Roasted shredded chicken, sliced strawberries, sweet cherry tomatoes, and dried cranberries tossed with lettuce then drizzled with nectarine balsamic vinaigrette. Delicious, healthy, and simple to make, this salad is perfect for the summer.
During the hot days of summer (when I’m not living in SF), I have absolutely no desire to eat anything warm, or heavy for that matter. I just want something cold and light, like a salad. But eating just one type of salad the entire summer would get boring, wouldn’t it? So let’s make salad an amazing dish to serve.
Today, I want to share with you a recipe that’s absolutely perfect for summer and completely healthy too. Filled with shredded chicken, sliced strawberries, sweet cherry tomatoes, and dried cranberries, this salad has so many flavors plus tons of nutrients. I love when my salads have a ton of ingredients. It makes me feel fuller. With a healthy dressing such as my Strawberry Balsamic Vinaigrette or my brand new Nectarine Balsamic Vinaigrette, I’ll be able to enjoy both my salad and my dressing. I admit it. I love my dressings. And with my recipe, it’ll be guilt free too.
The best thing about having fruits in your salad is that they’re naturally sweet so they add flavor to the salad without the need to add too much dressing or other seasonings. Hope you’ll like this salad as much as I do!
First step is the chicken. If you have leftover chicken, great. Use that. You can chop it up or shred them, up to you.
If you don’t have leftover chicken, here’s a quick and easy way to make chicken breast for this salad.
Preheat the oven to 350oF. Line a baking pan with foil and lightly grease with nonstick cooking spray. Season the chicken breasts with crushed red peppers, black pepper, and a pinch of salt. Lay the chicken breasts on the baking pan, and cover it with foil. Don’t forget this step because the chicken might end up try otherwise. And bake the chicken for about 40-45 minutes. The chicken breast should be done. But make sure to check the temperature of the chicken to be safe. Remove the chicken from the open and allow it to cool for several minutes until it’s comfortable to touch.
While you’re waiting for the chicken, tear up the lettuce into bite size pieces.
Chop the strawberries into fourths.
Cut the cherry tomatoes in half. I used the variety type so that there would be more flavor and color.
Once the chicken breast has cooled, chop or shred the chicken. I prefer shredding the chicken because it has a more rustic look. =)
In a medium to large bowl, add the lettuce, strawberries, tomatoes, dried cranberries, and shredded chicken. Toss the ingredients until they become evenly incorporated.
Serve the salad with nectarine balsamic vinaigrette.
Enjoy!
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Great post and awesome recipe for Summer, thank you very much for sharing 😀
Thanks, Pedro! Hope you’ll like it =)
When I saw your like on my blog I must admit to a slight sigh. You see I always like to reciprocate likes and while I very much admire the creativity of food preparation etc. I’m really not a foodie. My idea of good food is something fast and healthy (though I do get bored eating the same stuff a lot). I was so surprised when instead on the usual recipes requiring buying things I never heard of and spending hours in the kitchen I came accross this one, fast, healthy and easy enough even for me to manage! Great! I’ll drop by again when I run out of variations. Meanwhile I can press like with enthusiasm! Thanks!
Hi Claire! I’m so glad that you like my blog. I know what it’s like to come across a recipe and see a list of ingredients, especially spices, that I don’t have. And that I don’t want to buy because I know I won’t use them often. I prefer recipes that are fast (since we’re all busy), healthy, and easy to make. There will be the occasional recipe that requires a unique ingredient, because I can’t resist sharing Asian recipes, but I try to spread those out. I hope you’ll find recipes on my blog that you’ll like. Thank you so much for visiting! Have a wonderful weekend =)
It looks really good! I’ll try it 🙂
Thank you! I hope you’ll like the recipe =)
This looks fabulous! I love trying new salads. I never seem to make salads with fruit in them, although I order them when I am out. I need to start! Thanks for linking this up with us at Foodie Fridays!
Thank you so much! And I’m so glad to be a part of Foodie Friday =)
Great recipe! I don’t really like cooking – and I’ve always had trouble baking chicken to the perfect tenderness – but I’d LOVE to try this.
Thanks also for liking my blog entry about the World Cup, Andrea! 🙂
I hope you’ll get a chance to try the salad=)
I adore a salad with berries on it!! So good! And the colors?!?! Crazy beautiful!! 🙂
Thanks, Joanna! =)