Chicken and Spring Mix Salad with Spicy Pineapple Dressing

Ingredients

•1/2 lb skinless, boneless chicken breast

•1 tsp paprika (or chili powder) •1/2 tsp salt

•1/2 tsp garlic powder

•1 cup cubed fresh pineapple (about 8 ounces), divided

•1 tbsp orange juice (or apple juice)

•2 tbsp apple cider vinegar (or vinegar + 1 tsp sugar)•1/2 Serrano pepper, seeded (or habanero)

•1 tbsp olive oil (extra-virgin if available)•1/3 red bell pepper, thinly sliced•1/4 red onion, thinly sliced•1 (5-ounce) package fresh spring mix of spinach, baby lettuce, and radicchio

Preparation

1. Heat a non-stick pan over medium-high heat with 1 tbsp olive oil. Sprinkle both sides of chicken evenly with paprika, garlic powder, and salt. Add chicken to pan; cook for 5 minutes on each side or until well browned. Remove from pan; set aside.

2. Combine half of pineapple, orange juice, vinegar, and Serrano in a blender; process until smooth. Add olive oil after blended and mix with spoon or ladle.

3. Cut the red onion and red bell pepper into thin strips or desired pieces. Pineapples should be cut into 1/2-inch chunks or can be cut according to preference as well.

4. Combine remaining pineapple and the remaining ingredients in a large bowl. Drizzle with 3/4 cup dressing, and toss gently to coat. Divide salad evenly among 2 plates. Cut chicken across the grain into thin slices; divide chicken evenly over salads. Drizzle salad evenly with remaining dressing. Enjoy!

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About

We have been meaning to do something light and healthy for a while now after our consecutive (more like week long) meat-eating spree, so we wanted to do some sort of salad that could be filling as well as healthy for you. Lucky for us, we found a great recipe in this month's issue of Cooking Light that not only provided something light and healthy, but provided proteins (chicken) that we essentially need in order to call a meal. As with most recipes that we find online or in magazines, we do some tweaking to fit our eating style. In this case, we didn't grill the chicken (hence the summer issue) but pan-fried the breasts with some olive oil for a quite flavorful chicken breast. Also, we substituted the orange juice with apple juice, creating a frothy-like foam that kept us wondering when the froth would ever subside (it didn't). Nevertheless, the dressing was great and had a nice kick to it with the Serrano peppers. Though we are not much into salads in general, I think we will continue to seek out more salad-as-a-meal type of recipes after enjoying this dish.