Grilled roasted peppers and onions, chicken with a barbecue flavor and a ‘French’ dressing for the salad.
All the best things of summer, cooked outdoors…. mon mari is in heaven.
I believe I mentioned that we are eating salads for every meal at the moment…..
Barbecued Chicken Salad
Total time: 25 minutes
Ingredients:
- 2 chicken breasts, boneless, skinless
- 1 red pepper or yellow pepper
- 1 sweet or red onion
- 2 tsp olive oil
- 1 avocado
- 1 carrot
- Lettuce for 2 main meal salads
- Marinade for chicken:
- 1 tbs Worcestershire sauce
- 1 tbs ketchup
- 1 tbs red wine vinegar
- 1 tbs olive oil
- 1/2 tsp chili powder
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- “French” Vinaigrette:
- 2 tbs ketchup
- 1 tbs red wine vinegar
- 1 tsp Dijon-style mustard
- 1/4 tsp paprika
- 3 tbs salad olive oil
Instructions:
- Chicken:
- Make marinade, pour over chicken and set aside.
- Vegetables:
- Clean and slice the pepper into strips.
- Cut the onion in half and slice thickly.
- Put onion and pepper into a bowl, add oil and toss well. Cook pepper and onion in grill pan (or any old metal pie or cake tin) on barbecue grill for about 10 minutes until they are crisp-tender. Stir once or twice.
- When vegetables are done start to cook chicken, 12 – 15 minutes, turning once.
- Vinaigrette:
- Mix ketchup, vinegar and mustard.
- Slowly add olive oil, whisking constantly.
- Salad:
- Prepare lettuce and put in large salad bowl.
- Slice the avocado.
- Slice the carrot into paper thin strips using the vegetable peeler.
- Add a bit (2 tbs) of dressing to lettuce and toss well to coat.
- Add carrot, peppers and onions, and a bit (1 tbs) more dressing and toss well.
- Arrange avocado slices around edge of salad.
- When chicken is done, thinly slice and arrange in center of salad.
- Drizzle a bit of dressing on the avocado and chicken and serve, remaining dressing on the side.
Note: Peppers and onions can be roasted in 400F (200C) oven for 20 minutes or sautéed in a skillet until brown. Chicken can be sautéed in a skillet for about the same amount of time.
Sunday is supposed to be a day of peace and quiet, rest and relaxation.
For me it’s normally a day like any other…. With the exception that I like to have a more leisurely start than usual.
My leisurely morning was not destined to be today.
Ninety-nine percent of the time I’m the first person out and about in our neighborhood. Actually, most mornings I’ve walked the dogs, cleaned up the front lawn, had my breakfast and am sipping my first coffee before our neighbor walks by with his dog.
This morning he drove past just as the sun was coming up.
It’s not that his car is loud or that a passing car would normally wake me. It’s that the dogs, who are wide awake and patiently waiting for me, get all excited when they hear his car and start barking frantically.
That woke me.
Fine, I thought, I’ll have an early start to my leisurely morning.
I did my chores, had my breakfast, made a coffee and sat down at my computer to see what was new in the world.
You know how that first sip of coffee in the morning always tastes so good?
I took a sip…..
My mouth was filled with thick, sour, lumpy crud.
I spit it out on my desk…. it was too awful to take the time to run to the sink.
I looked at my coffee and there was a thick, foaming, dark brown mess on top.
?!?!?
It couldn’t be the milk because I had it on my cereal a few minutes earlier.
Then I remembered……
We have very hard water here. Our kettle gets a layer of calcium build-up in no time and I regularly clean it with vinegar. I decided the same must be true of our coffee machine. Whenever I clean the kettle I also run vinegar through the coffee machine.
Yesterday, apparently, I forgot to flush it with fresh water after the cleaning was finished.
If I didn’t use milk in my coffee I likely would have just noticed an ‘off’ taste. (I only use a little vinegar in a lot of water to clean)
But even a little vinegar will sour milk. And a little vinegar in hot milk will sour even faster.
By the time I sipped my coffee it was the consistency of sour cream.
Well, after that start to my day I just went out and hoed……
Maybe next week..
I’m submitting this to Javelin Warrior’s Made with Love Mondays, a collection of ‘made from scratch’ recipes
I would never have noticed because I drink my coffee black. I have one cup of coffee though before I even get started in the morning. My hat’s off to you for being so productive before that wonderful caffeine courses along…
ICK. I had a coffee disaster thus morning here as well but it was after I had drunk and entire pop and was making a second for Paul. I believe a coffee disaster is easier to tolerate AFTER you’ve already filled up on coffee. 🙂
I HATE it when that happens!! I could let that sort of thing ruin my whole day.
But that salad looks like it would cheer me up immensely. It sounds wonderful.
oh yuck, bad start – I hope you had another coffee later on, a perfect one !
Oh, dear! Not only awakened early by the blankety-blank dogs, but also nasty coffee! You deserve better after all your industry!
A very tasty salad, Kate, and I love the homemade French dressing – very handy to have a recipe for this. And barbecue anything is always a favorite of mine… And I almost never drink coffee, but I can imagine your disgust at finding curdled cream – yikes…
nightsmusic, the dogs leave me little choice about my early start. When I lived in the US I drank it black, but since moving to this side of the pond I’m more flexible – morning coffee with milk, afternoon black, night with cream….
Jerry, I did manage to go on and have my usual 3 mugs 😉
Elizabeth, thankfully I didn’t spit it on my keyboard…. just the desk LOL
Kate, yes, several…
Zoomie, well the rest of the day had to be better, right?
Javelin Warrior, it was the consistency that really got to me – like cottage cheese Yuck!