They say actions (or pictures) speak louder than words so I invite you to take a peek at my submitted photo of this salad because it shows how much I enjoyed this salad far more accurately than any words could express. On the rare occasions Hubs goes out of town on a business trip without me I look for a dinner to prepare for myself that is easily scaled to one serving so main dish salads seem to work perfectly for me. I sure do find some good ones including this particular salad. I made the salad itself just as written no changes no substitutions the ingredients were all good choices that blended well together and I especially liked the addition of the avocado which was SO delicious with the pistachio coated chicken. But I did make some changes to how I prepared the chicken. I couldn t see the pistachios sticking very well to the chicken breast as the recipe was written so I first soaked the chicken in buttermilk then coated it in a mixture of the finely chopped pistachios and panko bread crumbs. Just as I suspected the mixture coated the chicken thoroughly. As for the dressing I used some vinaigrette I had leftover from another recipe I tried recently and it couldn t have been a better choice for this salad. I m not typically a fan of cold and crunchy dinners but this one was a real winner with me that I d happily make again in a heartbeat.
This was an excellent salad! Very filling and hearty:) I made it with baby spinach cucumber tomatoes red peppers avocado and made my own balsamic vinaigrette (3/4 extra virgin olive oil 3/4 balsamic vinegar 1/2 tsp oregano 1-2 tsp mustard 1 clove garlic dash of salt and pepper).
Easy and Delicious!!!! The green onions are a must.
One of the best salads I've ever had! I have made it two times first time followed recipe exactly second time I flollowed other reviwers suggestions of adding bread crumbs to the pistachios and I liked it more when using only pistachios...I also soaked the chicken in buttermilk to tenderize it and to help pistachios stick better to the chicken.
I'm giving this 4 stars because while the salad was really good I don't think the pistachio chicken lent a ton of flavor. The pistachios seemed to get lost and burnt a little. I even pounded my chicken out thin before cooking. I like someone elses idea of simply toasting the pistachios and sprinkling them on the salad separately. I made my own balsamic dressing as well.
Good choice of ingredients make this salad great. The only reason I gave this three instead of five stars is the expense of the ingredients and the fact that my grocery store doesn't carry shelled pistachios. With the expense and amount of work I am not sure this recipe is a repeater for us. I also don't see much flavor/texture gained by coating the chicken (a more labor intensive approach) vs. just toasting and sprinkling with nuts afterwards. Also if you don't flatten the chicken and/or fillet it you'll burn the pistachios before the chicken is even close to done.
This was as beautiful as it was delicious! I am always on the look out for a main meal salads and am glad I found this recipe.
Five 1!! Incredible salad! I found the crushed pistachios adhered extremely well to the chicken. This meal was just what one needs in a pinch for something that can be put together rather quickly. We all enjoyed this very much!
