Grilled chicken salad with olives & oranges

Light enough for lunch, substantial enough for dinner. Grilled chicken, orange slices, ripe olives, and red leaf lettuce held together with a sharp red wine vinegar dressing. The kind of salad that turns the produce drawer into a real meal.

The chicken technique is worth noting. Instead of a marinade, you rub the breasts directly with raw garlic cloves before they hit the grill, then discard the cloves. That quick rub gives you garlic aroma on the meat without any risk of burning minced garlic over flames. Five minutes a side on a hot grill, then five more resting under foil before slicing into strips.

The dressing leans vinegar-heavy, half a cup of red wine vinegar to just one tablespoon of olive oil. That ratio keeps the salad crisp and clean rather than slick, and the acidity plays directly against sweet oranges and briny olives. Finely chopped red onion and celery add bite to the dressing.

Pro Tips

• Let the chicken rest five minutes after grilling before slicing. Cutting hot chicken bleeds the juices right out onto the board.
• Peel the oranges with a knife, removing both skin and the white pith. Pith is bitter and ruins an otherwise clean bite.
• Use pitted olives to save guests the work. Cerignola, Kalamata, or Nicoise all work here.
• Dress each plate individually rather than tossing. Drizzled dressing keeps the oranges from getting mushy and the lettuce crisp.

Variations

• Swap oranges for grapefruit segments in winter, or use a mix of both for more citrus complexity.
• Add crumbled feta or shaved ricotta salata for a salty, creamy element.
• Use leftover rotisserie chicken instead of grilling for a 10-minute version.