Servings: 4 Prep: 15 min Cook: 15 min Total: 30 min
This salad is AWESOME! I probably eat this salad at least once a week, and have for a few years. It’s probably the backbone, or foundation of my entire outlook on this way of eating. It’s fresh, warm, comforting, delicious, a little sweet, a little dangerous, it has no FrankenFoods, it’s a combination of cooked and raw ingredients, plus … it has BACON!
This particular salad is more or less the “home version” of a salad that I learned to make working at a San Francisco restaurant called “Postrio” in 1992. I loved it, then … and I love it now!
If I had to be truly honest about how I make this … the end result isn’t as attractive as the photo. In the photo, I cooked the whole chicken breast, then sliced it. I cheated … for a pretty photo. In reality, I just cut raw chicken into chunks and saute it with olive oil and/or bacon fat. The recipe will explain it. I hope you enjoy this salad HALF as much as I have through the years!
Greatest Salad Ever, Warm Chicken, Bacon, Tomato and Balsamic
Print RateIngredients
- 4 cups mixed baby greens washed
- 1 lb fresh mozzarella cubed
- 1 lb fresh tomatoes cubed
- 16 leaves fresh basil hand torn
- 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
- 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
- 4 each boneless chicken breasts cubed (or equivalent thigh meat - skin optional)
- 2 each garlic clove minced
- 8 slices raw bacon chopped (for bits)
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- In a large salad bowl, add greens, mozzarella, tomatoes and large pieces of hand torn basil leaves, keeping the tomatoes on the side of the bowl, in a nice pile.
- Season the tomatoes with a little salt and pepper (the salt will pull the tomato juice from the tomatoes, which will mix with the salad, later).
- In a cup, place the olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Set the vinaigrette aside.
- In a medium bowl, mix the cut chicken with the chopped garlic. Season the chicken with a little salt and pepper.
- In a sauté pan, over medium heat, cook the bacon until the bacon is crispy.
- Remove the bacon from the bacon grease and set aside, while leaving the grease in the hot pan.
- Add the seasoned chicken to the hot bacon fat and cook until the chicken is cooked through.
- At the last minute, at the bacon back into the chicken, simply to warm it up.
- Pour the vinaigrette over the top of the salad, in the salad bowl.
- Pour the hot chicken, bacon and bacon fat over the tomatoes, in the salad bowl.
- Quickly toss the salad, serve and eat! Should slightly wilt and have a great sweet bacon taste!
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* Learn More: More about this recipe and nutrition …
This Salad looks great!! I am collecting foods and reciepe’s and going to attempt the low carb again once and for all. Your site gives me hope and lots of idea’s.
Thanks for the kind words! I can?t even begin to describe what a lifesaver this salad is. It?s literally a 10 minute meal, and it?s full of nutrients and flavor. I always have real bacon bits lying around (whether store bought, or home made). So, the only real difficult or time consuming part is cutting and cooking the chicken. Even that is just a quick stir fry, then throw it in the bowl!
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I love your blog and I look forward to the new recipes. I would be interested in following along with you eating zero carb. Would you be interested in posting your menus? Also, how long does this salad keep? It makes 4 servings so I would need to eat it over a couple of days or so.
—Reply posted by DJ on 4/12/2015
Hi Georgia, I suggest clicking “Search” at the top of this page. Type “Zero Carb” into the search box and read through my experience(s) with it. It’ll contain some interesting info, stories and a link to a list of menu ideas. If you can’t find it, email me and I’ll give you a bigger/better answer. I hope this helps! 🙂
—Reply posted by Georgia on 4/9/2015
i also would love to see your zero carb menus …. It seems to be so hard to start that lifestyle without someone’s help. This salad sounds great- would definitely make it. Thanks so very much for any help..
Hi Deb! Thanks for the kind words! It’s a new blog and I’m still feeling my way around, but so far … people seem to like my nonsense! 😉
I’ll email you, directly, about the zero carb menus. Happy to do it, but it would take up too much space, here.
Regarding this salad … it’s a fresh and warm salad. It would wilt and fall apart. Also, the fresh mozzarella would lose all its moisture, as would the tomatoes. It would get weird, quickly. Here’s what I do … I have individually frozen chicken breasts. I’ll defrost one, season it, cut it up and cook it with bacon bits (homemade or store bought). In a seperate bowl, I cube a medium sized tomato and about a 1/3 of a lb of fresh mozzarella (you can buy individual balls or logs, cut up what you need and refridgerate the rest for a few days). I add balsamic vin., oil, salt, pepper and greens. Then, I throw the hot chicken and bacon onto the pile of tomatoes, mix it up and eat it straight from the salad bowl! Basically, it’s a quick salad to make, and if you keep the "parts" seperate, actually mixing it, when you’re ready to eat it, only takea few minutes and it’s FRESH! I hope this helps!
So dj, if you were going to make this for one person, you’d only use how much?
This is the greatest salad ever! Mmmmm!!
I know, right?! It’s truly the best combination of tasty loveliness there is! Thanks, Sharon!
AWESOME flavors on so many levels!! Thanks DJ for inspiration one more time!!
This salad was really delicious. The wheather is currently really hot here in South Africa and it was an awesome refreshing Sunday lunch – my whole family loved it! Thank you for the great recipe, will make it again and again and again!
Hi Estelle and DK, I’m glad you enjoyed it. I just made one last night for dinner! Years and years later … it’s STILL a favorite of mine! 🙂
I am definitely going to try this. I love, love, love the way you make it so easy to print out your recipes! Thank you!
Thanks, LS! I appreciate the compliment! I was stressing putting that into place, but … it actually went in pretty easily! 🙂
Gotta say the ads I saw on this site, remove dark spots, and cure toe nail fungus.. Makes me very hungry for this salad
The ads are all fairly new, sgmb1981. I believe there is a way to go in and "prune", but I just haven’t had the time to get in there and do it. Most of the time it seems like they’re food related … even low-carb based more often than not. However, I do agree that some of them are just clearly not right. I haven’t seen the ones you’ve mentioned, but … it wouldn’t surprise me. Give me time. I’ll get in there and clean them up. Thanks! 🙂
how is this for leftovers? I would make this for myself only, my husband is not a rabbit he says lol
Hi Michelle, I’d say … it’s not great for leftovers … as it exists in this recipe, anyway. The problem is, it’s a warm salad. So, the salt and heat pulls the moisture from the cheese and tomatoes, it wilts the greens, etc. It’s phenomenal, when it’s fresh but after even just an hour, it’ll start to do strange things. That said, the "parts" all do quite well, individually. If you make the different ingredients, like cut the tomatoes, cheese, chicken, etc. you can store them separately and make smaller quick batches from the base ingredients. The ingredients all last quite a while when prepared and kept cool, but mixed together, while warm … it’s intended to be eaten. I hope this makes sense. Thanks! 🙂
No chicken or bacon for me
Unknown, this would still be delicious without the chicken and bacon. Feel free to leave them out, if that’s not your cup of tea! 🙂
So glad to find your site because I need variety and taste in my food plan. I have a couple of questions. First, I do not like salt, so I wanted to know if commercial salt substitutes have the same affect on the cooking? Second, when I’m too lazy to clean up the bacon mess, I sort of refry low sodium bacon pieces from the salad section. Will that work? How about turkey bacon?
Thanks for sharing your inspiration and expertise.
Hi Uknown, sorry for the delay. I?ve been moving, which has eaten a lot of time. In any event, I know next to nothing about commercial salt replacements. I don?t know how they behave or even what they taste like. I?m sorry! Refrying the bacon bits should work just fine. I do this, myself! Just make sure it?s real bacon and not imitation bacon. Finally, I?m not a huge fan of turkey bacon. I don?t much see the point. It?s a strange turkey emulsion, from ? who knows which part of the turkey ? which is bleached, dyed, formed and cooked. It?s like the hot dogs of bacon, but ? more odd. I don?t much understand it, unless you?re trying to limit fats, but ? that?s not my goal. I also don?t much like the texture of it. Feel free to use it. It?ll obviously work, but ? I can?t help but feel it?s a step into a strange needlessly processed territory ? I wish I knew more about the salt question. Sorry!
Made this for our supper love the textures loved the way the
food blended to a unique taste that satisfied me and hubbies
Tummie. Thanks.Thanks for the recipe. good job?
—Reply posted by DJ on 4/12/2015
Sure! I’ll take it! 🙂
This was absolutely amazing!!! I just received your book and I am super excited to try more of your recipes!!