Salad Week - Day 1 - BBQ Chicken Salad

Okay, this may be misleading, because it wasn't BBQ chicken. But it was chicken with BBQ salad dressing. This was pretty simple. Some spinach, chicken that I baked (below), avocado, cucumber, and my semi-homemade BBQ dressing. What does that mean? Oh, I mixed some of the amazing BBQ sauce that I got from Ridgewood BBQ (see my last post) and mixed it with some yogurt and the garlic and onions from the chicken recipe.

A good salad is like a good drink. There is a fine balance of ingredients and proportions. This salad was lacking something. I think either some roasted corn or spicy toasted walnuts would have added that additional touch. Also some roasted red peppers might have been nice, or just juicy red tomatoes, to add color.

Here's how I did the chicken. Super easy, and could be served over pasta, rice or on its own.

Mix together:
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon fresh chopped rosemary
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 teaspoon cayenne (I used chili powder. That was a mistake because I wanted some kick.)
1 teaspoon dried thyme (or 1 tablespoon fresh chopped)
1 teaspoon honey
1 tablespoon olive oil

Brush mixture onto four chicken breasts. Set aside. Pre-heat the oven to 350. In a cast iron skillet, brown 1/4 of a red onion (diced), and 2 cloves of garlic (finely sliced). Once brown, remove from heat. Put chicken over the top of garlic and onion and cover with foil. Place in pre-heated oven and bake for 15 minutes. Increase the temperature to 375, turn the chicken over, and bake for another 10 minutes. Remove from oven and let rest 5 minutes before slicing.