Salad with Smoked Chicken Breast, Tomatoes, Cheese, and Cucumbers

Cooking method

1. Step 1:

   

   How do you make a delicious salad with smoked chicken breast, tomatoes, cheese, and cucumbers? It's very simple! First, gather the ingredients on the list. You can use regular tomatoes or cherry tomatoes. I have small Baku tomatoes — bigger than cherry tomatoes but smaller than regular ones. You can add to or swap out the vegetable part to your taste.

2. Step 2:

   

   Peel the red onion and cut it into thin rings or half-rings. Marinate the onion in a mix of vinegar and sugar for 20 minutes, then drain off the marinade. You can use any vinegar — I used white wine, but apple cider, red wine, or plain 9% table vinegar all work.

3. Step 3:

   

   Remove the skin and bones from the smoked breast and cut it into thin slices. You can swap the breast for meat from smoked legs.

4. Step 4:

   

   Cut the tomatoes into wedges. If you're using cherry tomatoes, cut them in half. The tomatoes should be juicy but firm. Soft ones don't hold their shape well; as you cut and prepare them they'll fall apart into a shapeless mush and spoil the look of the dish.

5. Step 5:

   

   Cut the cucumbers into half-moons, or into rounds if they're small in diameter.

6. Step 6:

   

   Remove the seeds and stem from the bell pepper and cut it into strips.

7. Step 7:

   

   Take the olives and mozzarella out of the brine and pat them dry. Use any cheese you like: a hard one such as Russian-style or Gouda, or soft cheeses like farmer's cheese, processed cheese, or feta. Since my salad has Italian dressing, I decided to make the whole thing Italian-style, so I went with brined mozzarella balls.

8. Step 8:

   

   Dry the lettuce leaves and tear them into smaller pieces by hand. I'm using plain butterhead lettuce — you can swap in a ready-made salad mix.

9. Step 9:

   

   Wash the basil and pull the leaves off the stems.

10. Step 10:

    

    Now make the Italian dressing. Olive oil is the usual choice, but any vegetable oil works. For the mustard, use Dijon or whole-grain, whichever you prefer. Usually 1 tablespoon of white or red wine vinegar goes into the dressing, but there's already vinegar-marinated onion in this salad, so I left the vinegar out of the dressing.

11. Step 11:

    

    Finely chop the basil. If you don't have fresh basil, use dried instead, and add parsley as the fresh herb. If you can find fresh oregano, great — then you won't need the dried. A salad with fresh herbs is always tastier than one with dried.

12. Step 12:

    

    In a bowl, combine the olive oil, lemon juice, mustard, pressed garlic, basil, oregano, salt, and pepper. Whisk it all together thoroughly with a fork until smooth.

13. Step 13:

    

    Arrange the lettuce leaves on a plate. Spread the smoked chicken, tomatoes, cucumber, bell pepper, cheese, red onion, and olives on top. Scatter fresh basil leaves over everything.

14. Step 14:

    

    Drizzle the Italian dressing over the salad and serve immediately. Enjoy!