Grilled Chicken And Peaches Spinach Salad with a White Balsamic Vinaigrette
Summer salads continue as we have more desire to be in the pool than the kitchen. This original recipe, is a main course salad, all cooked on the grill. And, because it’s summer we have a couple of shortcuts to make this super fast to pull together.
Steve is allergic to most fresh fruit so we have to be careful. (He’s fine with canned and frozen fruit) We both love peaches, and we discovered several years ago, that when grilled, he can actually eat them. So now we find ways to grill peaches, like grilled and served over ice cream or with a salad. That was the genesis of this idea.
A bit of an eclectic bunch of ingredients for a salad but they work together really well.
Here’s our first shortcut…Marinade the chicken in bottled Italian dressing. Super fast, super easy. We like a lite version but any Italian dressing works just fine. Use about a cup and marinade for about an hour.
Pierce the chicken breasts with a fork to allow the marinade to soak in. Just pour over and pop in the refrigerator.
Slice the red onions.
They not only combine well with the ingredients of the salad but they add a great color. Hint: to mellow the onions a bit, soak them in cold water for about 15 minutes after slicing.
A very simple vinaigrette with just 5 ingredients. Toss it all a salad dressing shaker or in a jar and shake away. If you happen to have a flavored olive oil on hand, such as basil, it adds a bit of flavor, but regular olive oil works just fine.
Check out that new shaker top we found. It’s reusable with a basic mason jar and ring. We found these: HERE
After shaking up the dressing set it aside until ready to use. It does not need to be refrigerated.
Time to grill the chicken breasts.
Easy marinade delivers great flavor with the chicken. After the first turn dip the chicken one more time into the marinade for extra flavor. After the final dip, discard the remaining marinade.
If you have an upper grill, move the chicken up to keep warm while grilling the peaches. Watch those peaches as they can burn quickly. If you’d like, brush olive oil on some flatbread and grill alongside the peaches.
Now it’s time at assemble the salad. Slice the basil in strips and scatter over the spinach. Next scatter the red onions then the blueberries around the dish.
Add the grilled peaches.
Note: we bought white peaches on this night; I think yellow peaches would be prettier. But they still tasted good!
Add the dressing next to ensure it coats the spinach mixture well. Top with the grilled chicken, sliced against the grain, in the middle of the dish. Sprinkle the pepitas and feta cheese to finish it off.
Some adventure days in the kitchen are better than others. This was a fun one, making this dish up on the fly and having it turn out so well. Hope you enjoy it too!
Grilled Chicken and Peaches Spinach Salad with a White Balsamic Vinaigrette
Ingredients
- 2 Chicken Breasts; boneless, skinless
- 1 cup of your favorite bottled Italian dressing (Zesty Italian Lite works well)
- 3 cups fresh spinach
- 1 peach, halved and pitted
- 1/2 cup Red onion, sliced thinly
- 1/4 cup Feta Cheese
- 1/2 cup Blueberries
- 1/3 cup Pepitas; toasted in garlic salt
- 10 Basil leaves; thinly sliced
- 3 tablespoons White balsamic
- 6 tablespoons Olive oil
- 1/4 tsp Honey
- 1/2 tsp Dijon mustard
- Salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- In a shallow dish, pour bottled dressing over chicken breasts. Cover and refrigerate for up to 1-2 hours.
- While the chicken is marinating, make the dressing by adding balsamic and olive oil to a jar. Shake well. Add the Dijon and shake again. Finally, add the honey and give another shake. Add a good dash of salt and freshly ground pepper. Set aside until ready to use.
- Grill the chicken turning often for about 20 minutes. Grill the peach halves the last 3-5 minutes along with the chicken. Be careful not to burn, but they should have a good grill mark on them. Once cooked, remove the chicken and peaches from the grill and place on a cutting board to rest.
- Assemble the salad by placing the spinach on a platter. Scatter the onions, blueberries and basil leaves over the spinach.
- Cut the chicken breasts by slicing against the grain. Cut the peach halves into wedges. Lay the chicken on the center of the spinach and place the peaches around.
- Drizzle the dressing over the entire salad. Top with feta cheese and toasted pepitas.
- Serve at once along with grilled flatbread if desired. Enjoy!
