Chicken and Wild Rice Salad

Do you ever cook something and kind of just amaze yourself at how good it turned out? That’s pretty much what happened with this Chicken and Wild Rice Salad.

Wednesday I was flipping through a bunch of recipes trying to decide what to make and share with you guys. I wasn’t really inspired by much. I of course love baking things, but I needed a little break after baking Strawberry Breakfast Bars, Raspberry Almond Mini Cheesecakes, and Lemon Poppy Seed Scones (fear not I’m sure the break from baking won’t last long). As I flipped through piles of torn out recipes and searched through my Pinterest recipes nothing was really catching my eye. I wanted something fresh, flavorful, healthy, and perfect for making this Memorial Day weekend. Then I went to one of my favorite resources for great recipes, Cooking Light. I absolutely adore this website and the magazine. I’ve been subscribing to them for at least 5 years and have made tons of wonderful dishes from their recipes. I browsed through their salad recipes and stumbled on a recipe I had made a long time ago, Chicken and Wild Rice Salad with Almonds. I remembered how much I loved this salad the last time I made it and decided I would make it again, but put my own spin on it.

I don’t know about you but I prefer wild rice and brown rice over white rice any day. I love the little bit of crunch that it has and that slight nutty flavor, not to mention it fills me up a lot faster. So, some of the changes I made to this salad from the original recipe were adding in some sweet red grapes, tart dried cherries, and tangy, creamy goat cheese. I also changed up the dressing slightly using white balsamic vinegar, less oil, and agave nectar to sweeten it rather than sugar.

This salad is seriously blowing my mind! There are so many textures and flavors going on and yet they all meld together into one delicious bite after another and another and another, you get the point.

I found myself purposely trying to get a little bit of each ingredient onto my fork with every bite. This Chicken and Wild Rice salad NEEDS to be apart of your Memorial Day weekend BBQ or picnic, trust me on this one!

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Yield: 6 servings

Chicken and Wild Rice Salad

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Crunchy, sweet, tangy, nutty, chewy, this chicken and wild rice salad has it all!

Prep Time 15 minutes

Cook Time 45 minutes

Total Time 1 hour

Ingredients

For the Salad

• 1 cup wild rice cooked according to package instructions
• 1 large or 2 small chicken breasts, cooked and cubed
• 2 T. shallot, minced
• 2 stalks of celery, chopped
• 1/2 cup carrots, shredded
• 1 cup grapes, halved
• 1/3 cup dried tart cherries
• 1/4 cup almonds, toasted and chopped
• 2 ounces goat cheese, crumbled
• Salt to taste

For the Dressing

• 1/4 cup white balsamic vinegar
• 1 t. dijon mustard
• 2 t. agave nectar
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 T. grapeseed oil or other flavorless oil
• 1/4 t. kosher salt

Instructions

1. Cook the wild rice according to package instructions and then let it cool to room temperature.
2. While the rice is cooling chop and shred the celery, carrots, grapes, shallot, almonds, and chicken.
3. In a large bowl combine all of the salad ingredients, gently tossing to combine.
4. In a small bowl or mason jar combine all of the dressing ingredients and whisk or shake them together until thoroughly combined.
5. Pour the dressing over the salad and give it another toss.
6. Serve immediately or chill in the fridge until you are ready to serve.

Notes

If you don't plan on serving the salad right away add the almonds in right before serving so they stay crunchy.

If you can't find dried tart cherries dried cranberries can be used instead.