A summer dinnertime favorite here in our house is a fresh crispy chicken salad. This salad is super easy to assemble, and takes little to no prep time (honestly what takes the longest is peeling the boiled eggs 🙂 ).
I chose to put this in a “post” rather than a “recipe” format, because it’s not really a dish that requires a recipe…it’s very forgiving and you can throw just about any veggie you like in there and it’ll taste awesome. This is just what we do here at our house…
First, get some eggs boiling (to make hard-boiled eggs) and cook the chicken. Here are the 100% natural crispy chicken strips I usually get; they take about 30 minutes in the oven. I have made my own (from scratch) before, but when I’m pressed for time or not feeling like spending a huge amount of time in the kitchen, these are great.
To assemble the salad, start with some fresh lettuce. We like pretty much anything that’s dark green – baby lettuce or spring mix with spinach or something similar.
Top the lettuce with a sprinkling of cherry tomatoes (really any kind of tomato works, whatever suits your fancy), diced or sliced hard boiled egg (once they’re done and cooled), avocado chunks or slices, some shredded cheese, a few shakes of dried dill, croutons, and (once they’re done and a tad bit cooled) the chicken strips (you can leave them whole or chop them into bit sized pieces). Drizzle your favorite ranch dressing over it all.
If you want an idea of what my salad usually ends up looking like, take a peek at IHOP’s Crispy Chicken Cobb Salad. Mine comes out looking almost exactly the same…except for the blue cheese crumbles (which again you can totally use instead of shredded cheddar).
Yum! This salad is a kid-pleaser to be sure, and a filling-but-not-heavy refreshing and delicious summertime dinner.
(The featured image is in the public domain.)