Warm Honey Mustard Chicken and Bacon Salad
Warm Honey Mustard Chicken and Bacon Salad
I’m not usually one to tell people what to do in their own homes. But I will today. You need to make this warm honey mustard chicken and bacon salad. No ifs or buts or maybes, you need to give this one a try. I’ve been telling people to make it for years and everyone who has made it LOVES it.
We’re talking about the usual salad suspects (lettuce, avocado, cherry tomatoes, red onion) mixed with crunchy oven baked croutons, crisp bacon and warm honey mustard marinated chicken pieces. But then there is a twist! You cook the marinade with a little cream and pour it all over the salad ingredients for the most amazing warm salad dressing ever!
I will be making this salad for the rest of my days. It’s seriously that good. Let me show you how.
Ingredients list! Baby spinach and baby cos lettuces, one avocado, one small red onion and one punnet of cherry tomatoes. I can’t ever go past those Perino snacking tomatoes, the flavour of those little blighters is amazing. For the marinade, wholegrain mustard, honey, olive oil and a clove of garlic. Two chicken breast fillets and as much bacon as you can spare. Don’t skimp on the bacon. The recipe calls for 4 rashers but I always add whatever I have, you can never have too much bacon.
Also, a cheap breadstick from the supermarket to make into croutons, and creme fraiche or normal cream for the dressing. This is the first time I used creme fraiche, usually I just use the cheapest cream. I thought I’d give the dearer, fancier product a try for this recipe but guess what? There is literally NO difference. Buy the cheaper cream instead.
Chop the chicken and place in the marinade. Cook the bacon at the same time.
Slice the breadstick into rounds, drizzle with olive oil and whack in the oven for fifteen minutes until golden.
Carefully pick the chicken out of the marinade and cook in the frying pan that you cooked the bacon in. Meanwhile, chop the salad ingredients and place in a bowl.
Remove the chicken and pour the marinade into the frying pan with the cream. Bring to a boil and make sure you cook that marinade thoroughly as it contained raw chicken.
Combine all of your ingredients in the salad bowl and pour the warm marinade on top. Stir it to combine and serve immediately!
Now, we have four children. They aren’t really salad people. I get it. Seven year old boys aren’t really into lettuce and avocado. Check him out picking through the remains of the salad with two of his sisters:
There wasn’t much left at all!
That’s how good this salad is. This is a salad that you WILL win friends with! Get on it!
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons wholegrain mustard
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 1/3 cup (80ml) olive oil
- 1 garlic clove, crushed
- 2 chicken breast fillets, cut into 2cm cubes
- 4 rashers bacon, chopped
- Half a bread stick, cut into 1cm slices
- 1 avocado, peeled, sliced
- 50g baby spinach
- 2 baby cos lettuce, leaves sliced thickly
- 1 punnet cherry tomatoes, halved
- 1 small red onion, thinly sliced
- ½ cup (125ml) creme fraiche or thick cream
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 190°C. Combine the mustard, honey, half the oil, garlic and chicken in a small bowl.
- Place the bread on a baking paper lined tray and drizzle with the remaining oil. Bake for 15 minutes or until crisp and golden. Cut into 2cm sized croutons.
- Place the avocado in a large serving bowl with the spinach, cos leaves, tomatoes and onion. Fry the bacon in a frying pan over medium high heat. Remove to a plate.
- Carefully remove the chicken from the bowl and reserve the marinade. Fry the chicken pieces in the pan until golden and cooked through. Add the chicken to the bowl with the salad, croutons and bacon.
- Pour the reserved marinade into the pan, stir in the creme fraiche and cook until bubbling. Pour over the salad and toss well to combine. Serve while still warm.
Jill Slater
Jill is a busy wife and mother of four young children. She loves nothing more than making people giggle, and loves to settle in with a glass of wine (or four) and wander about the internet. Feel free to follow her to see all the cool stuff she finds!
