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Chili Chicken Kale Salad with Cinnamon Dijon Vinaigrette

You were expecting this.

Chili Chicken Kale Salad with pomegranate seeds, pecans, goat cheese, and cinnamon dijon vinaigrette

Did you all have a fabulous Thanksgiving and Thanksgiving weekend? Is your brain still set to vacation mode or are you ready to bounce back to Workland? Did you watch all the TV show re-runs and read all the books over your break? Did you come to any conclusions/decisions/spiritual awakenings/philosophical enlightenments? < – totes not a word, but we’re okay with that.

A few days of reflection has led me into an age of acceptance, kinda maybe. You know what this is like. Once you hit a certain point in life, there are things with which you begin getting comfortable. You begin embracing these difficult-to-accept things.

Things like:

Underarm jiggle. Burpees or no, there will always be a slight J-E-LL-O to the gun show. Maybe, definitely. No biggy.

Chunky cocktails. Totally fine once you reach a certain level of chunk experience and realize that pulp happens, and it happens to be delicious when soaked in bourbon.

The Taylor Swift situation. There’s nothing you can do about it. You’ve tried. We all have. There really isn’t a thing anyone can do.

James Spader? Slightly sexy. And you’re okay with that.

Chili Chicken Kale Salad with pomegranate seeds, pecans, goat cheese, shredded beets, and cinnamon dijon balsamic vinaigrette

Red wine hangovers. You will probably never be able to drink Yellow Tail the way you did when you were an undergrad. And you have completely embraced that fact.

The fact that you didn’t move a square inch from your couch on Black Friday because you were hungover/in a pie coma from Thanksgiving PLUS you hate large crowds, PLUS you already shopped the Black Friday deals when they began way back in July, so really what you did on Black Friday was ease yourself out of your sugar pie high by eating more pie on your couch while reading The Count of Monte Cristo for the seventeenth time on the Kindle you bought as a Black Friday deal way back in July (slash re-watched every single episode of Friends ever), PLUS you’d rather be blogging, as per usual.

The post holiday detox salad. Not only do you love it, you look forward to it.  It has become your own personal tradition. Traditioooooooooooon! Tradition!

^^^Fiddler on the Roof reference, anyone?

We feast, we give detox a fighting chance, we repeat. It’s the circle of life. You and I, we can do this together. You’ve probably noticed there is always some funky fresh clean eating salad on The Roasted Root the Monday/Tuesday following all large holidays and three day weekends. You can bare witness to, slash participate in, my own fighting chance at detox. We can get this junk out of the trunk – let’s eat ruffage!

This ruffage. Doesn’t it look like Christmas?

Chili Chicken Kale Salad with pomegranate seeds, pecans, goat cheese, shredded beets, and cinnamon dijon balsamic vinaigrette

It’s made with a whole bloomin head of kale. Plus shredded beets + pecans + goat cheese + pomegranate seeds. I whipped out a cinnamon-y dijon-y balsamic vinaigrette.

It’s an entree salad. I did a little chili powder sprinkle action upon my chicken before cooking it in the trusty cast iron skillet. Gah, it’s so simple and yet so tasty for the salad-ing. You can totally use leftover turkey instead of chili chicken. You can absolutely add cranberry sauce. It’s your life, color outside the lines.

One kale salad at a time.

Chili Chicken Kale Salad with pomegranate seeds, pecans, goat cheese, and cinnamon dijon vinaigrette

Chili Chicken Kale Salad with Cinnamon Dijon Vinaigrette

Chili Chicken Kale Salad with Cinnamon Dijon Vinaigrette is a superfood healthy dinner recipe
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 10 minutes
Total Time: 20 minutes
2 salads

Ingredients

For the Chili Chicken:

  • 2 tablespoons grapeseed or olive oil
  • 1 large boneless, skinless chicken breast
  • 2 teaspoons chili powder
  • Salt and pepper

For the salad:

  • 1 leaves head lacinato kale, chopped, dino
  • 1 cup raw or cooked shredded beets
  • ¼ cup pomegranate seeds
  • ¼ cup raw pecans, chopped
  • 1/3 cup goat chevre

Cinnamon Dijon Balsamic Vinaigrette:

Instructions

Prepare the Chili Chicken:

  • Sprinkle the chicken breast with chili powder, salt and pepper.
  • Heat the oil in a cast iron skillet over medium heat.
  • Add the chicken breast and cook 4 minutes. Flip carefully, and cook on the other side an additional 4 minutes, or until chicken has reached an internal temperature of 160 degrees F.
  • Place chicken on a cutting board and slice into strips.

Prepare the Cinnamon Dijon Vinaigrette:

  • Add all ingredients for the vinaigrette to a small blender and blend until smooth. Set aside until ready to use.

Prepare the salad:

  • Add the ingredients for the salad to a large bowl, including the chicken strips. Toss in desired amount of cinnamon Dijon balsamic vinaigrette. You will not need all of the dressing, so you can save it for other salads.
  • Dig in!

Nutrition

Serving: 1grams
Course: Lifestyle
Cuisine: American
Keyword: chicken salad, kale, kale salad
Servings: 2 salads
Author: Julia
Recipe Rating




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heather+@french+press

Tuesday 16th of December 2014

this is the MOST gorgeous salad!

Joanne

Saturday 6th of December 2014

I can't do detoxes (or black Friday)...but I CAN do kale salads. All day every day. Espeically when they're all cinnamon/Christmas-ed up like this1

Casey

Tuesday 2nd of December 2014

It sure does look like Christmas! It's so beautiful! I love your sense of humour. Every time I pop over to your blog I'm guaranteed a laugh and a beautiful recipe! Thank you :)

Julia

Wednesday 3rd of December 2014

Thanks, gorgeous! I'm glad someone's being tickled in this house of horrors ;) Hope you're enjoying you week!

Alice @ Hip Foodie Mom

Tuesday 2nd of December 2014

oh my gawd, this salad looks amazing!! The post holiday detox salad. YES, I love it! Let’s eat ruffage! .. yes, yes!!! and love what you said about Black Friday sales .. HA! Awesome.

Julia

Wednesday 3rd of December 2014

Hell yamaha, momma, let's ruffage 'er up! Black Friday sales...I just can't even deal. ;) xoxo

francesca

Tuesday 2nd of December 2014

I was a total couch slob Sunday (not Black Friday) from our Friendsgiving Saturday night. Would have loved a trough of this!

Julia

Wednesday 3rd of December 2014

Yup, it was all about me, myself, my futon, and Blacklist...for dayz! Sounds like you and I would be excellent roommates ;)

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