’s okay.  Because of this, he gets to eat delicious salads full of tasty vegetables like this #HotSummerEats Calypso Caribbean Cobb Salad!  Inspired by the tropical themed mango barbecue sauce I made a few weeks ago, I continued the tropical them with this salad.   It was just easy, since we have a TON of pork chops in the freezer, to whip up the sauce instead of this delicious recipe.  I went with the mango sauce, which is AMAZING I might add, but I also played with the idea of a salad.

This is most assuredly a main dish salad. I’m glad I made both, though.  Those chops are good.  Don’t get me wrong.  But this?  This Caribbean cobb salad is fantastic!  All the colors, the flavors, the textures, the contrasts; it was all I hoped it would be and more in an main dish salad.  And kicked up even more with the Spicy Calypso Kick.  It was just the perfect balance of sweet to tangy to spicy that this chicken really needed.

Just look at it!!  The creamy mango, the tender beans, the crisp and pungent onions, the tender and sweet pineapple all on top of the cool and crisp lettuce.  It certainly sounds amazing on its own, but then you add the juicy chicken with its crust of jerk marinade on top that has the sweet spices, the tangy cider vinegar, and that calypso kick.  Oh yeah.  I brought it!  I brought it ALL in this #HotSummerEats Calypso Caribbean Cobb Salad.

It was all super delicious and the dressing was the perfect combination of the same sweet, tangy, and spicy that you would want to pour over a salad like this.  It has nice citrus notes, some jalapeno, and delicious spices to go along with the jerk marinade of the chicken.  I ate it all and couldn’t wait to have it for lunch the next day.  Even the browned avocado (because I didn’t wrap it right).

So, make sure you keep watching this WHOLE week and see what other tasty goodness is out there.  Just follow my blog, Camilla of Culinary Adventures with Camilla, or follow #HotSummerEats on Twitter, Instagram, Google +, and Facebook to see what other inspiring, summertime recipes we’re sharing this week.  And don’t forget to enter the giveaway to win some of this caribeque goodness!!

And, finally, don’t forget to follow Caribeque on Facebook, Twitter, Instragram (Caribeque and BigGreenEggLife), and stop by their website to see what other delicious flavors they offer.  They definitely have a unique twist to spices, rubs, and all things caribeque!!

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Carribean Cobb Salad

A delicious Caribean twist to the cobb salad, this Calypso Carribean Cobb Salad for #HotSummerEats has hearts of palm, pineapple, and jerk marinated chicken transporting you to the islands.

Ingredients

For Chicken:

• 1 pound chicken breast
• 1/3 cup red onion
• 2 tablespoons fresh thyme
• 2 tablespoons lime juice
• 2 tablespoons cider vinegar
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1 tablespoons ginger
• 1 tablespoons minced garlic
• 2 teaspoons Spicy Calypso Kick
• 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground allspice
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

For Dressing:

• 1/3 cup orange juice
• 1/4 cup lemon juice
• 1/4 cup honey
• 1 tablespoon cider vinegar
• 1 tablespoon minced jalapeno
• 1 teaspoon minced garlic
• 1 teaspoon onion powder
• 1 teaspoon fresh thyme

For Salad:

• 4 cups romaine lettuce
• 1 cup pineapple chunks drained
• 1 cup sliced hearts of palm
• 1 cup black beans rinsed and drained
• 1 avocado thinly sliced
• 4 hard boiled eggs quartered

Instructions

For Chicken:

1. Place the chicken in a zip top plastic bag and set aside.
2. Combine the next twelve ingredients (onion through garlic) in the bowl of a food processor. Process until smooth. Pour into the bag with the chicken and, turning well to coat, marinate at least 30 minutes.
3. Preheat your grill to medium-high. Cook the chicken 5 to 7 minutes on each side or until no longer pink in the center. Remove from heat and allow to rest 5 minutes before slicing.

For Dressing:

1. While the chicken marinates, prepare the dressing. Combine the next eight ingredients (orange juice through thyme) in a small bowl or a re-purposed dressing or salsa bottle. Stir well with a whisk (or shake well) until combined. Refrigerate until you're ready to assemble the salad.

For Salad:

1. Divide the lettuce evenly between four plates. Top with the pineapple, hearts of pal, black beans, and garnish with the avocado and the egg. Drizzle with the dressing and serve.

#HotSummerEats Recipes