Salads & Dressings
Strawberry Walnut Chicken Salad
The salad that made the vinegar famous: strawberries, toasted walnuts and grilled chicken under a walnut strawberry balsamic vinaigrette.
- 34 min total
- 20 min prep
- 14 min cook
- Easy
- Serves 4 as a main
- Chicken
Ingredients
- 3 boneless skinless chicken breasts
- 6 tbsp Walnut Strawberry Dark Balsamic, divided
- 6 tbsp olive oil, divided
- 1 tsp Dijon mustard
- 1.5 tsp salt, divided
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
- 8 cups baby spinach or mixed greens
- 2 cups strawberries, hulled and sliced
- 3/4 cup walnuts, toasted and roughly chopped
- 1/2 cup crumbled goat cheese or feta
- 1/4 red onion, very thinly sliced
Let’s make it
- Rub the chicken with 2 tbsp olive oil, 1 tsp salt and the pepper. Grill or pan-sear 6-7 minutes per side until it reaches 165F, then rest 5 minutes and slice.
- Whisk 4 tbsp Walnut Strawberry Dark Balsamic with the Dijon and remaining 1/2 tsp salt, then stream in the remaining 4 tbsp olive oil, whisking until it thickens slightly.
- Toast the walnuts in a dry skillet over medium heat for 4-5 minutes, shaking often, until fragrant. Tip them out of the pan straight away.
- Toss the greens with about two-thirds of the vinaigrette and spread on a large platter.
- Arrange the strawberries, chicken, walnuts, cheese and red onion over the top.
- Finish with the remaining vinaigrette and the last 2 tbsp of dark balsamic drizzled straight from the bottle.
Why it works
A dark balsamic is sweet enough to stand up to strawberries without extra sugar in the dressing, and the Dijon holds the vinaigrette together so it coats the leaves instead of sliding to the bottom.
The OTM finish
Walnut Strawberry Dark Balsamic drizzled neat over the finished platter, on top of the dressed leaves.
Make it your own
Use grilled salmon or leave the protein out entirely, swap walnuts for candied pecans, or add sliced avocado and cucumber.
Quick tip
Toast the walnuts and watch them. They go from fragrant to bitter in under a minute.
Shop the recipe
The bottle this recipe is built on.