chipotle-style salad bowl with homemade pico de gallo

Here's something about me that most people don't know: I worked at Chipotle my first semester in college. That used to really embarrass me. I served tables from the age of 16, and that never bothered me - that felt cool and like a Waite rite of passage because my mom and brother both worked in the restaurant industry for long periods of time. Getting off track for a minute, my earliest memories of eating out are at McDonalds. I can picture the exact McDonalds in Newnan, Georgia - it's still there today. My mom would pay the cashier, and my brother and I - no older than 10 and 6, respectively, would calculate what the 15% tip would be if it were our check at a full-service restaurant. My mom, she's serious about tipping and treating service professionals with respect, as we should all be. But back to Chipotle.

I desperately needed a job. I learned the hard way - after packing my stuff and moving to Nebraska and into a dorm room and starting a full class load fall semester - that just because you get an anticipated financial aid package doesn't mean it's going to cover all the costs. Mine didn't. So I searched for a serving job, but they were all taken. My last option, with heavy feet, I walked into Chipotle and filled out an application. I got hired on the spot. For the next three months, I wore my black visor and embossed shirt, heated tortillas, filled bowls, and desperately avoided eye contact with anyone who might recognize me.

I felt like fast-casual service was less than a step away from flipping burgers, and I was young and entitled and thought it was beneath me. I found a serving job the next semester and a position on campus, and I quit Chipotle. But it was a humbling experience, and I'm glad I went through it. (Another life lesson from my mom, "A paycheck is a paycheck.")

They treated me well. I liked my coworkers and my boss, my shifts were enjoyable, and I totally dug becoming a pro at wrapping those gigantic burritos. That said, it was years after I quit before I ever entered another Chipotle.

Man, I was missing out. I am the first to say that authentic, hole-in-the-wall Mexican joints are some of my favorite places on the planet. I have a favorite in DC (Dulcinea), and I will vouch on my life that it's the best Mexican in the city. But there are days when I don't want to trek to the restaurant, and all I can see when I close my eyes are visions of a bowl layered with lettuce, brown rice, pepper & onion, steak, pico de gallo, corn salsa, the hot salsa, and a small dollop of sour cream and pinch of cheese. Perfect. It is truly delicious. And truly fattening. And truly pricey, when you start craving it 249 times a week.

So I make my own.

When I do go to Chipotle now, I resist jumping behind the counter to roll one of those beasts. It takes skill to not break the tortilla, I'm telling you. And then I mentally calculate a tip and throw it in the tip jar because that's what my mom taught me to do and because sometimes Chipotle is how a kid from Georgia pays her way through school.

diy chipotle-style salad bowl (makes 3 bowls)
head of romaine lettuce, chopped
1 cup brown rice, cooked (on the stove or in a rice cooker - add fresh-squeezed lime juice and a dash of cilantro to get all the flavor chipotle's has)
1 small onion, sliced into half moons
1 red pepper, sliced into strips
1 green pepper, sliced into strips
1 large clove garlic, minced
3 links hot mexican chorizo, skin off
pico de gallo & any other salsas of choice
cheese, sour cream, avocado (optional)

heat a skillet on medium-high heat and begin cooking your chorizo. when it's about halfway done, add onion, pepper, and minced garlic to the skillet. cook the vegetables in the grease from the chorizo. my chorizo yieled little to no fat/grease, so i added a teaspoon of olive oil to cook the vegetables. when the vegetables are slightly softened and aromatic, and the meat is cooked through, pull off the heat and drain on paper towels (if needed). layer your bowl!

pico de gallo (about 1-1.5 cups)
2 roma tomatoes, chopped
1/2 diced red onion
1 diced jalapeno
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 lime, juiced
2 teaspoons chopped cilantro
pinch of salt

de-seed your tomatoes (i use a knife and scrape out the innards to keep it simple) and dice. combine with all other ingredients in a medium-sized mixing bowl. use more jalapeno and garlic per your taste. squeeze the lime juice into the mixture. mix and chill for 30 minutes to an hour before scooping onto your bowl and digging into with tortilla chips.

spinach salad with bacon vinaigrette

I love salad.

Sometimes.

Sometimes I love salad.

I always love french fries. Always. And I always love pizza. Those are my two favorite foods. Sure, I jazz them up, and I pretend to be *quite* the connoisseur (a fancyschmancy way of saying, I eat them in all quantities and styles, all of the time).

MINE ALL MINE GIMME GIMME!

If I loved salad like I love french fries and pizza (sometimes together, as one meal. I'm gross. Let's deal with that.), I would weigh negative weight. Because right now I weigh some weight, an amount of weight. And it's all pizza and french fries.

But it might just have happened, last night, in the heat of my kitchen, that I found a salad that I love almost as much as I love pizza and french fries.

I stepped on a scale this morning. I definitely expected to have lost all of my pizza and french fries weight overnight. I mean, I ate a large freaking salad. Alas. Apparently you have to stop eating pizza and french fries and continuously eat salad for some time for the scale to change. In fact, I had gained .3 pounds. Probably from the bacon fat I used to make the salad dressing.

And to that I say, WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM ME, LIFE?

So, anyway, before I drool over my keyboard thinking about this salad and pizza and french fries and how now I want to eat all 3 right now, let me give you the recipe.

This salad is freakishly good. You have been warned.

They're like big orange french fries... from the ground!

Adapted from Smitten Kitchen. It's that salad. It's her salad but even more on crack.

I used Smitten Kitchen's recipe nearly exactly, with some changes and editions. (1) I don't measure things. I season and chop and dice by what looks right. (2) I added several things.

My additions:

8-10 Brussels sprouts halves (again, I eyeballed it, for what I'd want to eat)
1 large chicken breast, halved (half on last night's salad, half on today's)
broccoli! I love broccoli! A handful, chopped to taste, or 1 small head with as much or little of the stem as you prefer
a generous handful of sliced carrots

Method

I used a small George Forman grill to cook my chicken breast. While the grill warmed up, I brought a small pot of water to boil. I put the Brussels sprouts in the boiling water for 4 minutes (blanching) until softened. I added the chicken to the grill (used various spices + olive oil) and placed the Brussels sprouts on the grill. I put a small coat of balsalmic vinegar + olive oil + salt, pepper & garlic on the brussels sprouts. I diced the chicken and half the Brussels sprouts and placed in the salad.

(Side note - this is an easy peasy way of making grilled, delicious brussels sprouts. I could eat this every single day. Move over pizza & french fries... to the other side of the plate!)

For the vinaigrette, I used less than 2tbl of the bacon fat, warmed it up over medium heat, threw in an amount of olive oil (again, I eyeball), balsalmic vinegar, honey, garlic, pepper, two splashes of dijon mustard and played with it until it was what I wanted.

TIP: The dressing is delicious, but you only need a very small amount to flavor your salad. Too much will be overpowering!