Convenient Chicken Salad

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I know that “convenient chicken salad” is a rather strange name for a recipe. It’s just that this salad reminded me of the “konbini” (コンビニ) which are convenience stores in Japan (such as Lawson, Family Mart and 7-Eleven). Not being able to travel due to the pandemic, I really miss the fun times and good food & drinks I enjoyed at Japan’s convenience stores. In this “recipe”, I’m putting together konbini-type instant, ready-made cooked foods to make my salad.

Related Recipe:

• Convenient Fish Salad in Scallion Sauce

More Delicious Salads:

• Smoked Salmon Salad Recipe
• Avocado Wafu Salad Recipe
• Crispy Prosciutto, Poached Egg & Avocado Salad

This recipe takes only 5 minutes if you use ready-cooked foods and/or meal prep the various components in advance. Making the salad is just about putting everything together in the salad bowl :)

I started doing this because I needed a super quick and a relatively low-calorie meal right after my run on the home elliptical machine. It is also precious when I want to my make my own meal but don’t want to cook (I know this sounds contradictory, but I always have this feeling :P)

The “conveniences” in my 5-minute convenient chicken salad:

1. Ready-Cooked Chicken Breast

I bought this ‘Prima Ham’ brand of cooked salad chicken breast from Don Don Donki. It’s really convenient – just have to warm it up in the microwave oven for about 45 seconds. It was the first time I bought cooked chicken breast – it was moist & flavourful, but a bit too salty for me, so I will only indulge in this occasionally. It makes a really convenient short-cut when making chicken salad!

2. Hanjuku Eggs (Soft Boiled Eggs)

I bought these Hanjuku eggs (Japanese marinated soft-boiled eggs) from 7-Eleven. I love the soft yolks but it’s quite expensive at $2.50 for 2 eggs (I usually buy 30 eggs from the supermarket for just under S$5). Having said that, it’s a great lifeline for emergencies, aka when lazy me is too lazy to make my own ramen eggs. I suspect I’ll be buying this quite often in future :P

3. Instant Salad Dressing

Mizkan’s Calorie-Half goma sesame dressing is my only bottle of instant salad dressing in the fridge. It’s mostly for emergencies and lazy days. In this case, the sesame dressing goes well with chicken. You can use any instant salad dressing available in your kitchen. If you want a lower calorie salad dressing, you can make a simple 1-minute lemon & olive oil.

4. Washed Salad Veggies

I washed and spun dry the salad veggies the night before and place the washed salad in a food container as pictured above. The salad will keep well for about 2 days, and it’s a huge time-saver in the day.

Finally, put everything together:

Just put the everything in the bowl and garnish with whatever you have in the fridge. This salad looks and tastes quite good for the least amount of effort needed. I think I’ll have to make a few more of these convenient salads :)