Make it with leftover fried chicken or pre-cooked shrimp, crème fraîche or sour cream, your choice of greens and vegetables. Keep it simple or make it fancy. The creamy, flavorful dressing will go with just about anything.
Simple, Flexible Dinner Salad
Course: Dinner6
dinner-sized servingsIngredients
4 generous handfuls baby spinach
1 head red leaf lettuce, sliced
1 red bell pepper, diced
1 cucumber, (peeled and) sliced
4 green onions, sliced
2 medium ears of corn
2 cups cold fried chicken, pulled off the bone and diced
4 pieces thick-cut bacon, cooked and sliced into matchsticks
2/3 cup crème-fraîche
1/4 cup mayo
2 tsp lemon juice
1½ tsp dry mustard
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp garlic powder
3/8 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp onion powder
1 Tbs minced parsley
Croutons, for serving
Directions
- Place the spinach, lettuce, pepper, cucumber, and onion into the bowl. Slice the kernels off the corn and add them to the bowl, discarding the cobbs. Add the chicken and bacon to the bowl.
- To make the dressing, whisk crème, mayo, juice, mustard, sugar, garlic, paprika, salt, onion powder, and parsley in small bowl.
- To serve, thoroughly toss greens, dressing (to taste), and croutons. Dressed salad won’t be good leftover, so only dress as much as you plan to eat. The veggies and dressing will keep well, refrigerated, if kept separate. Keep croutons in an airtight container at room temperature.
Notes
- Substitutions: a mixture of iceburg and Romaine for the red leaf lettuce, shrimp for the chicken, and sour cream for the crème fraîche
Intro
This salad is based on one that came from a cookbook whose raison d’etre is to use name-brand ingredients in various recipes. How did this cookbook appear in my house? I swear that it does not belong to me, but there it is. I did you the favor of creating a DIY version of the name-brand item that was to have been included in the recipe, thereby undermining the entire purpose of the cookbook. You’re welcome.
Social Learning
Of course, the salad ingredients are completely up to you. This recipe isn’t really about that. It’s about the dressing. The dressing would go well with many kinds of salads. It’s thick, rich, and packs a lot of flavor. For the effort that it takes to make this dressing – almost none – it’s fantastic … if you like a creamy dressing.
Ancient wisdom: if you have a bowl of undressed greens in your fridge for a few days, put a couple of folded paper towels in the bottom of the bowl to collect any liquid that might accumulate.
Shrimp and Sour Cream Options
If you decide to go with shrimp instead of chicken – a wonderful choice, by the way – you may want to buy pre-cooked shrimp that comes packed with lemon wedges and cocktail sauce. The lemon wedges will likely provide all the juice you need for the dressing.
The dressing flavorings won’t shine through sour cream as easily as they will through crème-fraîche. You’ll have to add more.
Here’s a clever idea: if your shrimp was packed with cocktail sauce, and you’re using sour cream for the dressing, consider adding some (a lot) of the cocktail sauce to your sour cream dressing to spice it up.
Whether you’ve used crème-fraîche or sour cream, if you have leftover dressing and cocktail sauce, mix them together and use the result as a sandwich spread.
Outro
I don’t want a hearty salad with a creamy dressing every day, but now and then, it’s fantastic. It’s a meal in itself. Great in a packed lunch. Extremely satisfying. A definite cut above many ordinary salads.
Simple, Flexible, Dinner Salad
Credit for images on this page: Make It Like a Man! unless otherwise credited. This content was not solicited by anyone, nor was it written in exchange for anything. References: “Ensalada Semplice,” in Great American Favorite Brand Name Cookbook: Collector’s Edition. (Lincolnwood IL: Publications International, 1993), 88. Also All Recipes. Thank you, Kesor. Make It Like a Man! is ranked by Feedspot as #15 in the Top 30 Men’s Cooking Blogs.
Keep up with us on Bloglovin’
Wonderful!!! I love the idea of the corn in the salad. The dressing sounds really good!
Thanks!
Quelle délicieuse salade
Belle soirée
Thank you, Delphine!
The dressing sounds very versatile and very creamy with the addition of the crème-fraîche. Your suggestion of mixing the dressing made with the addition of cocktail sauce should give you something similar to a spicy remoulade sauce which would be great.
Thank you, Karen!
Definitely my kind of salad with wonderful flavours and textures.
Thanks, Angie!
This looks great.. had a dinner salad just last night. Thanks for sharing.
You’re welcome!
This is my kind of salad on a warm night when I don’t feel like cooking. Looks delicious Jeff.
Me too! Thanks, Pauline!
Sounds like a perfect dinner to me. 🙂
Thanks, Judy!
I like your salad a lot as I am always looking for new ideas. Love creme fraiche in the dressing – anxious to try it 🙂
Thank you, Judi!
I am going to be making the dressing. Some nights we have nothing but a salad for dinner, often with no protein. On those nights we both like a heavy creamy dressing and this sounds great. Thank you very much!
That does sound great.
i do like a hearty salad for dinner now and then. This looks the business!
Thank you, Sherry!
Hi my friend Jeff 🖐😊
Thank you so much for sharing with us this recipe for this salad. It’s very easy to prepare, but also very fantastic. A very creative method to prepare this salad we can do very quickly.
Your blog is really very fantastic and very useful to people that are engaged in gastronomy, but also to people, who like to cook 👍😊
Best regards to you and I hug you so much 🤗🤲💖
You’re so kind, Patryk. Thank you!
Your take on this salad recipe is refreshingly rebellious, and I love it! Who needs a cookbook telling you what to use when you can create your own DIY version and make it even better?
Thanks, Raymund! 🙂
Corn says summer to me and i am so ready. Plus fried chicken and bacon? You know the way to my heart!
Haha! Mine, too!
Mark is always wanting salad for dinner! Maybe he should’ve married you… This salad, however, looks wonderful! I will put it to the salad king and see what he says.
Oh, I don’t know … I think he did pretty well for himself in the chef department!
We normally enjoy salads as a main course, so they must be filling (yet not overly heavy). This is a perfect example of it and so versatile, as you said. Give me some crusty bread along with it, and I will be a happy person! 🙂
Thanks, Ben!
Now that it’s finally getting hot (stinking hot) salads are often on the menu over here and it’s so nice to change it up with new ideas. I often rely on my favourite blogs for inspiration and this salad hits it on so many levels.
Thank you! Yes, it has turned completely to summer, hasn’t it?
What a delicious collection of ingredients in such a hearty salad. I think every savory dish should have “flexible” in the title. Love that! 🙂 ~Valentina
Thank you!
Mi piace tanto l’insalata e la porto spesso in tavola. Questa è deliziosa e appetitosa 🙂 Buona serata.
Thank you, Daniela!
It’s amazing how many different ways one can make a salad. What a hearty tasty looking dish!!
Thanks, Judee!
What a helpful idea, Jeff the Chef! Simple, Flexible Dinner Salad is perfect for those busy weeknights. What are some of your favorite ingredients to include for a delicious and satisfying meal, and do you have any tips for making it even more customizable?
My friends seem to think that I’m a great salad maker, so maybe I do have some tips. But they seem pretty simple to me: I put a very high value on color. I’ll often walk around the produce section, thinking something like, “Mmm, those tomatoes look good, but I already have something red. Can I find yellow tomatoes?” In addition to that, I love something sweet in a garden salad, like apples or raisins. I also really love something with a lot of crunch. I realize that veggies often have a lot of crunch, but I’m thinking more along the lines of croutons or nuts. I don’t feel that I need a protein in a garden salad, but I don’t mind having one or more: boiled eggs, chicken, bacon, cold cuts come to mind. I love avocado, especially because it adds creaminess to the dressing. And then I’ll often examine anything in my fridge or cupboards: cooked veggies can be great in a salad, leftover fresh herbs, cooked or fresh corn sliced off the cob, leftover undressed pasta.