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Creamy Chicken Bacon Club Salad with Avocado
Chicken and bacon go beautifully together and adding avocado to a chicken and bacon salad adds a wonderful creaminess to it. This recipe calls for crispy bacon, as well as chicken thighs which are seared to perfection in the bacon grease.
Use any salad greens you like to make this. Perhaps you fancy using a head of romaine or even a package of baby spinach leaves. Either of these would be fine instead of the mixed leaves. Garnish this delicious chicken salad recipe with a chopped apple if you like, or some thinly sliced red onion.
This salad is dressed with a homemade salad dressing, featuring sour cream, buttermilk, basil, garlic, and parmesan. All of these flavors bring out the salty bacon flavor, the mild chicken taste and also complement the nutty avocado and crunchy walnuts. This delicious chicken salad recipe would make a great lunch or a nice dinner for a spring or summer evening. This is the kind of meal you could enjoy outdoors if the weather is warm.
Delicious Chicken and Bacon Salad
Ingredients -
8 boneless, skinless chicken thighs, in 2 inch pieces
1 peeled, pitted avocado, in 1 inch chunks
½ cup chopped walnuts
4 bacon slices, in ½ inch squares
Juice from ½ lemon (optional)
1 package mixed salad leaves
Salt and black pepper
For the Dressing:
⅓ cup buttermilk
½ cup sour cream
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon dried basil
¼ teaspoon black pepper
1 minced garlic clove
2 tablespoons shredded fresh parmesan
Preparation:
Whisk the salad dressing ingredients together and chill in the refrigerator until required.
Toss the avocado in the lemon juice (this stops it from going brown).
Ignore this step if you chop and add the avocado immediately before serving.
Sauté the bacon in a skillet over a moderate heat until crispy.
Set the cooked bacon to one side but leave the grease in the skillet.
Season the chicken pieces with salt and black pepper and put them in the skillet with the bacon grease.
Cook, turning often, until golden brown.
Let the chicken carry on cooking until no pinkness remains inside.
Toss the salad leaves, avocado, bacon, and chicken together.
Top with the walnuts and dress with the salad dressing.
Store leftover dressing for up to 2 days in the refrigerator.
(Serves 4)
Wine Suggestion:
Which Wine to Serve with Chicken Bacon Club Salad
This creamy chicken salad recipe is great with a Chardonnay. This wine is relatively light and can be minerally, fruity, oaky, buttery, or any combination of these. Chardonnay and light meats is usually a good combination whichever type of Chardonnay you get. Serve the Chardonnay at 55 degrees F. If you serve it ice cold from the refrigerator, the chill will hide its fruitiness. Do not add tomatoes to this chicken salad because the acidity of the tomatoes will not be good with the buttery wine flavor, and omit the lemon juice too if you have chosen a buttery Chardonnay.
Photo Description:
This photo shows how simple the salad is to put together, but it does not show how wonderful the aroma and flavor of such a salad would be. If you use the chicken and bacon while they are still warm, you can imagine how much more aromatic and delicious they would be. This is a healthy salad and you can make it even healthier by using a low-fat salad dressing rather than the creamy one from the recipe. You could even use something like a balsamic vinaigrette instead of a creamy dressing.
The History of the Chicken Bacon Club Salad Sandwich
Before we look at the history of a chicken bacon club salad sandwich or a chicken and avocado salad club style, what exactly is a club sandwich? This sandwich is a chicken breast, bacon, mayonnaise, lettuce, and tomato sandwich, and it is layered between two or three slices of toasted bread. The chicken and bacon might be chilled or it might still be warm from the pan.
Nobody knows for sure how the chicken bacon club salad sandwich originated, but it has been popular at country clubs and resorts for a long time and was established in the United States by the late 1800s. Chicken and bacon are lovely together and are used together in many recipes, not just club sandwiches.
Possible Sandwich Variations
As with any other sandwich, there are variations to suit different palates. For example, the chicken could be swapped for turkey, or the bacon could be omitted. If you like avocado salad, you can put some avocado slices in your club sandwich. Remember that avocado turns brown when exposed to the air though, so it is best to either squeeze lemon juice over it, or serve the sandwich immediately.
If you do not want to use bread, but you still like the chicken bacon club salad, you can make serve the sandwich filling on a bed of mixed salad leaves, rather than sandwiched between bread. You could even be inspired by the triple sandwich idea and use three pieces of bread to make any kind of sandwich you like. You could put egg salad in one-half and chicken in the second part, or avocado salad in one-half and chopped tomatoes in the second.
Not all club sandwiches are made with three slices of bread, but many are. If you want to make an authentic chicken bacon club salad sandwich though, you should use chicken, bacon, lettuce and tomato, and spread the toasted slices of bread with mayonnaise before assembling the sandwich. Use still-warm chicken and bacon for delicious results.
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