This chicken salad is a flavor sensation because to the sweet and smoky pecans and sweet berries that it contains! I have given Christmas gifts of just the pecans in tins; they are fantastic. The berries given are merely ideas; feel free to use any kind and amounts you choose! creates a lovely summer dinner.
| Prep Time: | 15 mins |
| Cook Time: | 30 mins |
| Total Time: | 45 mins |
| Servings: | 6 |
| Yield: | 6 servings |
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons hot red pepper sauce
- ½ cup margarine, melted
- ⅔ cup brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 1 pinch salt
- 1 pound coarsely chopped pecans
- 6 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 tablespoon Greek seasoning
- 1 pound romaine lettuce, torn
- 1 cup cherry tomato halves
- ½ cup fresh strawberries
- ½ cup seedless grapes
- ¼ cup fresh raspberries
- ¼ cup fresh blueberries
- ½ cup honey mustard salad dressing
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
- In a bowl, mix the hot red pepper sauce, margarine, brown sugar, Worcestershire sauce, lemon juice, and salt. Mix pecans into the bowl, tossing to coat evenly. Spread pecans in a single layer on a baking sheet. Bake 10 minutes in the preheated oven, stirring often and watching carefully, until lightly browned. Remove from heat, and set aside.
- Rub chicken with the olive oil, place on a baking sheet, and sprinkle with Greek seasoning. Bake 20 minutes or until juices run clear. Slice into strips.
- In a salad bowl, toss together romaine lettuce, chicken strips, cherry tomato halves, strawberries, grapes, raspberries, and blueberries. Sprinkle with pecans, and drizzle with dressing.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 984 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 40 g |
| Cholesterol | 68 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 10 g |
| Protein | 36 g |
| Saturated Fat | 9 g |
| Sodium | 681 mg |
| Sugars | 26 g |
| Fat | 80 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
The pecans are sweet with a bite! it is a wonderful taste! We will make this again and again.
This is a fantastic recipe. This is going to be a regular summer meal.
I changed the number of servings and it ended up making *way* too much of the spiced pecans, which was fine because they were really good just as a snack. One thing I changed was that I tossed half the dressing with the lettuce before adding any of the other ingredients, then drizzed the rest of the dressing over the top after adding the fruit, chicken and nuts. Next time, I would make each salad on its own plate because almost all the fruit/chicken/nuts fell to the bottom as soon as we started serving.
Tried this salad today but the fruits I used were grapes, pineapple and strawberries. I also added a few bacon bits and added feta cheese to my plate, not the entire salad. I must say the pecans are to die for and actually make a wonderful snack. Also I made the honey mustard dressing from scratch…great recipe…thanks
MMMmmm good! Expensive, but never had a better salad as a meal. Hard to save enough pecans for it, though; can’t stop eating them. I grill the chicken breast and have smoked them, too.
Tons of flavor. And easy to put together.
This was superb even though I made it in late October. I wanted to use up the cherry tomatoes from my garden and some left over chicken. Definitely will make again and again. The honey mustard sauce I had left over will be great as a dip.
Delicious! But does anyone have a lighter version of this recipe? As much as I love and appreciate JRW8 for sharing this recipe, I am counting calories and I can’t continue to eat it with all of it’s 900+ calories per serving!
The ingredients are good, but the proportions are off. It doesn’t make sense to have equal parts nuts and lettuce, and 6 chicken breast halves makes chicken the main ingredient in this salad!
This was yummy! The pecans were the deal breaker. They added texture and spice to the salad.
Outstanding! The chicken and sweet berries combined with the tangy dressing . . . . heaven! Perfect for a hot summer night dinner.
Lot of work but it was delicious. I used almonds instead of pecans and left them whole as I was in a hurry.
This was one of the best salads I’ve EVER had. SOOOOOOOOOO GOOD!!!!!!!!! When I do this again, I will decrease the butter when I make the pecans. I cooked them on parchment lined paper on a cookie sheet- and just let them cook there and broke them apart after they had cooled and solidified. DELICIOUS!
This is one of the best salads I have ever made, served and ate. I made it for a company retreat and everyone ate it and loved it. I put the salad in a large platter and lined the fruit on top then added pecans and Italian chesse. I added fresh pineapple. I sever the dressing on the side and grilled the chicken and seved it on the side I coated it with olive oil and and Montreal seasoning for Chicken and then gilled it. It was wnderful and I would make it over and over again. The best.
This recipe is just awesome. I made it exactly like the recipe says. I used strawberries, grapes and blueberries. I also used Newman’s Own Honey Mustard dressing which is so yummy. My husband hates fruity salads and he said this was just perfect for a hot day!
Loved it but gave it 4 stars bez I am confused about the pecans. My pecans came out very “goopy”, and I baked them twice as long as recipe calls for, just to try and get them to crisp up. Maybe cutting butter in half will help? Also, if I refrigerated, they were less goopy, but stuck together and I had to hammer them apart, and if I didn’t refrigerate, they got all sloopy and gooey again and looked very unpleasant. Anyways, do they need to be refrigerated to be safe to eat? Somehow I didn’t feel comfortable leaving them out. I will keep this recipe but perhaps look for a different recipe for the “candied” pecans.
It was a real winner with all the people I served at lunch (men and women). Everyone had 2nds. I added Gorgonzola cheese, which really added the flavor. Served w/ italian sliced bread. The nuts are the real flavor.
Wonderful. We added some crumbled feta cheese, and it added a nice twang.
This is soooo tasty…When I give pecans as a gift this year, I will also give a copy of this recipe…
This is a wonderful salad! The pecans have so much flavor and go great with the chicken, grapes and fruit. Next time I will cut the butter in half though. Instead of baking the chicken with greek seasoning we barbecued it with some Grill Mates Montreal Chicken seasoning because my husband wanted to grill. And I didn’t have any honey mustard dressing, so I used raspberry poppy seed vinaigrette, which was perfect. I had red grapes, strawberries and raspberries for the salad. Yum and perfect for summer.