Grilled Chicken Salad

There was, may still be, a restaurant in Lake Charles, Louisiana that served some kind of salad with a dressing that had a bit of peanut butter.  That’s absolutely all I can remember about it . . other than I loved it.

There’s a restaurant in Owensboro, KY that served peanut butter pie so my plan was to make one of these items for the What’s Cooking Challenge this week.

Late last week, I made another Meyer Lemon Tart.  Over the weekend, my neighbor made a pound cake and shared with us so I didn’t need to make a dessert so I went with the salad with the peanut butter in the dressing.

This salad is delicious and will be fantastic for dinner during the heat of the summer when I need something quick that doesn’t make too much of a mess in the kitchen.  Vince likes to eat by 6 p.m. but yesterday with the plumbers here to work on the water heater, and then them deciding to show us their witching ability, and then they wanted to see all the chickens, and then we went to visit the neighbor, it was after 7 before we ate.  This was light, yet filling . . real tasty.  In my haste to hurry and get it on the table, I never took a picture with the dressing and it’s the dressing that has the peanut butter in it but you can imagine how it looked with dressing.

Grilled Chicken Salad

1 chicken breast per person
1 can pineapple rings, drained
1-1/2 cups salad greens per person
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 can whole kernel corn, drained
1 cucumber, peeled and sliced
1 – 2 avocados, peeled and sliced

Peanut Butter Dressing:

2 limes, juiced
2 T. lime zest
1/2 cup olive oil
1 T. peanut butter (smooth or crunchy)
2 T. chopped cilantro
2 tsp. sugar

Topping:

Chopped dry roasted peanuts
Salt
Pepper

Instructions:

1. For dressing, mix all ingredients.  I dump it all into a pint jar and use my stick blender.
2. Grill the chicken.  Season it a few hours before grilling or marinate it in your favorite marinade.
3. Grill the pineapple rings.
4. Cut the chicken breasts into slices or chunks.
5. Cut the pineapple rings into chunks.
6. Place the salad greens on a plate, add the black beans, corn, avocado and cucumber.
7. Add the pineapple and chicken on top of the salad mixture.
8. Drizzle with dressing.  Top with chopped peanuts.
9. Add salt and pepper to taste.