Mixed Green Salad Topped with Grilled Balsamic Chicken

My first week or so in quarantine I didn't eat a single salad and it felt weird.  I usually eat salads regularly, so I was dying to get some fresh veggies back into my diet.  I've been trying to make sure I have at least one or two salads a week so I can keep my fresh veggie intake relatively similar to pre-quarantine.  This salad was another simple salad I introduced my husband to that he loved.  He said that I could win a cooking competition with the salad, which I'm not sure is true, but I'll take that as a sign that it's a good one.

I love to add fruits to my salads and granny smith apples give a great texture and brightness to salads.  I also LOVE fresh peas.  Yes, frozen peas are good, but there's something about fresh peas that makes me want to add them to everything.  I add fresh peas into a lot of my recipes because they give you a great little burst of sweetness.  In this salad, they balance really well with the tartness of the apples.

There's also something about grilled chicken that's just so satisfying.  Look at those beautiful marks on the chicken - don't they just make you want to dig in?  And guess what?  They weren't even made on a grill!  We don't have a grill, but I use a stovetop grill pan to get a similar effect.  This chicken turned out absolutely perfect, so I'm definitely going to have to make it again!  And add it to my award winning salad. 😂

But in all seriousness, one of the things that makes this salad is that I let the chicken marinate for 24 hours before "grilling."  I've never been big on marinating because I "don't have the time" or forget, but it makes such a big difference.  The key to marinating chicken is that you really need to let it sit for 24 hours or it won't make much of a difference.  You could even go for 48 hours with this marinade.  And it's so quick and easy there's really no reason not to!  All I did was add balsamic vinegar and avocado oil to a zip top bag and add my chicken.  I reserved adding salt and pepper until after the chicken had marinated because I wanted to make sure that each piece of chicken was evenly and properly seasoned.  Check out the instructions below on how you can make this super tasty salad.

Total Time: 25-30 minutes + 24 hours to marinade chicken

Servings: 4

Ingredients:

For the salad:

8 cups mixed greens

1 1/2 cups fresh spring peas

1 large cucumber, diced

2 granny smith apples

2 lb chicken breasts or breast thins

Salt & pepper

Balsamic Vinaigrette

For the marinade:

1/4 cup avocado oil

1/2 cup balsamic vinegar

Instructions:

1. Add marinade ingredients and chicken to zip top bag and let sit for 24 hours.
2. Heat up grill, grill pan, or cast iron skillet for 2-3 minutes on high heat until searingly hot.  
3. While things are heating up, salt and pepper both sides of the chicken.  Add 2 tbs avocado oil to the grill pan or cast iron before adding chicken.
4. Cook chicken breasts on medium-high heat for 4-6 minutes per side, depending on thickness.
5. While the chicken is cooking, boil a small pot of salted water.  Add peas and boil for 90 seconds before removing and draining.  Set aside to cool.
6. Dice your cucumber and apple and add to large mixing bowl with mixed greens.
7. Once the peas have cooled, add them to the bowl.
8. Cut chicken into thin slices and allow to cool before adding to salad.
9. Toss with your favorite balsamic vinaigrette and enjoy!

Here's a photo of my chicken on the grill pan.  As you can see, the grill pan makes those beautiful likes across the chicken just like a normal grill would.  The secret is that you don't want to move the chicken around.  You only want to flip it once and other than that, you can use some tongs to pick up a corner, but you don't want the chicken to move.  If you move it, you'll start to develop a new set of grill lines and it'll ruin the effect.

I prefer using breast thins because I find them easier to cook than full chicken breasts, but the timing in this recipe is for a full chicken breast.  I accidentally bought both from the store, so I cooked my breast thins on a higher heat since they would cook faster and cooked my full breasts at a lower heat since they would be going for longer.

This salad is so simple, but brings a great depth of flavor from the mixture of ingredients.  Plus it just looks pretty, and isn't that kind of important when you're cooking for others?

Nutrition Facts:

Calories: 350

Protein: 47g

Carbs: 33g

Fat: 3g