Vegetarian Mexican “Chicken” Salad Wraps

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Lightened-Up Mexican Chik'n Salad Wraps

This recipe will quickly become a go-to staple in your life! It's sooo easy and perfect for on the go lunches!

Course Hand Food, Main Course

Cuisine Mexican

Prep Time 20 minutes

Cook Time 5 minutes

Total Time 25 minutes

Servings 8

Author Brewing Happiness

Ingredients

• 8-10 small tortillas, flour or corn
• 2 cups arugula
• 2 cups meatless chicken strips
• 1 cup nonfat plain greek yogurt
• 1/2 cup white onion, diced
• 2 tablespoons nutritional yeast
• 2 poblano peppers
• 1 green bell pepper
• 1 tablespoon of olive oil
• salt & pepper

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 425.
2. Slice your peppers in half, and take out the seeds. Lay the pepper onto a baking sheet and sprinkle with olive oil and add a dash of salt and pepper.
3. Bake for 20 minutes.
4. After 20 minutes, dice your peppers into small chunks and toss into a large bowl.
5. Take out your package of chik'n strips and defrost by microwaving them for 40 seconds. Once defrosted, chop them into bite sized chunks. Add the chik'n to the bowl with the peppers.
6. Dice your onion and add it to the bowl, along with the nutritional yeast, greek yogurt, and a dash of salt and pepper.
7. Mix until it is well incorporated.
8. Layer a tortilla with arugula and about 1/4 cup of chik'n salad.
9. Do this for all of your wraps.
10. DEVOUR.

From the age of 5 until the age of 13 I ate my mom’s “chicken enchiladas” EVERYDAY. It was a “recipe” my mom was famous for.  I say “recipe” because when you are in the South and raising kids, a “recipe” can include dumping a lot of things from cans into a bowl. That’s exactly what these chicken “enchiladas” were. And I say “enchiladas” because they weren’t enchiladas at all. They weren’t warm. They didn’t have red sauce and cheese on top. They were basically a simple Mexican chicken salad in a tortilla. The ingredients went like this : sour cream, canned chicken, a can of green chilies, and a ton of processed Mexican cheese. So as easy to assemble and delicious as that was growing up, it’s also a load of processed junk and sodium waiting to happen. And sadly I care about my health too much now to eat that junk and feel good about it. But the good news is that I LOVE to reinvent recipes from my past that I thought were dead and gone after getting healthy. So today we start new, today I put my health-ified spin on this childhood classic. (Sorry Mom, I loved them, but it’s time for us to grow up.)

Okay so let’s break this down…how exactly did I “health-ify” these wraps? Well I tell you: I swapped out the sour cream for greek yogurt, canned chicken for a plant based chicken substitute, canned chilies for real roasted peppers, and processed cheese for nutritional yeast.

If you don’t know what nutritional yeast is it’s a yellow powder that has a distinctly cheesy flavor to it. It’s used to make a lot of vegan cheese, but I just LOVE the flavor. I add it to stir fry, or put it on my eggs, or even on popcorn! Don’t be afraid of this weird sounding ingredient, it won’t bite. Plus it’s PACKED with protein! Crazy, I know. But it’s true. Essentially, it’s just a great ingredient to have in your pantry. I was utterly surprised at how much this recipe tasted like the wraps that my mom made. It’s like a more sophisticated version of those. They are so delicious and fun (and easy) – I’d totally encourage making these for a party or to throw together for lunch. Either way these will please the crowd.

Using fresh bell peppers and poblano peppers and roasting them creates such great depth of flavor. It’s smoky, spicy, and sweet all in one. And it doesn’t come with all of the preservative yuckiness that canned chilies do. It only takes 20 minutes to do, so don’t roll your eyes and skip this step. Everything is coasting from this point on.

The other possible point of contention in this recipe is the greek yogurt. I tried this recipe with other types of yogurt and it just didn’t taste right. Greek yogurt has the tangy taste of sour cream, and brings the whole recipe together. So unfortunately I can’t confidently offer any substitutions. Sorry!

As for the chicken replacement, I used Beyond Meat grilled chicken strips. Even if you are a meat eater, don’t turn your nose up at these. Mostly cause they are SO EASY. All you have to do is take the bag out of the freezer, pop them in the microwave for 40 seconds, and then slice them up for the salad. IT TAKES LESS THAN A MINUTE. And they have a very close consistency to real chicken. (I have fooled my brother-in-law into eating these and he didn’t know the difference.) And yes, they have as much protein as real chicken and will fill you up just fine. Just give it a try, and then if you prefer to eat the recipe with chicken breast, then go ahead. But try my way first. *PLEASE*

In order to “adult-up” these wraps I added some arugula,’ cause you know – vegetables. And as for the wrap, I just threw these into some mini flour tortillas. You can use corn tortillas if you are gluten free, or even use the full size flour tortillas if that’s your thang. Any way you wanna serve it up is fine. People (you) are gonna love this no matter what. My mom guarantees it.