Who doesn’t love a simple salad? The editors of Simply Delicious knocked one out of the park with 2-23: Grilled Chicken Salad. Combining fresh vegetables with nicely cooked chicken is an easy method for creating a killer salad. My final product didn’t look much like the photo below, but the flavor is totally on point.
I love the bowl of strawberries and fresh baked biscuits behind the salad in the product photo.
A night or two earlier, I cooked a whole bunch of marinated chicken breasts and used them for multiple dishes through out this week.
In the ingredients shot, you can see how the chicken is stored in a Tupperware. I cooked it a night or two earlier and stored it for this recipe.
Fresh chopped green onions are delicious. The sharp smell bites at the tip of my nose, but I love the bright flavor it adds to the salad.
Mushrooms are not easy to slice. You need to use a sharp knife to cut even sized pieces. My knife skills need much training and practice to perfect.
The same sharp knife is perfect for slicing tomatoes.
One of my favorite vegetables to slice is red pepper. I have a good process that produces even, consistent strips.
Here is an easy mistake I made due to not paying attention to the photo on the card. I cut my chicken into cubes instead of strips as shown on the card. I cut the chicken into cubes to make it stand out from the pepper strips and tomato wedges.
It’s super easy to whip up a salad dressing. Fresh herbs, mayonnaise, oil, vinegar, and salt go into the bowl.
Add some fresh cilantro and mix!
Voila! Fresh balsamic vinaigrette dressing is the one of my favorite types of salad dressing. Now to assemble the final salad!
All together on the plate, the colors of red, green, and various shades of brown all play different roles. The mushrooms and tomatoes are soft and chewy. The chicken is warm and meaty. The red peppers add some much needed crunch. The olives provide a briny punch that compliments the vinegar based dressing nicely.
GRADE: A-
