Grilled Honey Mustard Chicken Salad

The original recipe was for just two servings, which means it would've been exactly enough for Rodney, leaving me to eat lettuce. So I doubled it almost exactly except I used an entire pint of extraordinarily large grape tomatoes instead of 2/3 of a cup. Or is that a pint? Regardless, read on to see what I did; click the link to see the original recipe.

Grilled Honey Mustard Chicken Salad

4 boneless skinless chicken breast halves

1/2 c extra-virgin olive oil

4 tbsp fresh lemon juice

3 tbsp chopped fresh dill

2 tbsp honey mustard

1/4 tsp salt

12 c mixed romaine and iceburg lettuces

1/4 c thinly sliced Vidalia or other sweet onion, like Walla Walla

1 pint grape tomatoes

Place a breast in a one-quart Ziploc and flatten it to 1/2-inch thickness with a rolling pin. Repeat with remaining breasts, being sure to use the same bag to minimize waste.

My breasts cut fresh from two whole chickens look like I bought them pre-cut, don't they? They're beautiful! These were then pounded flat with a rolling pin.

In large bowl, whisk together oil, lemon juice, dill, honey mustard and salt. Reserve half of the mixture for dressing.

Add chicken to the remaining mixture in the large bowl, turning to coat both sides.

I should've left a bit more marinade in the bowl.

Let stand 5 to 10 minutes at room temperature. (Chicken can be made to this point up to 1 hour ahead. Cover and refrigerate.)

Line broiler pan with foil; heat broiler.

Remove chicken from marinade; discard marinade. Place chicken on broiler pan and broil 12 to 14 minutes or until no longer pink in center, turning once.

Meanwhile, toss greens, onion and tomatoes with the reserved dressing.


Plate servings. Slice broiled chicken across the grain; place on top of greens.


Pretty simple, eh? Rodney and I both liked this one, though we didn't grunt throughout our meal, which is an indication that it wasn't out-of-this-world fantastic. It certainly wasn't bad by any means, just not outstanding.

What I'd change:

I will have to be more conscious of how much 12 cups of greens actually is, reserve the dressing to be applied as needed, and do a reality check on the amount of chicken per serving. Dressing and chicken was copious in quantity for me, especially the chicken, but I bet for Rodney it was spot-on. Rodney had twice as many greens as I did, but the same amount of chicken. I just wasn't thinking.

Also, I'd expected more zing from the honey mustard. It could have been lacking simply because I bought the cheapest one available. In the future, I'll crank up the quantity, replacing some of the oil, or I'll make my own mixture with honey and Dijon (or that other mustard we have left from the Cod recipe I tried a short while ago) -- that'd be kickin' it up a notch.

What I liked:

Rodney didn't feel the need to put on additional dressing and he didn't notice there wasn't any cheese or croutons! Utterly amazing!! Typically he douses his salads in Catalina, puts on hefty "sprinkles" of cheese and essentially covers the bowl in croutons. This recipe is now obviously good for the lactose-intolerant guy who still dabbles in lactose-containing goods willing to suffer the consequences. A bonus point to the recipe just for that alone.

There were enough greens left for me to take to work for lunch! Since there was already enough dressing on it, I only had to cut back on the amount of chicken. I sliced one of the two remaining breasts in half the long way (so the remainder actually appeared like a full piece of chicken breast rather than a breast cut in half), then sliced and halved it to make bite-sized pieces. Perfecto!

Note: by the time I had this for lunch the following afternoon, the lettuce was wiltered-ish from being soaked overnight in dressing. But was still happily edible. And the chicken quantity was spot-on.

Pin It