June 10, 2013

Bruschetta Chicken Salad {with Balsamic Vinaigrette Dressing Recipe}


Posted by Ethne~

Tonight we were watching the Voice and KD liked the singer's dress and I said, “that’s right up your alley, huh?”  KD replied, “yeah, it’s on my blog.”

Part of Shaun died.  To him, I spelled out “A-W-E-S-O-M-E”.  That was a dual-purpose reminder that not only are our children taking after me in scarily spectacular ways (Easy Mac told me the other day she was going to “slap on some mascara quick”), but spelling the word out cheerleader-style forebodes that the girls will become cheerleaders like me too.  Sparkles!

In other news, I said I would try to re-create the delicious *Bruschetta Salad* that Lori and I had at Granite City Brewery on our Girls Weekend in Fargo and I did it!  Divine.

This is not my reaction to how this salad TASTES.  It is a likeness of how I feel right now because I cannot get an image of real bruschetta to load into this post from elsewhere.  However, if you click this link here, Olive Garden has nicely given us their recipe and a photo for Bruschetta Pomodoro.  So friendly at the OG.

I didn’t take making-it pictures because it was chaotic that dinnertime, but I did remember to take an after shot.

We toasted up a loaf of bakery French bread with parmesan cheese, grilled up a couple breasts of chicken (which we then sliced really thin and served warm on the plate), diced red onion and bought the tomato-basil feta cheese.

For special-prep, I tossed the diced tomatoes in basil (dried or fresh would be fine), salt and pepper in advance and let it sit out at room temp while I prepped all the other food and the chicken grilled.

We just used mixed baby greens because those are always tender and super easy.

I made my own balsamic dressing – have I ever told you how to do that?  You can do it with anything – you need an acid (vinegar or lemon/lime juice), mustard (for flavor but mostly texture, kinda like leavening) and olive oil.  Add whatever spices you like to the mix (olive oil goes in last) and whisk in the olive oil till the consistency starts to noticeably thicken – you’ll just notice the change with your whisk.  Check for taste and adjust if necessary.  

For mine, I used balsamic vinegar (~2T), dried basil (~1t), salt (~1t), pepper (a couple grinds), Dijon mustard (~1.5t) and extra virgin olive oil (that’s the only kind I buy, FYI) (~2T).  It was delicious.  It made enough for about 2-3 salads.

And that was it.  Top your lettuce with chicken pieces, tomatoes, red onion, feta cheese, green onion and a drizzle of homemade balsamic vinaigrette dressing. 

I am so jealous of my past-self right now!  Our mixed green selection included baby kale - that's the nice thing about homemade - substitutions welcome.  :-)

I don’t think Granite City did it any better than this, honestly, though their crostini toast was pretty darn good – I’ll have to work on that. 

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Found this on pinterest! I've been trying to recreate this recipe for a LONG time! Here's a couple tips that I learned while working at Granite City. The red onion and tomatoes are marinated in a garlic balsamic dressing to make almost a relish. The ciabatta bread has caesar dressing and parmesan and then it is toasted! I believe the recipe also has blue cheese crumbles too. Happy cooking!

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