Crispy Chicken Salad with a Blueberry Vinaigrette

  

You remember those delicious crispy fried chicken breasts I showed you yesterday?   Well I hope you cooked extras because today I am going to show you something delicious to do with the leftovers! 

 I told you I always cook extras and today and tomorrow I am going to show you just why I do that!  

  

This is a delicious salad with crisp fresh salad greens . . .  I used baby rocket (arugula), baby gems and baby spinach . . .  

crisp French radishes, fresh cucumbers from the garden,  crispy salad onions, toasted pecans, and crumbled feta cheese . . .  and yes, fresh sweet blueberries that are coming into season now!

  

You top all of that with some sliced crispy chicken . . .  of course you can use frozen crispy chicken that you buy at the shops.

I am really hoping you have saved some from yesterday because that's the best.  But that's not all . . .  I have created a delicious blueberry dressing to drizzle over the salad . . . 

  

Sweet and tangy with a bit of heat from the Dijon mustard, it goes so well with all of the elements of this salad.  

he sweet berries . . .   bitter greens . . .  hot little radishes . . . the salty creaminess of  feta cheese  . . . those crunchy toasty roasted pecans . . .  crisp fried  chicken chunks  . . . the bland almost melon-like coolness of those crisp edged cucumbers.  

  

There is nothing about this salad that isn't pleasing.   Easy and quick to make.   Pretty to look at with all of those colours and textures . . .  delicious to eat.  

Plus the added bonus of being a tasty way to use up leftovers.  And pretty darned healthy if I don't say so myself.  

BON APPETITE!  (As Julia would say!)

*Crispy Chicken Salad with a Blueberry Vinaigrette*
Serves 4

Printable Recipe  

You can either make your own breaded chicken breasts for this or use frozen breaded chicken breasts that you cook at home from frozen.  Either way it is delicious.   

3 cooked breaded chicken breasts, cut into slices crosswise

4 cups of mixed salad greens

1/3 of an English Cucumber, sliced into half moons (peeled or not as you wish)
and handful of radishes, trimmed and quartered

60g of toasted pecans, broken (1/2 cup)

1 small punnet of fresh blueberries (1 cup)

115g of feta cheese, crumbled (1/2 cup)

a couple of tablespoons of crispy salad onions (like the durkee's)  

For the dressing:

2 heaped dessert spoons of wild blueberry preserves (1/4 cup)

60ml of white balsamic vinegar (1/4 cup)

60ml of extra virgin olive oil (1/4 cup)

1 TBS Dijon mustard

1/4 tsp garlic powder

fine sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste  

Whisk all of the salad dressing ingredients together to combine.   Set aside.  

Place your salad greens into a shallow salad bowl.  Add the cucumber, radishes and blueberries, toss to combine.   Top with the toasted nuts, the chicken, the onions and the feta cheese.   Drizzle with the dressing and toss together to combine.  Serve immediately.

Alternately the ingredients can be layered into individual salad bowls and the dressing passed at the table.