Grilled Chicken, Fig and Rocket Salad

This divine Grilled Chicken, fig and rocket salad was my first salad attempt for Summer 2010, although the weather patterns are still a bit risky to say it is officially summer. Today again it is rainy and cloudy, but it is the way I like to be eased into summer. My family love salads, don't get me wrong, but for them salads should be a side dish, not a main dish. Yesterday I saw a few really delicious looking salads and I thought ..mmmm, side dish my foot...tonight a salad is going to be the main feature on our table....





The first salad I saw via Twitter was from Rose at Homemadeheaven, She made this really robust looking Nicoise Salad and it was enough to set me off in a salad-thinking-way. The next temptress was Carey from Bits of Carey with her divine Caesar Salad, but the salad that send me right over the top was this Big Steak Salad by Lee from Pioneer Woman. Wow, is about all I can say. She takes a steak salad to a whole new level, she even called it a man salad, which was exactly the line I used  to convince Mr Easy Cooking that Salads can be main meals.  Sadly I did not have steak at home, but I did have chicken breasts and a few other bits and bobs. My salad was a perfect balance between sweet, salty, creamy, crunchy and so filling that Mr Easy Cooking could not even finish his...



Grilled Chicken, Fig and Rocket Salad



Ingredients



4 chicken breasts

juice of 1 lemon

1 tbsp brown sugar

1 tbsp dark soy

fresh ice-berg lettuce

fresh rocket

4 figs - quartered

pine-nuts toasted

a few anchovies

4 small onions - peeled and halved

3-4 small day old bread rolls

Verlaque Chili Oil

salt/pepper



Slice the chicken breasts in thinner strips. In a plastic bag, mix the lemon juice, sugar and soy. Add all the chicken pieces and allow to marinade for at least 30 minutes. Heat up your griddle pan and grill the chicken pieces very quickly on both sides. while doing that, you can add the onions and grill them too.  Season with salt and pepper and keep aside. Slice the  bread rolls in thin slices and drizzle with Verlaque Chili Oil. Roast in a hot oven until golden and crispy. To assemble the salad, lay the lettuce and rocket in the bottom of a beautiful salad platter and start building your salad with the various ingredients. Finish off with the toasted pine nuts.

Dressing



1 cup mayonnaise

1 tbsp lemon juice

1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce

1 clove garlic - minced

salt/pepper

½ cup Parmesan cheese

a little milk to thin the sauce



Mix all the ingredients together with a whisk and drizzle lavishly over the salad just before serving.



Some more salads to tempt you with:



Moroccan Roasted Vegetable and Barley Salad





Warm winter Salad





Blackforest and Watercress Salad Rolls





Nectarine and Goat's Cheese Salad