Sweet and Spicy Orange Chicken Salad

Ingredients (for approximately 3-4 salads):
Sauce
-juice and zest of 1 large navel orange
-3 garlic cloves
-1 TB siracha
-1 TB maple syrup (the real stuff, or use locally sourced honey instead)
-2 tsp of a grease (coconut oil, bacon grease, butter, whatever you prefer, I used bacon because I love it)
-1 C water
-1 pinch of crushed red pepper flakes

Salad
-2 heads of romaine (3 cups chopped for each salad)
-2 chicken breasts
-1.5 C sliced cherry tomatoes
-4 green bell peppers, diced (or mix the colors)
-2 C onion, diced
-Other salad ingredients and toppings as desired

Pulse everything for the sauce in your food processor until well blended.  Transfer to a sauce pan and cook on medium or just slightly lower until it has reduced by approximately half.  You could also make this sauce ahead and use it as a marinade.  I personally want to use it like a wing sauce soon!

Anyway, transfer it to a bowl and set aside to cool.

Meanwhile, salt and pepper your chicken and toss it in a skillet to get it searing on both sides.  I added a couple spoonfuls of my orange sauce to the sides as it cooked.  Remember, there is maple syrup in it so it is going to carmelize, be prepared to reduce your heat if needed.

Once the chicken was mostly cooked and each side had some great looking color to it, I reduced the heat and added half of the veggies.  The other half I had to cook in a separate skillet because it is a whole lot of veggies to make 3 or 4 of these salads.  Season with garlic, salt, and pepper, or an asian blend as desired.

I also added a half cup of water to the veggie/chicken skillet and covered to let them all cook the rest of the way.

When all that is finished, you just need to toss the veggies and lettuce and tomatoes together and add the chicken after cutting into strips or chunks as desired.  You can top the salad with the sauce or add it to the bowl and toss to coat everything.

I am hoping to finally get back to blogging every day.  I have missed my blog! Life definitely has a way of taking over sometimes and throwing up really interesting situations that derail things a bit, but I seem to be getting back in the swing of things after the thesis, final classwork, prepping for graduation (I am speaking at it), and job hunting.  The last few months have been quite a scramble.

And maybe, just maybe, I am not Super Woman or Batgirl.  Apparently there is this small chance that I can't always fit every single thing I want to do into one day.  I am going to have to work on that.  ;)

Anyway, this sauce was really great and like I said I am itching to use it as a wing sauce or similar. Other things I think it could work on would be something like fish tacos.  It should be pretty versatile.

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