Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Pecan Crusted Chicken Salad with Peanut Maple Dressing




Let me start by saying there is nothing better than a good salad.

For me a good salad contains four things-

1-NUTS, NUTS and more NUTS

2-Blue Cheese crumbles, dressing or in a block for all I care

"Hello, my name is Kelsee (Hi Kelsee) and I am a blue cheeseaholic!" Phew, glad to have that off of my chest.

3- Some sort of fruit, yes you heard me right picky men FRUIT!!! Something about that sweetness really takes a boring garden salad to the next level.

4- It is all about the dressing. You can ruin any perfectly good salad by putting a nasty dressing on top. I am a huge fan of dressed before serving salads. It really helps to have the dressing coat everything instead of just slopped in a big glob on top.



With that being said I would like to introduce you to one of my go to weeknight meals. After a long day of work I don't want to spend hours making dinner. But, I am what some might call a food snob. You can only have spaghetti so many times in a year so I try to find recipes that will switch up that same old routine. Give this one a shot one night, you won't be disappointed. And even my meat and potatoes man likes this once in a while.



Pecan Crusted Chicken Salad with Peanut Maple dressing


7 Chicken Tenderloins
1 cup chopped pecans
1/2 cup bread crumbs
1 tsp Cinnamon
1/2 nutmeg
1 egg
salt & pepper

Combine pecans, bread crumbs, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt and pepper. Dip chicken breasts into egg and then pecan mixture. Put into greased backing dish and bake @ 375 degrees for about 20 minutes or until chicken is fully cooked.

Salad-
1 head romaine lettuce chopped
2 apples of your choice cut into bite size pieces
Craisins

Dressing-
1/2 cup maple syrup (I use sugar free, but don’t tell the Mr.)
4 Tbs peanut butter
2 Tbs apple cider vinegar
2 Tbs vegetable oil
2 tsp lemon juice

Whisk all dressing ingredients in a small bowl. (I throw it into the microwave for a few seconds to help make the peanut butter smooth.)
Combine veggies and fruit and toss with desired amount of dressing. Top with chicken tenders and blue cheese crumbles.
Enjoy!

4 comments:

the audience said...

YUM! I am a cheeseaholic too! Have you tried using gorganzola? I heart it more than blue cheese, it's crazy good! And pair it with pears when they're in season, yum :)

Hollie said...

I am a blue cheeseaholic too!! And it is definitely needed in a good salad!

Maeve said...

I am going to have to try this recipe. Thanks for sharing. Sounds fab.

BrittyJ said...

Kels! My roommate and I made this chicken to top our salad (lettuce, apple, tomato, avocado) Monday night and it was AMAZING! We were too lazy to make homemade dressing so we used poppyseed dressing. Thanks for the recipe!! I'm gonna make the chicken again for Rand!!