Pear & Apple Chicken Salad with Poppy Seed Dressing (Recipe 85 of 125)

In case you've been under a rock lately, the Seattle area is under a HEAT DOME. Historic temperatures this last couple of days...it's been hot.

And because it's been hot, the idea of turning on ANY stove type item is off the table. The news was warning of this so I made my recipes for this week to be primarily anything I can cook/prep before the heat and that meant salads. 

This salad was delicious. I don't like feta and I had blue cheese in the fridge so I swapped the feta for blue cheese. The sweet savory combo with that and the fruits was so good. 

The dressing needed something more. I'm not really sure what, but I expected more flavor. I'd add more brown mustard next time for sure. I also used low carb sugar (Swerve) to cut down the carbs. 

Pear & Apple Chicken Salad with Poppy Seed Dressing
Recipe from My Kitchen Escapades

Salad 

• 1 head Romaine lettuce 
• 1 head red leaf lettuce 
• 1 large Fuji or Honeycrisp apple, chopped 
• 1 firm red pear, chopped 
• 2 cooked chicken breasts, chopped 
• 3/4 c dried cranberries 
• 1/2 c sliced almonds 
• 1/2 c crumbled feta cheese 

Dressing 

• 1/4 c sugar 
• 1 tsp brown mustard 
• 1 tsp salt 
• 2 tsp grated onion 
• 1 T poppy seeds 
• 1/2 c rice vinegar 
• 3/4 c canola oil

In a large bowl, combine all the salad ingredients, except for the almonds. In a medium bowl, whisk together all the dressing ingredients until fully blended. 

In a small skillet over low heat, toast the almonds until golden brown then remove them to cool before adding them to the salad. 

Toss the dressing over the whole salad and serve immediately, or just dress enough of the salad for the number of servings you need.