Strawberry Fried Chicken Salad

Summer at our home means main dish salads.

Two quintessential parts of summer

Fresh Strawberries

Fried Chicken

But together?

Strawberry Fried Chicken Salad

That's what I thought when I first heard of this salad.
When summer rolls around - we begin having main dish salads.

My wonderful son-in-law is the youngest of ten children.

We have come to know and love all of them and

have vacationed together.  One of them served

this up for us at our cabin for the first time.

My first bite was "WOW".  I couldn't stop eating.

The combination of the sweet berries with

the salty and crunchy fried chicken was incredible.

Hope you enjoy it too.

Use berries from your garden or from the store.

We have also made this substituting raspberries for

the strawberries and pears for the grapes.

Most grocery stores in their deli have tasty fried chicken strips.

Taste test your store's.  Make sure they are moist and not

over-cooked.  Kentucky Fried Chicken also has great strips.

These came from our local grocery deli.

These sugared pecans are so easy to make.  The recipe follows.

This is a photo of lettuce that came up in my garden spontaneously.

I just let a few heads of lettuce go to seed.  In the spring

I have lettuce in abundance and really early.  These landed

in a pot that I plant flowers in.  They were so beautiful

that I left them and planted flowers on the other side.

I used this lettuce for this salad.

Slice or chop and assemble all of the beautiful ingredients.

Dress the salad just before serving or it will wilt.

Sugared Nuts

1/2 C. white sugar

2 T. water

1 1/2  C. toasted pecans (toast in 350 degree oven for 7-10 min.)

In a medium sized frying pan, place the sugar and water.  When the sugar has melted

and the mix begins to boil, add the nuts.

Continue to stir the nuts over medium heat, stirring

constantly just until the water boils away and the nuts begin

to look like they are coated with sand.

Quickly remove them from the heat and pout out

onto a greased sheet of tin foil.  Separate the nuts

with a fork if desired.  Let cool, then chop

Dressing

3/8 C. white wine vinegar

3/8 C. balsamic vinegar

1 tsp. dry mustard

1/2 C. sugar

2 T. chopped onion, red or white

1 T. poppy seed

3/4 tsp. salt

1 1/4 C. light olive oil

Mix everything in the blender besides the oil.  With the blender

running, slowly drizzle in the olive oil to emulsify the dressing.

Salad

Mix together an assortment of mixed lettuces, washed, drained and chilled,

halved grapes, chopped green onion (if desired), strawberries, sugared pecans

and pre-cooked boneless fried chicken strips, cut into bite sized

pieces.  Toss with dressing and serve right away.

I will be posting this summer recipe on

Summer Sundays

and

Foodie Fridays.

Enjoy!