Summer crunch salad

With parmesan crisps, summer veggies, and the juiciest pan-seared chicken

Hi, friends. I’m coming to you today with a salad that’s packed with freshness, crunch, and bright, summery flavor. There’s not a lot of cooking involved — almost none, if you opt for pre-cooked chicken — which is a huge plus on a 90+ degree day. But the taste!! The texture! The dressing! The parmesan crisps! The moist chicken! It’s truly refreshing and very much a restaurant-quality salad.

Tell me more

I hear a lot that at-home salads just don’t compare to restaurant ones, and I think that that can be true. The fix? Finesse and fanciness.

Finesse is just making sure you’re chopping and cooking things ideally, like adding in a variety of textures from different veg that are chopped or sliced in a pleasing way. Sometimes that means chopping everything up itty-bitty, but in today’s case it’s a combo of thinly slicing (mandolin optional but a big time saver!) and roughly chopping for some textural diversity.

And no bland, pre-packaged protein. We’ll be pan-searing our chicken breast, then finishing them in the oven for optimal juiciness. I actually really didn’t like plain chicken breast until I started cooking it this way. The pan-searing locks in the moisture and gives it a nice crust on the outside. I could truly just eat the chicken straight with nothing else.

The fanciness comes in with the extras. Crunchy, slightly sweet pistachios; buttery castelvetrano olives; a bright lemon basil vinaigrette; and parmesan crisps. I’m definitely a crouton girly, but these crisps are so easy to make (you literally bake parmesan cheese for like 5 minutes) and do double-duty of adding in a crispy crouton-like consistency and cheese at the same time. Because honestly, a salad needs cheese.

Altogether it is just a really nice, summery salad that is easy to make and satisfying to eat. What could be better!

Before we begin

• I know I said no sad pre-packaged proteins, but a rotisserie chicken doesn’t fall under that category, IMO. If I was gonna try to save some time here, I’d opt for one of those in a heartbeat. (To know me is to know I love rotisserie chicken.) I know a lot of grocery stores also offer pre-cooked chicken breast and that’s a great option, too!

• You can also sub in other proteins — a salmon filet, shrimp, steak, whatever floats your boat. It’s your salad so make it yours.

• A mandolin is truly a time-saver when it comes to prepping a salad like this and getting those paper thin slices of watermelon radish. I just upgraded to this one and it really is a dream. I also bought some protective gloves because the only thing scarier than a brand spanking new mandolin blade is a dull one.

• Speaking of watermelon radish, you can sub in regular radish or daikon radish if you can’t find any.

• The dressing recipe makes enough for this salad and then some, but if you like your salads very heavily dressed, I’d recommend doubling the recipe so you have some extra. (It’s also so good and keeps for a few days, so a nice thing to have in the fridge for saucing up other salads throughout the week!)

The recipe

Serves: 2 very generous portions

Ready in: About 30 minutes (25 minutes-ish for chicken, 5 minutes for the parmesan crisps, plus chopping and prepping the dressing, which you can do while the chicken cooks!)