Yields: 4 servings
Ingredients
- Ingredients:
For the Avocado Dressing:
- ½ ripe avocado
- 1 teaspoon freshly chopped garlic
- 1½ tablespoons chopped scallions white and light green parts only
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 3 tablespoon filtered water
- 1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar
- ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
- For the Salad:
- 1 large bone-in split chicken breast about 1 lb
- 1½ tablespoons olive oil divided
- Salt
- Pepper I suggest using lemon pepper if you have it.
- 6 pieces turkey bacon
- 8 cups mesclun
- 2 navel oranges peeled, segmented and chopped (If you don’t know how to segment an orange, see here for idiot-proof instructions.)
- ½ medium English hothouse cucumber thinly sliced
- ½ small red onion thinly sliced
- ½ cup sliced almonds
Instructions
Preparing your California Salad with Roasted Chicken and Avocado Dressing:
- Start by making your avocado dressing. Place all of the ingredients for the dressing in a blender or food processor and puree until smooth. You can add a couple extra tablespoon of water if you want a thinner dressing. Cover and refrigerate until ready to use.
- Pre-heat your oven to 450 degrees.
- Rub your chicken breast with ½ tablespoon olive oil and season it generously with salt and pepper. Feel free to add some of your favorite poultry seasoning if you like. (Note:There are 2 chicken breasts in these pictures. This is because I doubled the recipe for my own gluttonous reasons. Please don't let it confuse you.)
- Heat 1 tablespoon an oven safe pan or skillet over medium-high heat. When hot, add the chicken breast, skin side down, and cook for about 5 minutes until the skin is golden brown and crispy. Carefully turn the chicken breast over in the pan and transfer it to the oven. (If you do not have an oven safe pan, don’t panic. Just put your browned chicken breast in a baking dish.)
- Bake your chicken breast for 25 minutes at 450 degrees or until the chicken is cooked through. (A cooked chicken breast has an internal temperature of 165 degrees. If you’re a nervous chef, I recommend buying an instant read thermometer.) Remove your chicken breast from the oven and let it cool to room temperature. When your chicken breast is cool, remove the skin and coarsely shred the meat. Set aside.
- While your chicken is cooking, cook your turkey bacon in a large skillet until crispy. Set the cooked bacon on a paper towel line plate to drain, and then crumble it into small pieces.
- Place mesclun in a large salad bowl and add the chopped orange segments, cucumber, red onion and sliced almonds. Top with shredded chicken and crumbled turkey bacon.
- Dress your salad just before serving. You can dress the entire thing at once, but I like to put the dressing in a small bowl or pitcher and let people dress their own. (Everyone has their own preferences when it comes to how heavily dressed they like their salads.) Eat and be happy.