Grilled Chicken Strawberry Spinach Salad

Five years of this blog. Week 260. Five years since I sat in the cab of a Peterbilt at a rest stop outside Hastings and wrote about making chili in a 12-volt slow cooker. Five years of recipes and stories and children growing and parents dying and a sister remembered in chocolate cake and a road that goes on and on and on. I did not plan for five years. I did not plan for any of it. I planned to drive trucks and feed my family and survive, and the surviving became the writing, and the writing became the blog, and the blog became the cookbook proposal, and the proposal became a phone call with a publisher, and the phone call might become a book, and the book might become something I cannot imagine yet because imagining it would require believing in it, and believing is a thing I do carefully, the way I carry hope — loosely, firmly, with both hands.

The publisher conversation went well. They want to see a full manuscript. A full manuscript is not a proposal — it is the thing itself, the whole thing, every recipe and every story and every mile of highway and every plate of chili and every piece of chocolate sheet cake. I said I would write it. I said I would write it in the truck and at the kitchen table and at 5 a.m. before the kids wake up, because that is where everything real gets written — in the margins, in the gaps, in the spaces between the driving and the feeding and the living.

Spring is here. Real spring, Nebraska spring — the kind that might be lying but that you choose to believe because the alternative is winter forever, and winter forever is not acceptable. The tulips in Gayle's yard are up. The birds are back. The days are longer. The light is changing from the gray of winter to the gold of spring, and the gold is the promise, and the promise is the season, and the season says: the hard part is over. Again. The hard part is always over, and it is always beginning again, and the in-between is where we live, and the living is the recipe.

I made burgers on the grill — the first grilling of the season, the annual resurrection of the Weber and the charcoal and Dave standing over the grate with tongs and the particular authority of a man who believes grilling is his jurisdiction and who is right. The burgers were good. The evening was warm. The kids ate in the backyard. The backyard was not a pandemic yard tonight — it was just a yard, with grass and sky and the sound of four children eating burgers, and the sound was the sound of five years of this blog, and the sound was the sound of a life, and the life was mine, and the burgers were perfect.

Dave had his tongs and his jurisdiction over the grill, and I had no argument with that — but the night called for something that matched the season, something that tasted like the tulips coming up in Gayle’s yard and the gold coming back into the light. This Grilled Chicken Strawberry Spinach Salad is what I put on the table alongside those burgers, and it was exactly right: bright and fresh and hopeful, the kind of dish that only makes sense when winter is finally, genuinely over.

Prep Time: 15 min | Cook Time: 15 min | Total Time: 30 min | Servings: 4

Ingredients

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
Salt and black pepper to taste
6 cups fresh baby spinach
1 1/2 cups fresh strawberries, hulled and sliced
1/4 cup red onion, thinly sliced
1/3 cup candied pecans
1/3 cup crumbled feta cheese
3 tablespoons balsamic vinaigrette (store-bought or homemade)

Instructions

Prep the chicken. Pat chicken breasts dry. Drizzle with olive oil and season on both sides with garlic powder, smoked paprika, salt, and pepper.
Heat the grill. Preheat an outdoor grill or grill pan to medium-high heat (about 400°F). Oil the grates lightly to prevent sticking.
Grill the chicken. Place chicken on the grill and cook 6 to 7 minutes per side, until internal temperature reaches 165°F and grill marks are deep and golden. Do not press down with the tongs — that’s Dave’s jurisdiction anyway.
Rest and slice. Transfer chicken to a cutting board and let rest 5 minutes. Slice on the diagonal into thin strips.
Build the salad. Arrange the baby spinach in a large serving bowl or on a platter. Top with sliced strawberries, red onion, candied pecans, and crumbled feta.
Add chicken and dress. Lay the warm grilled chicken slices over the salad. Drizzle with balsamic vinaigrette just before serving. Toss lightly or serve as arranged.

Nutrition (per serving)

Grilled Chicken Strawberry Spinach Salad — The First Grill of Spring