When we look out our windows now we see trees in bloom—ornamental plums and pears. Our earliest daffodils are already waning! We’ve had enough warm days that we took the cover off the grill, and we’ve just entered peak season for Haas avocados. In other words, it’s time to make this fabulous salad.
A classic BLT sandwich has few drawbacks. However, tomato season is short and BLTs rely on good, locally grown tomatoes. One other drawback is that they’re over too fast. “Where’d it go?” we wail, after only a few minutes eating. This salad, on the other hand, lasts for bite after scrumptious bite. Because some of the ingredients are heavy—bacon, chicken, avocado—we kept the dressing light and fresh. No dairy, no croutons, nothing to tip the balance from satiating to oppressive. We hope the faces around your table will light up with the first bite, the way they do around ours. This one pleases all the generations.
Chicken, Avocado, and Bacon Salad
2 large (3 medium) chicken breasts, boneless and skinless
3 cloves garlic, optional
2 tablepoons red wine vinegar
2 tablespoons of vegetable oil
2 teaspoons Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1 pound bacon
2 romaine lettuce hearts or 1 large head red leaf lettuce
2 large Haas avocados
For the vinaigrette:
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice (1/2 large lemon)
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
5 tablespoons good olive oil
We provide a lot of specific instructions, below. The point is to mix the vinaigrette; cook the bacon and chicken (separately); wash, chop, and air-dry the lettuce; slice the avocado; then combine it all, serve, and eat.
Place the first five vinaigrette ingredients in a glass jelly (or old mustard) jar: vinegar, lemon juice, mustard, salt, and pepper. Cover and shake until they are thoroughly combined and foaming with excitement. Add half the oil, then shake. Then add the remaining oil and shake some more. Set aside for at least 20 minutes at room temperature—or up to one week in the refrigerator.
Place whole chicken breasts in a glass pan, cover them with a few cloves of smashed garlic, 2 tablespoons of red wine vinegar, 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil (canola, olive, peanut—whatever you have), and two teaspoons of kosher salt. Let marinate between 20 minutes and 2 hours.
Cook the bacon in your favorite bacon-cooking pan. People have their preferred approaches to preparing bacon—in the oven, in the microwave. We like it best on the stove top over medium-high heat for 5 to 7 minutes until both sides are browned, but before any of those nice brown edges starts to turn black. Heat a cast iron pan or something like that on the stove over medium heat. Once its heated, place down the raw pieces of bacon flat. They will cook in their own fat. Once one side is sufficiently crispy, flip over and continue cooking until both sides are browned. When it’s finished cooking, put it on some paper towels to drain and turn crisp.
Meanwhile, wash and cut the lettuce. Wrap it up in a clean kitchen towel and place it in the fridge so it, too, can become dry and crisp.
When the bacon fat is no longer boiling hot, dig through your trash to find a receptacle for it—one that won’t melt if the fat is still quite hot. If you pour the fat down the kitchen sink, it will clog the kitchen sink. If you pour it down the kitchen sink and the next day get hit by a car while biking to work, then let someone use your apartment while you are too broken to return to it, your landlord will make you pay for the plumber from your sickbed. The memory will stay with you.
You can either cook the chicken on a grill (our favorite method), or wipe most of the remaining grease from the bacon pan and cook it in that. Either way, start with medium-high heat, then turn down to medium low for. maybe six minutes per side. Having a digital thermometer can help keep you from overcooking it, because you won’t have to worry as much about undercooking it. Even though the temperature rises a few degrees after you’ve taken it off the heat, we generally keep ours on the heat until its thickest parts reach 160 degrees. Those chicken pieces often have some mysterious little area that lag behind the rest of in cooking, not necessarily because of size, and keeping the chicken on the heat until 160 makes sure that we thoroughly cook every bit.
If you cook the chicken on the stovetop, you might be tempted to cut it into pieces first. We generally don’t cut it into pieces first because the flavor is a bit better, and the chicken more moist, when you cook the breast whole. We also think it’s easier to slice chicken after it’s cooked, so you don’t have to worry about cleaning a whole cutting board covered in raw poultry.
Let the breasts rest for 10 minutes, then cut them into slices or chunks, whichever sounds more appealing. Roll the bacon up in its paper towel and squeeze and twist it to break the cooked bacon into small pieces. Or remove several slices from the paper towel, stack them on top of one another, then chop them up with a knife.
While the chicken rests, you can slice the avocado. Slice it length-wise in half with a large chef knife, then twist the halves apart with your hands. Keeping your hands out of the way, hit the avocado pit hard with the blade of the knife, so that the blade sticks and allows you to twist a quarter turn, then pull out the pit. Use a large spoon to remove the avocado from its skin in a single piece, then flip it onto its flat, cut side and slice or cube it into the size you feel will be most appetizing. We like 1/2-inch chunks for this.
Empty the lettuce into a large salad bowl. Sprinkle with the bacon, then the chicken. Pour the dressing over the top and mix the salad well with two large spoons. Add the avocado and mix just a little more, so you don’t smash the avocado. Taste to determine whether it needs any more salt or pepper, and add some if it does. Serve immediately.
