Saturday, June 26, 2010

Strawberry Fried Chicken Salad

Summer at our home means main dish salads.

Two quintessential parts of summer
Fresh Strawberries
Fried Chicken

But together?

Strawberry Fried Chicken Salad

That's what I thought when I first heard of this salad.
When summer rolls around - we begin having main dish salads.
My wonderful son-in-law is the youngest of ten children.
We have come to know and love all of them and
have vacationed together.  One of them served
this up for us at our cabin for the first time.
My first bite was "WOW".  I couldn't stop eating.
The combination of the sweet berries with
the salty and crunchy fried chicken was incredible.
Hope you enjoy it too.
Use berries from your garden or from the store.
We have also made this substituting raspberries for
the strawberries and pears for the grapes.
Most grocery stores in their deli have tasty fried chicken strips.
Taste test your store's.  Make sure they are moist and not
over-cooked.  Kentucky Fried Chicken also has great strips.
These came from our local grocery deli.
These sugared pecans are so easy to make.  The recipe follows.
This is a photo of lettuce that came up in my garden spontaneously.
I just let a few heads of lettuce go to seed.  In the spring
I have lettuce in abundance and really early.  These landed
in a pot that I plant flowers in.  They were so beautiful
that I left them and planted flowers on the other side.
I used this lettuce for this salad.
Slice or chop and assemble all of the beautiful ingredients.
Dress the salad just before serving or it will wilt.


Sugared Nuts

1/2 C. white sugar
2 T. water
1 1/2  C. toasted pecans (toast in 350 degree oven for 7-10 min.)
In a medium sized frying pan, place the sugar and water.  When the sugar has melted
and the mix begins to boil, add the nuts.
Continue to stir the nuts over medium heat, stirring
constantly just until the water boils away and the nuts begin
to look like they are coated with sand.
Quickly remove them from the heat and pout out
onto a greased sheet of tin foil.  Separate the nuts
with a fork if desired.  Let cool, then chop

Dressing

3/8 C. white wine vinegar
3/8 C. balsamic vinegar
1 tsp. dry mustard
1/2 C. sugar
2 T. chopped onion, red or white
1 T. poppy seed
3/4 tsp. salt
1 1/4 C. light olive oil

Mix everything in the blender besides the oil.  With the blender
running, slowly drizzle in the olive oil to emulsify the dressing.
Salad

Mix together an assortment of mixed lettuces, washed, drained and chilled,
halved grapes, chopped green onion (if desired), strawberries, sugared pecans
and pre-cooked boneless fried chicken strips, cut into bite sized
pieces.  Toss with dressing and serve right away.
I will be posting this summer recipe on
and
Enjoy!


Jacqueline
Jacqueline

Chocolat - French for Chocolate. I adored chocolate from a young age when I had to sneak in the cupboard to find where my mother had hidden the Nestle's Chocolate Chips. Having read about the famous chocolat shoppes in Paris, when I finally got there I was determined to try a chocolate from every Paris shoppe. I invite you to share my adventures in creating, in travel, and in life.

24 comments:

  1. This has two of my favorite things and I never would have thought to pair them. Looks so good. I'll have to try it as soon as I'm back in the states

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  2. wow this looks really good. I love fried chicken and my mom loves strawberries so maybe I will try this. I have made the sugared peacans so so good. I will add this to my try this.

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  3. This really looks great, I'll be getting straggler strawberries for the rest of the summer. I'm shooting a link over to a foodie friend-Happy Sunday!

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  4. The French know about pairing fruit with savories--fab combo, sounds wicked! yum--Jacqueline

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  5. Thanks for stopping by.. I love when new friends come to visit. I took a pick at your sweet little skirt...it is very nice for summer. Have a great week!

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  6. Hmmmmm, good! Thanks for the recipe!...Christine

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  7. This looks delicious! I love combos like this. I make a similar one with mandarin oranges. So summery, so yummy! Sherry

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  8. Oh, my mouth is watering! This is my favorite type of salad! I definitely want to try this. Thank you for sharing this recipe!

    Donna

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  9. Perfect timing for this recipe since I have a flat of strawberries sitting on my counter! I think I will add a little blue cheese, too.

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  10. Hi,

    Thanks so much for you kind words of encouragement. This recipe looks fabulous. I will have to try it.

    Dove

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  11. All these things together sound wonderful!! I have done a chicken salad with the grapes but haven't tried the strawberries and sugared pecans. That will be next! Thanks for sharing that delicious looking salad!!!

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  12. Jacqueline: Your salad looks yummy and who wouldn't like a salad with sugared pecans, strawberries and fried chicken? Joni

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  13. This looks wonderful. Can't wait to try it! Thanks so much for joining "SUMMER SUNDAYS". Hope to see you next week.

    - The Tablescaper

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  14. I don't usually like salad, but this does look delicious! Thanks for the recipe!

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  15. Thank you for stopping by, just by looking at your blog it makes me hungry...Delicious!!

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  16. I love it when people think outside the box and create delicious new things. Who would have thought to use fried chicken in a salad?! It sounds wonderful!

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  17. Wonderful looking salad, my mouth is watering, the waffle ice cream cones also looked great! I will have to try both of these. That skirt was jsut tooo cute. Great blog. Thanks for visiting.
    Sandy

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  18. I love your pictures. It makes me want to take a bite right out of my computer, it looks so delicious.

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  19. I made this salad for dinner tonight. I had my mother in law, my daughter's mother in law over for dinner. I was so yummy!! Love the sugared pecans. Easy and so good thank you for sharing.

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  20. What a great looking salad! And so colorful!

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  21. I love everything in this salad! It is going on my list of dishes to make! Have a safe and Happy 4th of July.

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  22. This is my kind of salad on a hot summers day. Thanks for posting the recipe. Is this your gorgeous kitchen in the header photo? I am remodeling our home and am thinking about the Wolf range but I can only use electric and was wondering how electric is? Is your stove gas or electric?
    Joyce

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  23. Oh, I just love fruit and nuts in my salads. This looks especially good :)

    Blessings!
    Gail

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