Garden Salad w/chicken, strawberries, and Poppy Seed dressing

Summer is almost here but we are starting a little early as we had new exciting developments in the garden which inspired what we made for dinner last night.  The strawberries are ready to eat and continuing to ripen to bright red, inspiring this salad, a strawberry parfait made with pastry cream, and who knows what else……..

So I had just done my weekly grocery shopping and bought a ton of chicken because it was $1.99/lb on sale, great to have stashed in the freezer.  The strawberries are ripening fast and furious, lettuce is getting almost overgrown because we can’t eat it fast enough, and I have had a recipe in my cookbook since June 2012 that I thought sounded delicious but never got around to making.  So all of these converged to inspire this salad for our dinner tonight.

I prepared all that chicken to put in the freezer, mostly cutlet style, keeping out the rest cutting into kebab-sized pieces.  For the marinade, add to that bowl, some lemon olive oil, red wine vinegar, salt, pepper, and fresh herbs from the garden.   I used what we are growing in pots and in the garden bed:  parsley, sage, garlic chives, basil. Stir to coat and let it rest for about an hour.  At this point, I also rinsed and spun the lettuce and put it in the frig to crisp up.  Mix up the dressing and put in the frig to to chill a bit and to let the flavors blend.  Now is the perfect opportunity to sit outside for a lovely cocktail!

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We cooked this chicken on the grill but it can also be sauted on the stovetop.

My husband julienned some carrots, chopped up cucumber and tomato.  Then add lettuce to bowl with dressing and all veggies, candied nuts, strawberries, dressing and toss to coat.

Then top with the grilled chicken.  Summer goodness for dinner tonight!

Garden Salad with chicken, strawberries, and Poppy Seed Dressing

June 18, 2018

Servings: 2 people

Difficulty: easy

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garden-inspired salad using pantry ingredients

By: maura

Ingredients

• 8 kebab-sized chicken cubes (approx. 2 large boneless chicken breasts)
• olive oil, red wine vinegar, 3 TBSP. fresh herbs, any type, salt, pepper to taste
• lettuce greens, any type
• 1 carrot, julienned
• 1/2 cucumber, peeled and diced
• strawberries
• candied mixed nuts
• 1/4 cup honey
• 1 TBSP. sesame seeds
• 1/2 TBSP poppy seeds
• 1/2 tsp. minced onion
• 2 TBSP. cider vinegar
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1/8 tsp. paprika

Directions

• Step 1 Mix chicken with the olive oil, vinegar, and herbs. Let sit for about 1 hour to marinate.
• Step 2 Prepare lettuce in salad spinner to rinse clean and set in refrigerator to crisp.
• Step 3 Prepare salad dressing using honey and the next 6 ingredients. Set in refrigerator to chill and allow flavors to blend.
• Step 4 Cook chicken on grill or stovetop.
• Step 5 When ready to eat, assemble the salad topping the lettuce with the carrots, cucumbers, candied nuts, strawberries, add dressing and toss to coat.
• Step 6 Plate up and top with grilled chicken.
• Step 7 Enjoy summer on a plate!