Summer is around the corner and I like to have light, easy meals in my arsenal that don’t require heating up the oven or a lot of prep work. As much as I love to cook, sometimes I would rather whip up something light and quick and sit outside on the patio and visit with my family. This salad is delicious and it takes literally 15 minutes to prepare. I don’t know how I came up with the combination of ingredients, but they work really well together.
I begin by grilling the chicken on my George Forman grill. It’s been raining nonstop here in Colorado lately, so when I can’t grill outside, I rely on my trusty Foreman grill. I sprinkled the chicken breasts with 1 teaspoon of garlic salt (divided evenly between both sides) and grilled them for 10 minutes and then let them cool. I often buy Baby Spring Mix. I love earthy, leafy greens and on nights when I want something quick and easy, the pre-packaged salad mix is a great thing to have on hand. Sometimes I like chopped, fresh tomatoes, and other times I like to use grape tomatoes. They remind me of my childhood. My grandmother used to always use cherry tomatoes in her salads and I loved the way they would explode when I bit into them. The leftovers also make a great snack!
Is your mouth watering yet? We’re not done! Ok, don’t hate me, please don’t hate me, but I can’t stand feta cheese. I know, I know…..what is wrong with me? Everyone likes feta cheese. Everyone, except me. I think it’s too salty for me. As an alternative, I used crumbled goat cheese in this salad. Feel free to use feta if you’re a weirdo and like feta (kidding!) But, if you are normal like me and you don’t like feta, try it with the goat cheese. I recently discovered that my grocery store has crumbled goat cheese. It’s not in the gourmet cheese section, it’s near the mozeralla cheese and it’s delicious and it’s fantastic on this salad.
Now for some crunch. I was looking for dried cranberries and candied walnuts when I came up with this salad and to my surprise, I found a topping mix that has both. Yahoo!
The combination of the crunchiness of the walnuts and the chewiness of the cranberries add the perfect texture. You can use any dressing you like with this, but I really enjoy a simple balsamic vinaigrette dressing. I just mix some olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper and shake it up in a salad dressing shaker and pour it over the top.
I hope you’ll try this recipe. If you do, I would love to see a photo. Take a photo and tag #ketchumkitchen on Instagram. Enjoy!
Grilled Chicken Salad w/ Goat Cheese, Dried Cranberries, Candied Walnuts
Ingredients:
2 chicken breasts
2 tsp garlic salt
2.5 cups baby spring mix
16 grape tomatoes
2 tbl crumbled goat cheese
4 tbl dried cranberries/candied walnut salad topping mix
For the dressing:
2.5 tbl balsamic vinegar
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 + 1/8 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp salt
Directions: Sprinkle the chicken breasts with garlic salt, grill until done, let cool. In a salad dressing shaker or in a bowl, mix the vinegar, olive oil, salt and pepper and throughly combine. Assemble each salad with half the spring mix, half the tomatoes, half the goat cheese, half the salad topping, one chicken breast and half the dressing and toss. Let the chicken cool slightly before topping the salad.
Looks yummy! I’ll have to try this! Thank you for sharing!!
My pleasure. I hope you enjoy it!
This looks amazing! Love nuts and goat cheese in my salads!
Thank you! I hope you will give it a try.