Garden Salad with Chicken
Garden Salad with Chicken topped with a fresh buttermilk and tarragon dressing. Perfect meal to celebrate SPRING! Soft and tender lettuce leaves, with sliced apples, dried cherries, and crispy chicken!
Table of Contents
Garden Salad With Chicken
It’s spring! It’s spring! In California we are getting the real deal; rainy days followed by sunshine!
Allergy season is in full bloom too, but I don’t mind. The tradeoffs are worth the sneezing fits I’ve been having!
The sporadic showers have bathed my car every few days.
Luckily, the rain removes the thin blanket of the yellowish pollen that’s glued to my window shield.
In addition, my yard gets an extra soaking of water, and there are daffodils that seem to be popping out of nowhere!
Fresh Mixed Greens For Salads
Spring weather gets me pretty excited to get back to visiting our Farmer’s Market regularly too.
There are so many wonderful seasonal fruit and vegetables this time of year.
I already stocked up on asparagus and have started to store them in the freezer, so I’ll have plenty for several months.
I just wish I could do the same with lettuce!
Every week I’ll buy a couple of different heads of lettuce, wash them, put them through a salad spinner, and then store them in plastic bags.
It makes putting together a salad a snap when the lettuce is cleaned and already torn in bite sized pieces.
Buttermilk Salad Dressing
The salad dressing is a simple buttermilk dressing that can easily be doubled to last for several meals.
I like to pack a salad, and take a small jar with the dressing to work with me for lunch.
The chicken on this salad is very moist and close to being as tender as the salad.
Nice and crispy, the basic shallow pan frying method is adapted from my Best Chicken Parmesan Recipe. It’s excellent and filling when added to this salad.
Fresh ingredients for a tasty lunch or dinner.
I think the only thing missing is a tall glass of iced tea or sparkling strawberry lemonade and perhaps these Garlic Cheddar Minis from Kitchen Dreaming!
Garden Salad with Chicken
Ingredients
- 8 cups mixed lettuce leafs torn into bite-size pieces
- 2 apples cored and cut into thin wedges (Fuji or Gala)
- 1/2 cup dried cherries cranberries can be substituted
CHICKEN
- 2 6 – 8 ouncebonless, skinless chicken breasts, trimmed, halved horizontally and pounded ½ inch thick
- 1 large egg
- 1 Tablespoon all purpose flour
- ½ cup panko bread crumbs
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- ¼ teaspoon dried oregano
- ¼ teaspoon pepper
- ⅓ cup vegetable oil I used grape seed
DRESSING
- 1/4 cup buttermilk low-fat
- 2 tablespoons Greek yogurt
- 1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
- 1 teaspoon fresh tarragon chopped
- Salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Sprinkle each cutlet with ⅛ teaspoon of salt and let stand at room temperature for 20 minutes.
- Whisk egg and flour to together in a shallow dish until smooth. panko, garlic powder, oregano, and pepper in second shallow dish. Pat chicken dry with paper towels. Dredge each cutlet in egg mixture, then coat all sides in panko mixture. Press lightly if needed to so crumbs stick to the chicken. Set aside.
- Heat oil in a 10″ nonstick skillet over medium-high heat until the oil shimmers.Two at a time, place cutlets in pan and don’t move them until bottoms are crispy and golden in color. This takes about 1½ -2 minutes. Carefully flip cutlets, repeating on the second side. Transfer to paper towel lined plate and repeat with remaining cutlets.
- Let cool and slice each chicken cutlet.
- Whisk together in a small bowl, buttermilk, mayonnaise, white wine vinegar, and tarragon, and season with salt and pepper according to taste.
- Arrange lettuce, apples and cherries on plates. Add sliced chicken and drizzle with dressing.
Nutrition
Disclaimer
Please note that the nutritional information provided are guidelines and may vary based on the brand of products used. For your specific nutritional goals use My Fitness Pal or Verywell Fit recipe calculators. All content within this site is not intended as medical diagnosis or treatment and should not be considered a substitute for professional medical expertise.
Great recipe… I made something very similar for dinner last night. Your dressing sounds wonderful and I am going to give it a try SU and pinned.
Salads are perfect for warm weather! Thank you for stopping by. I sure appreciate it 🙂
Your buttermilk dressing with the tarragon sounds perfect with the fruits in your salad. Your salad and your table definitely look like spring.
Hi Karen! I love the combination of fresh fruit and dressings. Thank you for commenting 🙂
Just thinking about what to make for dinner.. and here you are! My goodness this looks yummy!
Love it when that happens 🙂 Thank you, Barb 🙂
It’s so simple to make buttermilk dressing. It does taste good with the chicken. I love having it on hand.
Looks delicious! I always make my own salad dressings but I’ve never made a buttermilk one…can’t wait to try this!
Hi Michelle! The tarragon adds a little flavor that’s different from plain buttermilk dressing. I hope you like it!
There is just something fantastic about when someone makes a salad for me it tastes so much better than when I make my own. I would love to try your salad today and adding the breadcrumb chicken is a great idea.
I so know what you mean! I love it when salads are made for me. Good ones that is 😉
This is the best way to celebrate spring!I love this type of salad!
Puts a bounce in my step 🙂