Chicken Salad Tomato Bites

March 26, 2014

These adorable, bite-size tomatoes are stuffed with a healthy chicken salad made with Greek yogurt, golden raisins, sunflower seeds and orange zest. Perfect for lunch boxes, an after-school snack, or a party appetizer.

Chicken Salad Tomato Bites via LizsHealthyTable.com

For this recipe, I teamed up with Backyard Farms in Madison, Maine where juicy, ruby-red tomatoes are grown year round in greenhouses, so they always taste like summer. With my new partners, I’m helping to spread the word about tomato nutrition, versatility, and flavor … and I can’t wait for you to try these cocktail tomatoes stuffed with a healthy homemade chicken salad.

[Tweet “Chicken Salad Tomato Bites are a cute way to get kids excited about eating more veggies! #ad”]

Disclosure: I am compensated for my work with Backyard Farms, but all opinions are my own.

Backyard Farms tomatoes at Wilson Farm in Lexington, MA via Lizshealthytable.com

Tomatoes are rich in lycopene, a cancer-fighting antioxidant, and they also contain power nutrients like immune-boosting vitamins A and C.

Chicken Salad Tomato Bites via LizsHealthyTable.com

To make my Chicken Salad Tomato Bites, slice off the tops of the tomatoes and then remove the pulp and seeds with a melon baller.

Chicken Salad Tomato Bites via LizsHealthyTable.com

Fill the tomatoes with a generous tablespoon of the chicken salad mixture. (Notice the tablespoon in the background. When I say I measure, I mean it!!)

Place the “hats” back on top. They’re so cute, but you will want to remove them before eating the tomatoes.

Chicken Salad Tomato Bites
 
Author: 
Nutrition Information
  • Serves: 3
  • Serving size: 3 stuffed tomatoes
  • Calories: 140
  • Fat: 3.5g
  • Saturated fat: 1g
  • Carbohydrates: 10g
  • Sodium: 55mg
  • Fiber: 2g
  • Protein: 18g
Recipe type: Lunch or Dinner
Save Print
The great thing about this nutritious chicken salad is that it's versatile. Instead of orange juice and zest, you can use a lemon; instead of sunflower seeds, switch to pumpkin seeds or chopped pecans; instead of raisins, use dried cranberries; instead of fresh basil, choose fresh tarragon, dill, or mint (or a combo); and you can add a teaspoon of honey mustard if you want to give the mixture more of a kick!
Ingredients
  • One 10-ounce box Backyard Farms Cocktail Tomatoes (8 to 10 small tomatoes)
  • 1 cup finely chopped cooked chicken breast (roasted or rotisserie)
  • 2 tablespoons golden raisins
  • 1 tablespoon roasted, salted sunflower seeds
  • 3 tablespoons 2%-fat plain Greek yogurt
  • 1 tablespoon chopped fresh basil
  • 1 tablespoon orange juice
  • 1 teaspoon orange zest
  • Kosher salt
  • Black pepper
Instructions
  1. Slice the top off of each tomato, keeping the stem intact, and set aside. Carefully scoop out the tomato pulp and seeds with a melon baller. Place the tomatoes upside down on a paper towel for a few minutes to drain excess liquid.
  2. Place the chicken, raisins, sunflower seeds, yogurt, basil, orange juice, and orange zest in a bowl and mix until well combined. Season with kosher salt and pepper to taste.
  3. Sprinkle a pinch of kosher salt and pepper inside the hollowed-out tomatoes. Scoop a generous tablespoon of the chicken mixture into each tomato. Top with the stem "hats" and serve. (When it's time to eat, remove the "hats," set them aside, and enjoy the stuffed tomatoes!)
Notes
Each serving has 15% vitamin A and 25% vitamin C.

Chicken Salad Tomato Bites via LizsHealthyTable.com

Here are some must-know tomato tips from Backyard Farms. (1) Ripen tomatoes on your kitchen counter, NOT in the refrigerator. (2) Use a tomato knife or serrated knife for slicing tomatoes. (3) For crushed tomatoes, use a cheese grater when you want to crush your own tomatoes versus using canned.

 

  4. There’s nothing better than a fresh sliced garden tomato with basil and mozzarella and a drizzle of balsamic! Mmmm can’t wait for summer. These chicken salad bites look great for a party!

    Reply

    1. Mary, the beauty of Backyard Farms tomatoes is that you don’t have to wait until summer! Hope you enjoy the recipe. 🙂

      Reply

  5. Such a cute idea. I can’t wait for our tomato plants to start producing tomatoes so I can try this.

    Reply

  6. We love home grown tomatoes! In fact, we cannot eat at our kitchen table right now because it is the home of 84 seedlings (spring is having a late start down here in the south…). Looking forward to listening to this podcast and trying the recipe!!

    Reply

  8. We love to pick them off the bush and eat them right in the backyard! But if they make it in the house, I love a hot BLT with fresh backyard tomatoes!

    Reply

  12. I love tomatos in summer because we can pick them right in the backyard. They are sweet and we love to give them away to our neighbors.
    I also follow you on facebook.

    Reply

  13. I love heirloom tomatoes grown here in California in the bright sunshine. Love Apple Farm is a must-visit in the Santa Cruz Mountains.

    Reply

  15. My favorite thing about summer tomatoes is being able to have an impromptu feast in the garden, fresh off the vine.

    Reply

  19. I love my tomato’s sliced on toast with a little mayo and salt and pepper. Can not wait for them

    Reply

  21. I love the versatility of summer tomatoes–as a vegan, I depend on them to add flavor and juiciness to many meals.

    Reply

  27. I grew up eating the most delicious tomatoes all summer long grown by my father. As an adult, I’ve put out a garden for the past 10 or more years. While I can’t quite get my tomatoes to produce as much as my Dad, we do love the ones we get! I LOVE tomatoes!!

    Reply

  28. My favorite is slicing them up with some fresh basil and mozzerella and then drizzling them with some basalmic. Heaven on a plate.

    Reply

  29. Love tomatoes in salads, on sandwiches or just as a side dish, then there are the green ones that I love to fry and make fried green tomato sandwiches!

    Reply

  33. I love to make fresh tomato sauce with cherry tomatoes! Or just eat heirloom tomatoes plain with salt!

    Reply

  36. When tomatoes are at the height of their season, I have been known to eat toasted, open-faced tomato and cheese sandwiches with a wee bit of mayo for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Nothing better!

    Reply

  39. Love fresh tomatoes. I discovered Heirloom tomatoes a few years back. They are the best. Love BLT or just sliced tomatoes with a sprinkle of salt.

    Reply

  45. My favorite thing about summer tomatoes is eating them in bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwiches! I’ll always remember my dad eating tomatoes out of hand with salt like an apple–he loved them this way the most!

    Reply

  50. I followed you on Pinterest, facebook and twitter! My family pops tomatoes like they’re candy! We LOVE tomatoes PERIOD! Some of our favorite recipes with tomatoes though are your basic comfort food dishes. We love some grilled ham and cheese sandwiches with a touch of mayo and a huge tomato! YUMMY!

    Reply

  51. I adore tomatoes in almost any form! Summer time just sliced with a drizzle of balsamic, winter time roasted in the oven until they taste like tomato candy! Yum!!

    Reply

  54. I love to make a big bowl of caprese salad with quartered cherry tomatoes, bocconcici mozzarella cut in half and fresh julienned basil with a drizzle of olive oil and balsamic. I leave it in the refrigerator to marinate . Over the course of a week whenever I or my family want a snack we dish out a bowl – it’s so light and refreshing.

    I follow you on pinterest and now Facebook too!

    Reply

  61. Michigan memories as a teenager. My friend used to pick tomatoes from her father’s garden. She would bring them inside still warm from the sun and chop them into slices and sprinkle with salt.

    Reply

  62. I love the pop of fresh little cherry tomatoes right off the vine and the juice that runs down my chin. Yummy!

    Reply

  63. What I love most about summer tomatoes is that tomatoes straight off the plant, warmed by the sun just “taste like summer!”

    Reply

  64. Since I live in a condo, I like the fact that I can grow my own with no pesticides.

    I follow on facebook, pinterest, and tweeted

    Reply

  66. There is nothing better than a vine ripe juicy tomato! I love them fresh off the vine, cooked, in salads… I don’t think I’ve had a tomato any way that I didn’t like it!

    Reply

  69. I love to pop them off the vine and into the mouth. But more frequently, they get stuffed with tuna salad at my house.

    Reply

  70. My favorite way to eat summer tomatoes is to walk out in my back yard and pick a nice ripe one and eat it right there on the spot!! Nothing better than that!

    Reply

  72. Once my husband plants tomatoes, I start dreaming of my homemade tomato salad : fresh off the vine, kosher salt, pepper, fresh grown herbs finely minced and some EVOO and balsamic vinegar. HEAVEN !

    Reply

  73. I love to make pizza sauce with fresh tomatoes. We stock lots of jars of sauce in the freezer to get us through the winter.

    Reply

  75. The difference in the taste!.. Yumm. We just sometimes just sprinkle a little kosher salt on a sliced home grown tomato and enjoy..

    Reply

  77. I found out roasting different baby tomatoes with some olive oil brings out so much more sweetness, and you can use them skin on in salad recipes and pasta!

    Reply

  78. What I love most about summer tomatoes is the Heirloom varietals. My favorite way to eat them is the more simple, the better. This allows the flavor shine. I add a little salt and fresh herbs.

    Reply

  79. I love the real tomato flavor of summer tomatoes rather than those tasteless things in the store that they try to pass off as tomatoes.

    Reply

  80. There is nothing quite like a fresh tomato right from the garden, warm from the sunshine! We love using tomatoes in all sorts of things but a favorite is fresh tomato sandwich with just simple mayo, salt and pepper.

    Reply

  84. What I love most about summer tomatoes is picking them from the garden and popping them in my mouth when they are warm from the sun. It’s like eating candy, they taste so good!

    I am a happy follower of you on Facebook and Twitter. 🙂

    Reply

  87. I love fresh summer tomatoes. They are so juicy and delicious and don’t have the thick skin we find in grocery stores. I love BLT’s or sometimes just tomatoes on toast-yum! This recipe you posted looks great and I plan on making it this week. Thanks!

    Reply

  89. My favorite thing about summer tomatoes is the fresh taste of sunshine they impart to everything.

    Reply

  94. When I was a young girl I loved picking cherry tomatoes off the vine and washing them with the garden hose and plopping them into my mouth. Not sure how many tomatoes ended up getting to the house. It is a fond memory and an activity I still enjoy now. Nothing tastes better than home grown produce.

    Reply

  95. My favorite thing to do auth fresh summer tomatoes is turning them into something else for winter. Sauces usually, but sometimes just whole peeled.

    Reply

  97. I love the rich flavor of summer tomatoes. They make so many dishes better. From basil tomato and fresh mozzarella to cucumber tomato and onion salads.

    Reply

  110. Tomatoes are one of my favorite things to cook with, but in the summer there’s nothing like ’em! I like to make spaghetti sauces with fresh tomatoes, but I also make homemade pizza using sliced tomatoes and goat cheese. I also like to make crostinis with tomatoes and garlic, for a little summer snack. They’re wonderful, and so healthy!

    Reply

  121. Those look absolutely delicious! I love fresh tomatoes and they are even better picked right off of your own garden and eaten right there. Though adding a little salt and maybe olive oil in a bowl of diced fresh tomatoes is amazing too!

    Reply

  126. Spring! Today is the first day above 50 degrees here in Michigan, but I still have hope that Spring is on its way and I can not wait to have the opportunity to bite into a freshly picked tomato – nothing like it!

    Reply

  127. Love tomatoes on a black bean burger, transformed into a homemade ketchup (or salsa or pasta sauce), or straight off of the vine.

    Reply

  128. And of course, as all of your fans do, I follow you on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterst, and your podcast 🙂

    Reply

  129. tomato mozz salad means summer the world over!!! Love it! And I love how exciting it is to grow my own toms…

    Reply

  131. I love bright red and juicy Kansas summer tomatoes. They make the best BLT’s and add a lot to salads. Something I look forward to every year!

    Reply

  141. I love fresh tomatoes with bocconcini, olive oil, salt and basil. I could eat it every day during the summer.

    Reply

  142. Sitting outside on the back deck in the sun with a plate of sliced heirlooms and a shaker of salt signals the true start of summer for me.

    Reply

  144. I love a garden tomato with a slice of cheddar on whole grain toast – the first one of the summer just melts in my mouth. Yum.

    Following you on Pinterest.

    Reply

  145. I love the experience of fresh ripe tomatoes: start with the smell; then the feel of it in my hand; climaxing with the first bite. A garden fresh tomatoe is sensual food.

    Reply

  147. I love the taste of fresh summer tomatoes there is nothing like them. in the winter they taste like nothing.

    Reply

  148. My whole family loves tomatoes, my daughter and I love when they just pop in your mouth. Now I want some, they are just so delicious.

    Reply

  154. I love your podcast! Always makes me laugh! I love tomatoes with fresh basil and mozzarella drizzled with olive oil and balsamic and lots of salt and pepper.

    Reply

  161. I love how ripe, garden tomatoes are bursting with flavor. They are almost like candy. Much better than the store bought tomatoes.

    Reply

  163. There’s nothing like a slice of toast slathered with mayo with thick slices of heirloom tomatoes and cheese melted on top. When I’m feeling extra crazy a sprinkle of oregano or a few basil leaves makes the snack complete.

    Reply

  173. I love summer tomatoes because there are so many things I make with them, including just by themselves as a healthy snack!

    Reply

  178. I love to plant tomato plants so that I have fresh tomatoes to can, make tomato pie, salsa, and pasta! They are so yummy with vinegar too and with rice!

    Reply

  185. I grew up with Jersey tomatoes ( New Jersey the Garden State) my mother and father introduced them very early. Heaven is a ripe, red, juicy tomato. grilled tomato on English Muffin !

    Reply

  193. nothing is better than a fresh slice of tomato with sea salt, a drizzle of olive oil, fresh bazil and fresh mozzarella! Yummy! Thanks for the giveaway!

    Reply

  198. They are nature’s candy! As a school nurse that works with children with sensory concerns, they also make for a great sensory experience!!!!!

    Reply

  199. I love that they are a healthy snack my picky eaters will actually consume! We love to serve them filled with cream cheese and topped with pesto.

    Reply

  206. The only way I will eat tomatoes is when they are garden fresh. Sweet jucyc! Can’t wait for summer.

    Reply

  208. Here’s how I love garden tomatoes. Toast a whole wheat English muffin, top with natural peanut butter and a thick tomato slice. Sprinkle with basil and ENJOY!

    Reply

    1. We also love PB and tomatoes! Great combo. Have not tried it with basil, but we’ll be sure to try it soon 🙂

      Reply

  210. I love most about summer tomatoes are how fresh and juicy they are!!! And they are so tasty!!

    Reply

  218. I love tomatoes dearly, after growing up in New Jersey, where they grow big and delicious. I was recently surprised to learn that not everyone has tasted a Jersey tomato, which is a very sad thing. A sun warmed tomato plant full of juicy fruit is, to me, the absolute essence of Summer.

    Sadly, I now live in San Francisco and cannot grow them, because our summers are cool and foggy. So now I make do with the beautiful heirlooms that come from further inland.

    Sliced and toasted between hearty bread and cheese is my favorite way to eat them.

    Reply

  219. All I eat in the summer is tomatoes. What I love the most about summer tomatoes is that they taste so much sweeter and juicer. I love to just pop them in my mouth or put them on sandwiches or make fresh tomato sauce(which you can do by simple cutting tomatoes in thirds, putting in a pot to boil with whatever spices/herbs you desire and then putting the boiled down pulp into a blender with some tomato paste and any extra ingredients you think might give it a good flavor).

    Reply
-->