Copy Cat Jose Pepper's Cheese Crisp Salad with Tomatillo Ranch dressing

This is my absolute favorite thing to get a Jose Pepper's! A salad at a Mexican restaurant, you ask? Yes, I know it's weird! But it has all my delicious favorites rolled into one amazing salad!

BEHOLD...

Shear deliciousness :)

Here's what you'll need for the salad:
(This is for 1 serving)

-1/4 cup shredded monterrey jack cheese
-1 large flour tortilla

-1/2 cup of Spanish rice. I made my own (recipe below), but you can use any kind of pre-made brand, if you don't have time to cook a batch.
-1/2 cup Romaine lettuce
-2 oz Chili Lime marinaded chicken strips from Trader Joe's (or any other kind you like)
-1/4 cup canned black beans, drained and rinsed
-1/4 cup pico de gallo. I made my own (recipe below), but you can use any prepared brand
-1/4 feta cheese

1. Pre-heat your oven to 375
2. Place your tortilla in a cereal bowl and top with cheese. Bake for 5-7 minutes, or until tortilla is golden brown. This creates the "bowl" for your salad.
3. While tortilla bowl is cooking, heat chicken and black beans in a medium sized pan on medium-high heat. Only until warm.
4. Assemble your salad. Mine was as follows: rice, lettuce, chicken/bean mixture, pico, and cheese.

Let's talk dressing! I went the easy route and used a pre-made salsa verde and bottled ranch and mixed them together. But there are lots of recipes out there to make your own from scratch.

Spanish brown rice
-2 cups uncooked Minute brown rice
-1 3/4 cups water
-1 can summer corn
-2 tablespoons Spanish Garden's taco seasoning
-1/2 tablespoon garlic powder
-1/4 tablespoon chili powder
-1/4 tablespoon salt

Mix all ingredients and bake at 375 for about 30 minutes, or until rice is tender

Homemade Pico De Gallo
-1 large, ripe tomato
-1 medium white onion
-1/4 cup cilantro
-1 lime
-salt
-garlic powder

1. Chop onion into chucks, add to food processor with cilantro. Pulse until onion is minced
2. Dice tomato into bite-sized chucks
3. In a bowl, combine tomato, onion and cilantro.
4. Squeeze lime juice over ingredients and season with garlic powder and salt to taste.