simple salad with roasted chicken

hello world,

i had a notion to try a recipe we found in food and wine magazine for crab, apple and watercress salad. except funds are a little tight for crab, i forgot to buy the granny smith apple and no one at the market had watercress. i did accidentally purchase 2 containers of walnuts, however.

here’s what we had instead:

simple salad with roasted chicken

ingredients: 1 whole bone in chicken breast, 1 handful of arugula, 1 handful of salad greens, 2 celery ribs, a couple cherry tomatoes, 1 small red onion, 1 small handful of chopped walnuts

to roast the chicken breast:

1. heat oven to 375 degrees
2. coat chicken breast with olive oil and season liberally with salt and pepper
3. place chicken breast skin side down and roast for 25 minutes. turn and roast an additional 20 minutes skin side up. (important note: depending on the size of your breast, timing will vary. chicken is done when no longer pink and juices run clear.)
4. let cool and pull meat from the bones

to make the salad:

1. arrange arugula and salad greens on plates
2. chop celery, halve tomatoes and divide between plates
3. thinly slice onion and sparingly divide between plates (reserve one slice if you don’t have shallot for the dressing)
4. toss a handful of chopped walnut on each plate
5. arrange chicken on top of the salad and drizzle with dressing to taste

dressing ingredients: 2 1/2 tbsp white wine vinegar, 1 small shallot minced, 2 tsp dijon mustard, 2 tbsp walnut oil, 2 tbsp olive oil, salt and pepper (taken directly from food and wine recipe)

1. whisk the vinegar with the shallots and mustard
2. add salt and pepper
3. whisk in the walnut oil and olive oil

the salad tasted great! i think i added a little too much vinegar and adjusted with a little more olive oil than the recipe called for, but overall it went quite well with the other flavors on the plate. i think i might use more salad greens and less arugula next time because the spiciness of the arugula was a little overpowering. lemon juice would be an excellent substitute for the white wine vinegar in this dressing, too.

nana joined us for dinner and she liked it, too. (i should mention that nana brought backup iceberg lettuce and backup salad dressing in case she didn’t like greens and walnut oil.) for starting out with lofty goals we ended up with something nice, tasty and light. with MHM out of town, simple is key.

happy labor day,

cm