Juicy balsamic chicken, strawberry, and apple salad topped with creamy balsamic dressing, feta cheese, and chopped pecans.
You guys, I have a serious salad addiction. Every single time we have Sunday dinner with my in-laws I ask what to bring, my MIL says I can bring anything I want, and then I bring a salad. Every. single. time. But that’s not even the half of it because that’s just a Sunday dinner thing – we have a salad with or for dinner every weeknight too. It’s my go-to for an easy main dish or side.
And I’m being one hundred percent honest when I tell you that we are having salad for dinner tonight.
The addiction is real.
I would say that I make my own salad dressing about 2/3 of the time. The truth is that there are a few store-bought salad dressings that make their way into my basket on a regular basis because I just love them so darn much and ninety percent of the time, those salad dressings are from the cold section. I always feel a little better about using cold salad dressings because they don’t have all of those extra preservatives to keep them shelf-stable and in reality, I just think they taste better so when The Marzetti® Brand asked if I would be interested in collaborating on a salad using one of their new Simply Dressed dressings, I was like YESSSSSSS – I have a bottle of your dressing in my fridge right this second.
Do I want to blabber on about a salad dressing I already purchase and use on a regular basis? Uh, YEAH. No brainer.
So here’s the fun thing about this salad – you cook the chicken in the dressing AND top the salad with it. GENIUS RIGHT?!? Okay got a little excited there. But really, there’s so much flavor going on in this salad with the balsamic chicken + apples + strawberries + nuts + crumbled cheese + mooorrrrre creamy balsamic on top that I can’t help but get a little over the top about this one.
And we’ve already established that I’m a crazy salad-obsessed cuckoo person so over the top was to be expected.
Balsamic Chicken, Strawberry, and Apple Salad
Ingredients
- 3-4 boneless skinless chicken breasts - pounded to even thickness
- salt and pepper to taste
- 1 cup balsamic salad dressing - divided
- 6-8 cups baby spinach
- 1 thinly sliced - (any yellow-red apple will do great, I used fuji)
- 1 ½ cups sliced strawberries
- ⅓ cup feta cheese crumbles
- ¼ cup chopped pecans
Instructions
- Season chicken on both sides with salt and pepper. Brush chicken on both sides with some of the balsamic dressing.
- Cook chicken on the stove in a greased skillet or on the grill over medium heat for 5-7 minutes on each side until cooked through. Brush again with balsamic dressing on both sides and cook another 1-2 minutes. Transfer to a plate or cutting board and slice into strips.
- Assemble salads with spinach leaves on the bottom. Top with strawberries, apples, chicken, feta cheese, and pecans.
- Serve salad immediately with remaining balsamic dressing.
Notes
Nutrition
This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of The Marzetti® Brand. The opinions and text are all mine.
hey girl this looks so tasty!
Are we able to pin any picture we want? There’s no “pin it” buttons that come up when I hover over the picture I want… I have this problem with every post on your site so I’m just wondering if there’s another way to pin the picture I want? When I press on the pin it button at the end of the post sometimes it pulls a picture that’s not of the end product
I use the send button in the address bar, and Pinterest comes up. I pin from there. Hope that helps!
I just made the salad and it was amazing. However, I would cut the amount of chicken down by at least a fourth if not more. Otherwise it was great!