This salad is a full meal all-in-one, which is definitely how I prefer to eat my salads. If I’m gonna do it, I want a super-satisfying, hearty salad full of flavor. Give that sad side salad to the next person. This definitely hits all my requirements: slightly bitter frisée, juicy roasted chicken, bacon with an accompanying tangy vinaigrette made with its fat, goat cheese, and crispy chicken skin crumbled over top. If that sounds gross to you, best stop reading now.
Apparently spinach salad with hot bacon vinaigrettes were a thing in the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s. I swear my mom used to make them, but she refuses to confirm this. SOMEONE IN MY LIFE USED TO MAKE THIS AND I NEED TO KNOW WHO.
Along the way, I think these salads went out of style because fat is scary! Especially animal fat!! And bacon fat…just take me to the hospital now! NOT. We have been lied to and deprived of this delicious dressing for too long, but it’s been coming back into style over the last few years.
I stumbled across this recipe from the New York Times and it sounded like something that would appease everyone. Frisée is in my Whole Foods and I’m gobbling it up for as long as possible! I added some goat cheese, chives and golden toasted bread to the salad for more heft, texture and flavor, and crisped up the chicken skins after I finished roasting the breasts to crumble on top. Total game changer. We should be doing this to everything.
And ever since I ate at Zuni Café in San Francisco a few years ago and had Zante currants in their famous roasted chicken dish, I’ve been open to actually including them in other recipes. BUT I JUST FOUND OUT THEY’RE TECHNICALLY RAISINS. I hate raisins. Or I thought I hated raisins. This might be another one of those situations that keeps happening to me where I have spent my whole life convinced I hate some food stuff, and then actually eat it and realize it’s delicious and I’m just a big dum-dum. Sorry for all the caps in this post; I have some strong feelings surrounding this recipe. Anyway, there’s Zante currants in here; keep ’em or omit ’em as you will.
You really don’t need anything else to go with this salad besides a cold glass of rosé and your deck. Okay, and maybe some bug spray if you live anywhere near me.
[tasty-recipe id=”31354″]
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