I am SO excited to bring this recipe to you today!! I love NON boring, flavorful, fresh, filling, and satisfying salads and I’m happy to report that this is one of them. Crunchy toasted pecan chicken, fresh, ripe juicy summer strawberries, salty feta cheese, red onion, and a creamy homemade strawberry vinaigrette dressing combine to form a delicious summer salad you will want to make all year long!
This recipe has a bit of a back story to it. A couple months ago my husband and I decided to go out to dinner on a Saturday evening. It was an (unusually, for the time) warm, sunny day, so I wanted to go to one of our favorite outdoor restaurants that overlooks the river downtown and has a fun, relaxed atmosphere. We were going out later (per usual, with our schedules we very rarely eat dinner before 8 or 9:00 PM). ANYWAYS, we got there a few minutes after 9:00 and noticed it was super busy…and come to find out the wait time to be seated was THREE HOURS. LOL.
So….obviously that wasn’t an option since we wanted dinner before midnight! I was disappointed since I was excited to eat outside, and also since they have a delicious pecan crusted chicken salad on their menu that is AMAZING. We ended up going to another restaurant that night (which wasn’t nearly as good…), but I couldn’t get pecan chicken off my mind.
Alas, that is how this recipe was born! Since I didn’t want to wait until the next time our schedules were free to go out to eat, I decided to take matters into my own hands and come up with a similar recipe on my own. And I daresay, this recipe is just as good! I am pretty darn happy with how it turned out…and then proceeded to test and tweak the recipe a few more times for good measure (or maybe because it just gave me a reason to continue eating pecan chicken…LOL). Regardless, I am so excited to finally be sharing this recipe with you today!
This recipe does contain a couple different steps, but the beauty of this recipe is that you can multi-task and while the chicken is cooking, you can prep the homemade dressing. Honestly, the recipe doesn’t take much time and the end results is SO worth the time you spent!
How to Make Pecan Chicken Salad
Pecan Chicken
Here’s the recipe to make the chicken! Have you tried it yet? It’s seriously so good, and as I mentioned above I was inspired to make the pecan chicken in the first place all because of this salad idea!
Strawberry Vinaigrette Dressing
Here’s the recipe for the strawberry vinaigrette dressing! Highly recommend trying this homemade dressing. So simple to make, and requires just a few ingredients!
Salad Ingredients
In addition to the pecan chicken and strawberry dressing (which are the stars of this recipe!), we are going to add salty feta and fresh, juicy strawberries for seriously the most delicious salad you will ever eat. As for the salad greens, you can use whatever your preference is or what you have on hand! My go-to favorite is usually a mix of baby arugula and spinach, but you could also use mixed greens, romaine, all spinach, kale, etc. I also added some sliced red onion as I love the additional punch of flavor it adds to salads. I love sprinkling the extra pecans from the baked pecan chicken (some usually fall off the chicken on the baking tray while it’s cooking in the oven) for even more crunch and deliciousness.
Can’t wait for you to try this recipe! Hope you love it as much as we do. ?
Recipe for pecan chicken: click here.
Recipe for strawberry vinaigrette dressing: click here.
- 1 (5 ounce) bag fresh spinach or arugula
- 1 lb. strawberries, sliced
- 4 ounces feta cheese
- ½ sliced red onion, optional
- 1 batch pecan chicken (see link above!)
- 1 batch strawberry vinaigrette dressing (see link above for recipe!)
- Layer fresh greens on plate, and top with strawberries, feta cheese, pecans, sliced red onion (optional) and pecan chicken.
- Top salad with homemade strawberry vinaigrette dressing.
- Makes enough for 4 entree/meal salads.
- If making as meal-prep or in case of leftovers, I recommend storing the dressing separately and adding right before eating!
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