This salad, which has marinated grilled chicken and pineapple over a nutritious bed of baby spinach, elegantly combines sweet and salty flavors. Everyone who eats it requests the recipe, so we never have any leftovers! Use rosemary and fresh pineapple; they make the dish.
| Prep Time: | 15 mins |
| Cook Time: | 10 mins |
| Additional Time: | 3 hrs |
| Total Time: | 3 hrs 25 mins |
| Servings: | 8 |
| Yield: | 8 servings |
Ingredients
- 1 (12 fluid ounce) can or bottle beer
- ½ cup honey
- ⅓ cup Dijon mustard
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 tablespoon fresh rosemary, or more to taste
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ⅛ teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper
- 2 pounds chicken breast tenderloins
- 1 fresh pineapple
- 1 (10 ounce) bag baby spinach leaves
- ¼ cup pine nuts
- 1 (10 ounce) can mandarin oranges, drained
- 6 tablespoons poppy seed salad dressing (such as Kraft®), or to taste
Instructions
- Mix beer, honey, Dijon mustard, olive oil, rosemary, garlic powder, salt, and black pepper in a large resealable plastic bag until thoroughly combined. Add chicken to the marinade, evenly coat, and squeeze air from the bag. Seal and refrigerate several hours to overnight, turning bag over occasionally.
- Preheat outdoor grill for medium-high heat and lightly oil the grate.
- Twist top from pineapple and cut peel off in long vertical strips. Cut pineapple into wedges vertically and cut the tough core from each wedge.
- Thread marinated chicken tenders onto skewers. Grill chicken and pineapple wedges on the preheated grill until chicken is no longer pink inside, chicken juices run clear, and pineapple wedges are tender and show light brown grill marks, 10 to 12 minutes. Cut chicken and pineapple into bite-sized pieces.
- Toss spinach with pine nuts and mandarin orange segments in a large bowl. Top salad with chicken and pineapple pieces. Serve on salad plates; drizzle each serving with 2 teaspoons poppy seed dressing.
- Editor’s Note:
- The nutrition data for this recipe includes the full amount of the marinade ingredients. The actual amount of the marinade consumed will vary.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 438 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 52 g |
| Cholesterol | 68 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 4 g |
| Protein | 27 g |
| Saturated Fat | 2 g |
| Sodium | 706 mg |
| Sugars | 40 g |
| Fat | 13 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
Easy, fast, delicious, and healthy! All qualities I look for in a recipe! Not to mention minimal clean up! Thanks for sharing this great recipe!
I was skeptical about trying this since there were only 3 reviews, but it was delicious! I used dried rosemary instead of fresh, and accidentally measured too much, and it was still fine. Didn’t have pine nuts, so substituted sunflowers seeds because it definitely needed something crunchy. Amazing combination of flavors and textures. Use fresh pineapple.
OMG…this is the first time I have been moved to review. Absolutely one of the best salads Ive had. The marinade was fabulous! Only thing I changed was to cut back on the oranges…the pineapple gave it more than enough sweetness and the pine nuts gave it that crunch without being overwhelming
This was a delicious salad. Made as written except I toasted the pine nuts. The grilled pineapple was superb with the marinaded chicken. Served it on a bed of spring mix and used poppy seed dressing. Other light dressings or vinegars could be substituted. Thanks for a great recipe.
This recipe contains a great marinade for chicken! We love grilled pineapple, too, so it was win/win. This is a great salad. My only change was to grill the chicken and pineapple separately, to assure the correct amount of doneness. I will place this recipe in 3 places in my RB, because I don’t want to forget about it. It will go in the poultry folder, the salad folder, AND the sauce and marinade folder! Thanks for the idea.