Spring Chicken Salad with Mustard Vinaigrette

Hello Spring!  Hello fresh veggies, you lovely green things!  And radishes, I have not forgotten about you, crisp and all full of bite, hello!

I'm sorry, was that a little too chirpy for you?  It's ok, I understand.  You see, spring teased me with sunshine and green grass, but yet it's still only a high of 50 today and I'm a little grouchy that I still have to wear my jacket when leaving work.  But then, you see, I see that picture above and really it just happens again:

Hello Spring!  I am so glad you are back.  Please don't ever leave me again.

This salad (loosely adapted from CL's April issue) is wonderful for spring.  With the purchase of a rotisserie chicken, no ovens get turned on, no stoves are ignited (well, unless you blanch, but then there's also a tub of ice water, so it all evens out, right?).  And those veggies, those wonderfully spring veggies?  Just put whatever you want in there, whatever you have.  If it's pretty and makes you happily burst out in "Hello Springs!", it goes in there.  Chop, dump, whisk, pour, toss, bam.  Dinner.


Spring Chicken Salad with Mustard Vinaigrette
Adapted from April 2012's Cooking Light

If you know a place to get good rotisserie chicken, make sure you take advantage of it!  Dinner's so easy when all you have to do is shred!  I used half a chicken, shredded the rest and put it in the freezer, ready for another quick meal on some other way too busy day.  And seriously, put whatever vegetables you have laying around or that catch your eye.  I had been craving radishes, that's how they ended up in here!

Salad:
1/2 Rotisserie Chicken, shredded
1 c. cherry or grape tomatoes, halved
1-2 c. green beans, trimmed, blanched
4-5 medium radishes, thinly sliced
2-3 spring onions, thinly sliced
1 handful fresh chives, chopped

Mustard Vinaigrette:
Juice of 1 lemon
1 1/2 Tbsp. whole grain Dijon mustard
3 Tbsp. Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Salt and pepper, to taste

Crusty bread, to serve

Assemble salad ingredients in large bowl.  Whisk together vinaigrette.  Pour over salad, toss.  Season with more salt and pepper as needed.  Eat with crusty bread.

Did I mention this was ridiculously easy???

Chicken with Cherry Tomato Sauce

Today I finally dived into my Cooking Light magazines and came out making a recipe.  This wasn't the one I had originally wanted to make tonight and to be honest, it wasn't even one I had post-it noted to try.  Coconut Chicken Fingers was the one I had been searching for.  But since I am still playing catch-up with my fridge and the coconut recipe would have required a special trip to the Publix store down the street for some buttermilk, it was a no-go.  I flipped a couple of pages backwards in my Cooking Light  January/February edition and found this one instead.  I had all the ingredients on hand and BONUS... it would use some of the cherry tomatoes that had been sitting in my fridge for awhile. 

After yesterday's experiments and the thought that maybe I'm not always as intuitive about cooking as I like to think I am, I decided to stick to the recipe, even if I wanted to change it here and there.  It was less than half way through the recipe that I wondered if that was a mistake.  At about the half way point, I started to worry that I was going to have to write about how sometimes it isn't safer to stick to a pre-printed recipe.  But then, magically, the tomatoes started bursting and releasing their pretty liquid and the garlic really became fragrant and my worry faded.  I made a mental note to remind myself that cooking should really lessen my worry, not add to it.  So reminder: cook more, worry less.

It's not a very elegant dinner, and my poor, old digital camera does even less to capture how it looked.  The hardest part was pounding the chicken, a cooking method I still don't quite understand, but that could just be a result of me probably not doing it right.  Making it again, I would likely season the chicken with more than just salt and pepper (some basil or oregano probably) but that's about it.  Unless I was going to add some fresh oregano or basil to the sauce, then I would do that instead.  Half way through, I topped it with some Parmesan cheese.  It seemed natural, tomatoes, chicken, Parmesan chess.  That was also the time I realized I should take a picture of it... hence the mostly eaten chicken breast.  Oh, and be careful when the tomatoes start popping.  A few will more than likely decide they want to pop and squirt your tummy and/or forearm with their pretty, yet very hot, liquid.  This hurts and should be avoided.

All in all, the recipe was really simple, pretty light and yummy, and nothing special.  So it made a very good Tuesday, eating at 7:30 after 10 hours of work, kind of meal.  I would say it's earned a spot in my big green cookbook.  The poultry section is a little skimpy...


Chicken with Cherry Tomato Sauce
Adapted from Cooking Light, January/February ed. 

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
salt and pepper, to season
2 tbsp. olive oil
5 garlic cloves, coarsely chopped
1 pt. cherry tomatoes
1/3 c. low-sodium chicken broth

Place chicken between two sheets of plastic wrap.  Pound each breast until it is 1/2 inch thick.  Season chicken liberally with salt and pepper (and whatever else you choose!)

Heat a large skilled over medium-high heat.  Add olive oil.  Add chicken and saute for 3 minutes on each side until cooked thoroughly.  Remove chicken from pan.

Add chopped garlic to pan (with a bit more oil if necessary)  Saute for 1 minute, stirring constantly.  Add cherry tomatoes and chicken broth.  Cook 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until tomatoes have popped and sauce has thickened slightly.  Pour over chicken.