A large, fresh 'chicken BLAT' salad with crispy bacon, creamy avocado and a juicy chicken breast with lots of flavour. I marinate the chicken breasts here, even 30 minutes is enough time to stop grilled chicken from being dry and tasteless. The honey-mustard dressing pulls everything together and it's one of my favourite basic dressing recipes.
Total time to make : 25 minutes (not including marination)
Time to prep : 10 minutes
Time to cook : 15 minutes
Servings : 2
Ingredients
2 chicken breasts
4 bacon rashers (I used smoked streaky bacon)
1/2 large avocado, sliced
250g cherry tomatoes, halved
Handful of mixed salad leaves
Marinade
1 tbsp olive oil
Zest from 1 lemon
1 garlic clove, minced or finely chopped
4 sprigs fresh thyme
Dressing (makes enough for 4 serves)
4 tbsp natural yogurt
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp honey
Juice from 1/2 lemon
2 tbsp apple cider vinegar (or another 1/2 lemon, juiced)
1 tbsp mustard (dijon or wholegrain)
1 garlic clove, minced or finely chopped
Salt and pepper
Method
Place the chicken breasts in a ziplock bag and use a rolling pin to gently 'bash' them until they're about 1cm thick. This helps speed up cooking time and allow more surface area for the marinade absorption. Pour all the marinade ingredients into the bag and give it a good mix. Leave chicken to marinade for at least 30 minutes and up to 12 hours
Turn the grill on high and lie the bacon rashers on tin foil. Grill on high for about 10 minutes, turning half way through until the bacon is crispy. Remove and let it cool before using scissors to snip into small cubes
Once the chicken is ready, remove from the marinade bags (discard any excess marinade) and cook the chicken either in a cast iron griddle or non-stick frying pan over a high heat, or under the hot grill for about 4 minutes each side until golden. Cut the largest part of the breast in half to check the chicken is cooked all the way through, remove from the heat and let it rest for 5 minutes whilst you assemble the salad
To make the dressing, mix all the ingredients in a small bowl or jam jar. Taste and adjust to preference
Assemble the salad by mixing the leaves, tomatoes and avocado together, top with the crispy bacon and the chicken breast, cut into strips. Drizzle over the dressing and enjoy
Nutritional Information
(per serving, with dressing)
594 calories
37g fat, 14g carbs, 52g protein
Good to know:
Perfect for lunchboxes, keep for up to 3 days in the fridge. Use a clean, miniature jam jar to store the dressing separately until you're ready to enjoy
Dressing will keep for 5 days refrigerated
For df dressing use soy, coconut or almond based yogurt