I was missing one of my favorite salads from TGI Friday’s so I decided to make it myself. It was actually pretty easy and not too messy.

I have found, over the past few months, that improvising on a recipe is the best way of cooking. A little bit more of this…a little less of that and a recipe can turn out really great and it becomes yours. It really depends on what you want it to taste like. This is roughly what it took to make the salad.

Salad:

• Romaine lettuce (my personal favorite)
• cranberries
• can of mandarin oranges
• a handful of halved pecans

Chicken ingredients:

• 2 Chicken breasts
• 1 small bag (100g) of pecan halves
• about 1 cup of corn flakes
• 1/2-1 cup of flour
• 2 eggs (can be just one though for only 2 chicken breasts)
• about 1/2 cup of milk

Get 3 nice sized shallow bowls ready. Finely chop the nuts and cornflakes then mix together. Place 1/2 in one of the shallow bowls and the other 1/2 in a separate bowl. I used a stick blender for this. Next, mix the milk and eggs. Last, pour the flour into another bowl.

Lightly coat the chicken with the flour. Transfer chicken to the egg mix and lightly coat. Then transfer to the nut/flake mix. Place this on a plate to the side.

So now your chicken is ready to cook.  There are 2 ways to do it. One bake, the other fry. I opted to do a little of both because I didn’t trust it would be cooked enough, I am a freak when it comes to cooking chicken. To fry place chicken in heated oil in a nice pan, I used ground nut oil, for 3-4 mins per side or until brown. I did that and then baked it on 150c for about 15 mins. Another way is to turn up the heat and go with 180c/350f and bake for 30 mins (no frying).

This was my set up. Clockwise starting with the flour.

Frying it…questionable. I won’t do this again. It tasted excellent but I want to not gain weight so frying really isn’t how I normally cook.

Finished product! Yummy. This last picture was taken by Jamie. He can make anything look like art, even my salad.

I put the lettuce, cranberries, oranges, and nuts in the bowl. I cut up the chicken after it cooled a bit and tossed it on top. Remember that other bowl of nuts and cornflakes…grab it. Add a teaspoon of brown sugar to it and lightly sprinkle the mix over the top of the salad.

Pick a balsamic that you like and go for it. I made strawberry vinaigrette. What… you want that recipe too?… ok easy… get that stick blender again.

• a  good handfull of strawberries chopped
• 3 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar
• 1/4 cup of olive oil
• 1 teaspoon of brown sugar

Whizzzz it up and don’t waste that mandarin orange juice… I poured a splash of that in too. This is a trial and error dressing. It called for 1/2 a cup of oil and I didn’t like it that way so less oil this time… much better.

That is it! A fresh homemade pecan crusted chicken salad. I think it took about 45 mins but I was washing things as I went. Easy Peasy. I never thought I would be able to make the things I do but google is amazing for recipes and then just make them your own. Go on… try it. Let me know if you changed it to make it your own version.  x heather