Chicken & Artichoke salad with Yogurt Dressing

When I created my menu for the week, I made sure to include some salads this time. And this salad was both delicious and made me feel full till my next meal. Win, win! So it's not really traditional middle eastern cuisine that I've been exploring the last two months but it's definitely inspired by it. There are middle eastern ingredients that flavor the whole salad.

If you make nothing from it, at least make the dressing. The yogurt dressing is AMAzing. It's really creamy but still very light. I can see myself using it over other salads in future. To make the salad last a while, I kept all my greens and mixed veggies in a large container and chicken, walnuts, feta cheese and dressing in separate containers. I just added the toppings and dressing to each salad bowl of greens that I was serving and tossed right before eating. Made for some yummy fresh salads every time!

Recipe adapted from Persiana, Sabrina Ghayour
Makes 8 servings

Ingredients for salad:
2 lbs boneless skinless chicken breasts (about 6 breasts)
1 tbsp urfa pepper
1 tsp sea salt
5 oz baby arugula leaves
5 oz baby watercress leaves and tender stems
1 red onion, cut into quarters and thinly sliced
1/2 cup coarsely chopped mint
1 cup coarsely chopped parsley leaves
1 bunch chives, sliced into 3" long pieces
artichoke hearts in water, about 1 lb drained weight (from 2 containers of 16 oz full weight)
100 gm walnuts, coarsely chopped (about 1 cup)
11 oz feta cheese, coarsely crumbled

Ingredients for dressing:
300 gm greek yogurt (about 1 1/2 cups)
1 garlic clove, minced
1 1/4 tsp sea salt
1 tbsp ground sumac
1 tsp dry mint
4 tbsp olive oil
zest and juice from 2 lemons (about 3-4 tbsp)

Instructions:
First poach the chicken breasts by laying the chicken breasts flat in a wide saucepan and sprinkling with salt ad urfa pepper. Cover with water to cover and bring to a boil uncovered on high heat. Cover and simmer on low for 12-15 minutes till done. Immediateley remove the chicken breasts to a plate with tongs and let cool. Once cooled, slice (or chop) and set aside.
While the chicken is poaching, make the dressing by whisking all the dressing ingredients together til well mixed. Taste for salt and adjust if necessary. Set it aside.
In a very large mixing bowl, toss together all the salad ingredients. To plate in a salad bowl, first add some green-herb-onion mix and top with chicken, walnuts and feta. Add the yogurt dressing and mix thoroughly by hand. Taste to see if everything is balanced. If not, add whatever you need more of (chicken, walnuts, feta, greens etc). Serve!