Chicken Club Salad with Hot Bacon Dressing

Sorry about no blog last night, y'all. It was Date Night, so Red Lobster did the cooking for us. :) We highly recommend the buffalo shrimp with ranch...yummmm.



Tonight's feast was again, from Betty Crocker. Tomorrow I'll mix it up, I promise. I have a little Rachael Ray in store for you!! But as for tonight's food, it wasn't that difficult, basically a dressed up chicken salad. Still really good though, read on:

INGREDIENTS:

6 cups bite-size pieces of lettuce
1 cup cherry tomatoes, cut in half
2 tsp vegetable oil
About 1 1/4 lbs chicken breast, cut into 1-inch strips
8 slices bacon
1 medium onion, chopped (half cup)
2 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp ground mustard
1/2 tsp pepper
1/2 cup cider vinegar
1/2 cup flavored croutons
1/4 cup shredded Swiss cheese

DIRECTIONS:

-Mix lettuce and tomatoes in large bowl.

-Heat oil in a skillet over med-high heat. Cook chicken in oil 6-8 minutes, stirring occasionally, until no longer pink. Arrange chicken on the lettuce.

-Cook bacon in the same skillet over low heat 8-10 minutes, until crisp and brown. Remove bacon from skillet, but reserve 2 tbsp fat in the skillet. Drain bacon on paper towels. Crumble bacon, sprinkle over salad.

-Cook onion in bacon fat over medium heat about 2 minutes, stirring occasionally, until crisp-tender. Stir in sugar, mustard, pepper and vinegar. Cook 2 more minutes until hot.

-Pour onion mixture over salad and toss. Top with croutons and cheese. Serve warm.

COMMENTS:

Despite the fact that this was nothing fancy, the bacon dressing was actually really good. This is a really light meal too, which we liked. Craig's whole plate was gone before I blinked, and when I couldn't finish mine, he offered to eat more. So in my book, a job well done!

We improvised as usual. No onion for us, so we just made the dressing with everything else. Tasted fine. We didn't have cider vinegar, so my helpful sous chef suggested we mix the 2 kinds of vinegar we do have (red wine and regular) together to make the half cup. Worked great. (We are just so adventurous, aren't we?) Also we used Mozzarella cheese instead of swiss, not like that matters, but just thought you'd like to know!

I should probably note that most of these recipes are for 4-6 servings. Obviously there is only 2 of us, so we end up with lots of leftovers. Which is helpful, since I don't have to spend money on Lean Cuisines and Hot Pockets for lunch anymore.

In other food news, Craig has taken up wine making, in addition to his beer making. Zinfandel is fermenting in our office room, next to a batch of Newcastle. It stinks of alcohol in here. I'm not sure what the neighbors think.

Until next time! (And yes, I always cook in my gym clothes.)