Bring On Summer: Strawberry, Chicken, and Pecan Salad

Is it summer yet? June  in the Pacific Northwest is sending mixed messages—sunny and warm one day, pouring rain the next. I know it’s not officially summer until June 20 (here in the northern hemisphere, that is), but after the dismal weather of winter and most of spring here, I’m itching for summertime, which is one of the reasons I turned to a summer salad for dinner.

The strawberries are what make this salad suitable for summer. We don’t have a strawberry patch, and good strawberries can be hard to find at our local grocery. I looked at several of the plastic containers, trying to find one that didn’t contain more than one bruised or suspicious-looking (read: going to rot soon) berry. The reason is, I think, that these berries are shipped up from California, and I should probably go to a farmer’s market instead. Sigh. I probably should do a lot of things, but this time I settled on a decent plastic box of strawberries and headed home.

Another draw was the pecans, which admittedly are more of a winter thing. But how could I resist when they were toasted in a pan with butter, and sprinkled with salt and pepper? On their own, these pecans make a great snack, or you could serve them as an appetizer. In the salad, they add a crunchy texture and sweet-salty taste. Pecans are adaptable; they play nice with strawberries, chicken, spinach—all the elements of this salad. I stowed away a little supply for myself and sprinkled them on my lunch salads throughout the week. I highly recommend doing this.

The dressing is a combination of balsamic vinegar (always a good choice, when it comes to strawberries), olive oil, and orange juice. I was a bit skeptical of the orange juice, at first. Would it be too strong a flavor? Would it clash with the feta cheese I decided to use in place of the Swiss recommended by the original recipe (Swiss cheese is one of the few cheeses I don’t like)? But I went ahead anyways, and was happy to find that the orange flavor is at the perfect level, subtle rather than overwhelming. As usual, I omitted the sugar from the dressing, and didn’t miss it. Some online commenters on the original recipe found the dressing too oily, but that never came up for me. The balsamic is what I noticed, and loved, the most.

Summer may still be coming in fits and starts here, but that’s no reason to hold off on summer cooking. So I encourage you to make this salad and serve it with something summery, like corn on the cob—even if you end up eating inside.

Strawberry, Chicken, and Pecan Salad
Adapted from Taste of Home

About 1.5 pounds chicken breast, cubed
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 heaping cup pecan halves
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon ground pepper
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons olive oil, plus extra for cooking the chicken
1 tablespoon orange juice
5 ounces spinach
1 pound strawberries, hulled and sliced
6 ounces crumbled feta cheese

1. Heat a little olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add cubed chicken and cook, stirring occasionally, until cooked through.
2. In a separate skillet, melt the butter over medium heat. Add the pecan halves, stirring to coat in the butter. Let the pecans toast for about 2 minutes (watch carefully, as they can burn quickly). Stir in the salt and 1/8 teaspoon ground pepper. Transfer pecans to a bowl to cool.
3. In a small bowl, whisk together the balsamic vinegar, olive oil, orange juice, and 1/8 teaspoon ground pepper.
4. In a large bowl, combine the spinach, chicken, strawberries, and feta. Pour the dressing over and toss to coat. Serve the salad with pecans sprinkled on each serving (or toss them in the salad bowl as well).

Testing, Testing: Sweet and Spicy Fruit Salad

In a way, it seems odd to offer up a recipe for fruit salad. You just chop the fruits of your choosing and toss them together in a bowl, right? But if you want to up-level your fruit salads a little, you’re going to need some guidance.

At least, I did. I first had this salad at a work potluck, when one of my coworkers brought it in. I was immediately smitten with the salad and asked for the recipe. It wasn’t just fruit mixed together in a bowl; it was also covered in a sweet/spicy/tart dressing of honey, cayenne, and lime juice. The honey and cayenne combination plays on the well-known magic of sweet and spicy, with zingy lime juice thrown in for extra deliciousness.

My coworker sent me the recipe and I made it shortly after, replacing the watermelon with mangoes (these fruits do well with a little spice). But in my kitchen, things didn’t go as planned. There was too much dressing, and far too much cayenne. Maybe the watermelon absorbed all this somehow? Can watermelon absorb? I didn’t spend much time mulling over these questions. Instead, the recipe sat in my inbox, waiting for the day I would try it again, for a little more than a year.

I’m not proud of this disturbing trend of me not getting to recipes for a year or more, but there it is. Luckily, I recently decided it was time to give this fruit salad another chance. I halved the dressing and tested how much cayenne I actually wanted in it (1/8 of a teaspoon, it turns out. Spice wimp all the way). I served these test salads alongside tall slices of homemade quiche, because I realized that a fruit salad is the side our quiches have been missing. It’s a hard life, this recipe testing.

Making a couple attempts paid off with a salad that is perfectly balanced in proportion of fruit to dressing, with just a touch of cayenne heat. It’s not a terribly complicated or work-intensive recipe (hooray), but even with something as simple as fruit salad, it’s good to have a little guidance.

Sweet and Spicy Fruit Salad
Adapted from AllRecipes

1 fresh pineapple, peeled, cored, and cubed (this recipe works best with fresh pineapple/freshly cut pineapple; canned pineapple produced a disappointing salad)
2 mangoes, peeled and cubed, or 2 peaches, cubed
1 pound strawberries, stems removed, quartered
2 tablespoons lime juice (fresh or bottled)
1 ½ tablespoons honey
1/8 teaspoon ground cayenne

1. In a large bowl, gently combine the pineapple, mangoes or peaches, and strawberries.
2. In a small bowl, whisk together the lime juice, honey, and cayenne. Drizzle this mixture over the fruit. Stir gently to coat the fruits completely in the dressing.