Pecan Crusted Fall Chicken Salad by Candis Gleason

Candis Gleason shares a beautiful, crisp salad recipe with the delicious flavors of fall. Diced apple, dried cranberries & creamy goat cheese compliment the star of the salad, a pecan-crusted dijon mustard chicken breast. Oh it just sounds heavenly.

Healthy, gourmet, simple, nutritious, full of flavor & texture.

Salad for Winning

The West wasn’t won on salads. But the Professional Bull Riders (PBR) is winning and it’s as wild as the Wild West. The extremely intelligent man behind “The Greatest Sport of Dirt” is Sean Gleason. His wife, Candis, shared this recipe. See, Sean ate it, Sean loved it! You can eat this salad and be winning too!

Follow Sean @PBRCEO and Candis @candisgleason on Instagram.

Sean & Candis Gleason at the PBR World Finals

Did you know?

My husband, Ty, was one of the 20 original founders of the PBR. They congregated in a Scottsdale, Arizona motel room for the PBR’s inaugural organizing meeting in 1992. Each cowboy put up $1,000, formed the PBR and the association crowned its first champion in 1994. Ty and the cowboys envisioned the incredible sport the PBR is now, where cowboys can earn an awesome living with more prize money and exposure.

Pecan Crusted Fall Chicken Salad by Candis Gleason

Recipe by Candis GleasonCourse: SaladsCuisine: AmericanDifficulty: Easy
Servings

4

servings
Prep time

15

minutes
Cooking time

25

minutes

Beautiful, crisp salad recipe with the delicious flavors of fall

Ingredients

  • Chicken
  • 3 Boneless-skinless chicken breast

  • 4 tablespoons arrowroot powder (if GF) or whole wheat flour

  • 1/4 cup Country Dijon Mustard

  • 6 oz finely chopped pecans (I use my food processor for this)

  • Salt and pepper

  • Salad
  • 7 ounces of romaine lettuce

  • 7 ounces of butter lettuce (or any variety you like)

  • 1 fuji or gala apple diced

  • 1 celery stalk thinly sliced

  • 4 strips of smoked bacon diced (we made smoked bacon for Thanksgiving so I had this in the fridge but you can use any bacon you like, any bacon tastes good!)

  • 3 green onions diced thin, white and green parts

  • 1 tablespoon fresh Italian parsley

  • 2 tablespoons crumbled goat cheese

  • 3 tablespoons dried cranberries

  • 1 teaspoon pure maple syrup

  • Creamy Balsamic Vinaigrette dressing, however much you like!

Directions

  • Heat the oven to 375 degrees.
  • For the chicken it is easiest to buy pre-pounded chicken but if you have regular breasts like I did, they will cook faster and more evenly if you use a kitchen mallet and pound them out. I place them on the cutting board and lay a piece of plastic wrap over them so they don’t splatter anywhere. Using the mallet pound them evenly to about 1/2 inch thick each.
  • Make 3 bowls, one of arrowroot or flour, one of mustard and one of your chopped pecans.
  • Dip each breast first into the arrowroot powder to give it a dry coating, then cover in country dijon mustard (using the back of a spoon is easiest) and then in the chopped pecans.
  • Lay each piece on a cookie sheet, preferably with a wire rack on top so they can cook evenly.
  • Lightly sprinkle your desired amount of salt and pepper on top and cook for 25 minutes.
  • Combine all ingredients, lettuce through cranberries together in a large bowl.
  • Drizzle the maple syrup over the salad and then add dressing, toss to combine.
  • Once chicken is done, slice and lay on top of salad. I have teenagers and a hungry man so I serve the tossed salad in one bowl, goat cheese on the side and the sliced chicken I leave on the cutting board so each person can build their own.

Notes

  • Tips: any lettuce is great, I just like to mix some for crunch and some for pretty colors. These are all ingredients I had for Thanksgiving that I was using up. If you don’t have parsley or another ingredient it’s ok, use what you have!
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2 Comments

  1. Just thinking about you and here is a recipe…..Thank you