CAFE RIO CHICKEN SALAD

Steps:

• In a small pan, saute the onions and garlic in the butter. In a large pot, boil the water with the bouillon, cilantro, cumin, green chiles, lime juice and salt. Add the rice and onions to the boiling water; reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes.
• Make lots of chicken. Okay so now you have one pot of rice going either on the stove or the Instant Pot. Now you'll make chicken. Chicken is cheap and you can buy it on sale for less than $2.00 per pound. I like the chicken instead of the pork because Cafe Rio pork is sweet flavored meat and I don't like sweet pork. That is just my preference.
• If you want to use your Instant Pot to make chicken here is the recipe that I use. This makes 5 pounds of chicken which is probably enough to feed 20 people. If you're looking to feed more than that you can make another Instant Pot full (if you have the luxury of 2 Instant Pots).
• Cafe rio chicken in the instant pot
• You can also make this chicken in the slow cooker. This recipes makes 5 pounds of chicken, so enough for 20 people. You can use 2 slow cookers and double this recipe.
• Slow Cooker Cafe Rio Chicken (Big Batch)
• 1/2 lbs of boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• 1/2 lbs of boneless, skinless chicken thighs, trimmed of excess fat
• cup Italian dressing
• Tbsp chili powder
• Tbsp cumin
• Tbsp garlic powder
• tsp kosher salt
• Place chicken in bottom of slow cooker.
• Combine remaining ingredients and pour over the chicken.
• Cover and cook on LOW for 4-8 hours (if chicken is thawed then closer to 4 hours, if frozen closer to 8)
• Shred chicken
• Make tomatillo ranch dressing. You have to have the dressing to go with you Cafe Rio salads or else it won't be the same! Make the dressing in your blender and store it in a pitcher with a lid in the refrigerator. Use it when you are ready. You can make the dressing up to two days in advance. I like to make mine about 3 hours in advance so the flavors can really come together. Here is the recipe for the tomatillo dressing. It makes about 16 servings. If you're serving 30 people you'll want to make two batches of this dressing. Make one batch at a time since your blender won't have enough room to double the recipe.
• Gather the rest of your ingredients. Usually I serve cafe rio salads with a tortilla. I buy the smallish fajita size tortillas. My favorite are the uncooked tortillas that you quickly cook on a skillet. Since you'll be serving a ton of people you may want to forego the tortillas altogether and use tortilla chips instead. My favorite tortilla chips are Juanitas. But an easy bet would be to buy the Kirkland brand tortilla chips from Costco because it is a huge bag and is very inexpensive.
• You'll also want to cut up some romaine lettuce for the salads. I like to buy the romaine from Costco and wash it and cut it up. You're going to need quite a few heads of romaine. For the smaller heads of romaine from Costco I use the rule of about 3 salads per head of romaine. This salad has so much other stuff on it that you won't need as much lettuce as you think.
• Next open a few cans of seasoned black beans. Sometimes I make my beans from scratch but in this case I find it's easier just to get the seasoned black beans in cans and open them up and pour them into a bowl. I don't warm my beans up but if you want you can. Each can of beans can serve about 4 people.
• Some other optional but delicious ideas for this salad are fresh pico de gallo or salsa, grated cheddar cheese, sour cream and guacamole. Plan a tablespoon per person for these items.
• My favorite way to eat this cafe rio salad is to start with a large bed of romaine lettuce and then top with the rice, beans, tomatillo dressing, chicken and finally some tortilla chips. Place the items in bowls and line them up in this order. Start with paper plates and then have each person serve themself, buffet style.