This tasty walnut hen salad combines crisp greens with candy cherries, crunchy nuts, and creamy gorgonzola cheese, tossed with juicy hen items in a light-weight and tangy French dressing.
I really like recipes like this walnut and cherry hen salad or my mango hen salad as simple meals. They’re additionally nice paired with soup or a sandwich for a bistro-style lunch or dinner!
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Inspiration for this salad got here years in the past when a relative introduced over a basic creamy hen salad studded with cherries and walnuts. Quick ahead, and I’m endlessly obsessive about my inexperienced, leafy model of a cherry and walnut hen salad. It’s fast and straightforward to make like all good salad needs to be. The juicy hen chunks make it good to tuck into as a light-weight lunch or hearty aspect dish. If in case you have leftover hen in your fridge, it’s an indication. Make this salad ASAP!
Why I Love This Walnut Hen Salad Recipe
The flavors are scrumptious. I really like the distinction of crunchy walnuts and candy dried cherries with sharp blue cheese and a recent French dressing. It’s so satisfying.
It’s prepared in minutes. If you have already got your hen cooked and prepared, the salad comes collectively in 10 minutes or much less. It’s simple to meal prep, too, and take to-go through the week.
It’s tremendous versatile. For lunch, dinner, or a aspect dish, this hen salad does all of it. Any season, on a regular basis! It’s even nice rolled up inside lavash bread as a hen salad wrap.
Components You’ll Want
The great thing about this salad is that the components preserve it easy, however there’s a great deal of taste to go round. Take a look at some notes right here, and scroll right down to the recipe card for a printable checklist of components and recipe instructions.
- Hen – I like to make use of cooked boneless skinless hen breast because it’s simple to cube up. I’ll typically make this salad every time I’ve leftover baked hen breast or a complete roast hen to get by way of.
- Greens – Select any mixture of your favourite salad leaves. I like a mix of child lettuce and spinach, or I’ll decide up a bag of spring combine from the shop.
- Gorgonzola Cheese – Agency, crumbly gorgonzola is a form of blue cheese from Italy. I find it irresistible paired with walnuts in recipes like this hen salad and my orzo salad. If you happen to aren’t a fan, crumbled feta or goat cheese makes an excellent substitute.
- Cherries – Dried cherries style nice any time of the 12 months. When recent cherries are in season, I’ll take away the pits and chop them up to make use of as a substitute.Â
- Walnuts – This recipe makes use of chopped uncooked walnuts. Pecans are one other good choice.
- Dressing – I embrace the right way to make a straightforward Dijon French dressing, however you may gown your walnut hen salad with any salad dressing you want.Â
Find out how to Make a Walnut Hen Salad
My cherry hen salad with walnuts comes collectively similar to some other salad. First, prepare the greens in a bowl. Then, it’s a matter of nestling the hen over prime and including the remainder of the toppings. On this case, crumbled gorgonzola, dried cherries, and walnuts for crunch. Whisk collectively the dressing, drizzle it over the salad, and toss! It’s as simple as that.
The Greatest Hen Salad Dressing
The sunshine Dijon French dressing that I take advantage of for this walnut hen salad is one in all my all-time favorites. It’s ridiculously easy. To make it, mix oil and vinegar with Dijon, salt, and pepper and provides it an excellent whisk or a shake in a tight-lidded jar to emulsify.Â
Be happy to regulate the components to style. The recipe is definitely impressed by the dressing used within the well-known La Scala chopped salad. If you happen to’d like, go forward and embrace freshly grated parmesan like the unique!
Extra Add-In Concepts
A walnut hen salad is a good one to customise relying on which components are in season. As all the time, I’d love to listen to your concepts! Within the meantime, listed here are a few of mine:
- Spring and Summer season: Recent cherries and recent berries, like strawberries or blackberries, make a pleasant add-on to this salad after they’re in season. In grilling climate, it’s scrumptious with grilled hen, or I’ll swap hen for steak for a model of a steak salad.
- Fall: Sliced apples, pears, and toasted pumpkin seeds or pecans are a tasty approach to transition this salad recipe into the autumn. I additionally like so as to add roasted butternut squash.
- Winter: Strive add-ins like cabbage, kale, or different winter greens, like Brussels sprouts. Dried cranberries additionally work nice instead of cherries.Â
Serving Ideas
This hen walnut salad is a good gentle lunch. I prefer to pair it with a comfy bowl of soup, like this cream of zucchini soup, or a grilled cheese sandwich. If I’m planning a date evening dinner at residence, this salad makes a fairly starter main into tacky crock pot French onion soup and our favourite chardonnay, with chocolate mousse for dessert.Â
12 months-round, I’ll serve this salad as a fancy-without-even-trying aspect dish. It goes with pasta once we entertain, or I’ll take it alongside to our neighborhood picnics and potlucks!
Can I Meal Prep This Salad?
Completely. Again in my big-city-office days, I used to make a to-go model of this walnut and cherry hen salad the evening earlier than to take to work within the morning. It makes an important mason jar salad, or you may retailer it in an hermetic container.Â
To prep this salad prematurely, begin by including a number of spoonfuls of dressing to the container. Then, layer the remainder of the salad on this order: walnuts, cherries, hen, and blue cheese, ending with the salad greens—don’t toss it or combine it collectively. Seal the container, preserve the salad within the fridge, and shake it earlier than serving.
Storing Leftovers
Sadly, as soon as dressed, this hen salad gained’t keep recent for lengthy because the leaves are inclined to wilt and grow to be soggy after a day or two within the fridge. If you already know you’ll have leftovers, do your greatest to retailer the salad with out the dressing (see my meal prep ideas above). Take pleasure in!
Extra Hen Salad Recipes
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Assemble the salad. Place combined greens and spinach in a big salad bowl. Prime with hen, cheese, cherries, and walnuts.
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Make the dressing. Mix oil, vinegar, dijon mustard, salt, and pepper in a mixing bowl and whisk till effectively integrated. Style and modify for vinegar, salt, and pepper.
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Mix. Add the dressing to the salad and toss to mix.
- Hen choices. Use this simple baked hen breasts recipe to prepare dinner your hen. If you happen to’d like to make use of thighs, seize this recipe for stovetop hen thighs.
- Fruit choices. If recent cherries are in season, you need to use these when you like. However when you can’t get any sort of cherries, use dried cranberries or recent berries.Â
Energy: 457kcal | Carbohydrates: 23g | Protein: 22g | Fats: 32g | Saturated Fats: 7g | Polyunsaturated Fats: 11g | Monounsaturated Fats: 12g | Trans Fats: 0.01g | Ldl cholesterol: 50mg | Sodium: 350mg | Potassium: 658mg | Fiber: 5g | Sugar: 13g | Vitamin A: 5738IU | Vitamin C: 20mg | Calcium: 194mg | Iron: 3mg
Dietary data is an estimate and offered as courtesy. Values might range based on the components and instruments used. Please use your most popular dietary calculator for extra detailed data.
