Sizzling Chicken Salad

I hate vegetables.

Is there anyone else out there who understands? That horrid feeling when you unsuspectingly find something green on your plate, as opposed to that incredible high when you smell a freshly baked cupcake?

Yep, that's me.

But...vegetables are supposed to be good for you, right? So...it is important to eat them I guess. Well, luckily for me (and YOU!) I learned a few things when I was in college. And by a few things, I mean I worked in the dining hall and they used to make sizzling salads.

The concept is quite simple, really. All you do is fry up some vegetables, add chicken and dressing, and pour the conglomeration on top of a bed of lettuce. And sprinkle cheese on top, of course.

I've found that when I stir-fry vegetables (and mix them in with lots of sauce and other things), they actually taste pretty good. It's a good trick to do with pasta as well. You get to be as creative as you want, and choose the vegetables that you like.

The first thing to do is to cook the chicken. I just stick it in a frying pan, since that's the easiest way. When the snow finally melts and it's nice outside, I may go out and grill it. Or I suppose you could bake it. Either way, just make sure it's not pink anymore.

When I fry the chicken, I cut it into little strips first. Then I pour a little oil in the frying pan and let it cook over medium heat until the pieces are no longer pink.

Tomatoes

Broccoli

Onions

Peas

Corn

Carrots

Shredded Cheese

Hard-boiled Egg

After my chicken is cooked, and all of the vegetables I want to use are cut up into bite size-ish pieces, I get out a fresh frying pan and coat it in oil. Let the pan heat up a bit over medium heat, and then throw on the vegetables.

You can use a wooden or a plastic spatula to mix the vegetables around while they are cooking. There really is no set time for how long to cook them; just for a few minutes until they are a bit tender. The broccoli will get a little brown.

Here's the fun part. After the vegetables have cooked for a couple of minutes, add the dressing. I use Buffalo ranch dressing, which is amazing with chicken! I do live near Buffalo, so I'm partial to that style of chicken. If you don't live in an area that sells Buffalo ranch dressing, just mix about half and half of Buffalo sauce with ranch dressing, or however much is to your taste.

You can also try other types of dressing. Italian would be good, or whatever your favorite kind is. At school we had a homemade bacon Italian dressing, which sounded amazing. I never did get to try it, though, since it was all gone by the time we went on break!

Have a plate of lettuce, spinach, whatever greens you want, ready. After you have thoroughly mixed the vegetables in the dressing, add the chicken and mix that in as well. Make sure there is enough dressing to cover everything.

Let everything cook and sizzle for a while so that all the flavors mix together and everything gets nice and hot. After the menagerie has cooked for a couple of minutes, remove the pan from the heat, and pour the toppings onto the bed of lettuce. If you want, sprinkle some shredded cheese and/or extra dressing on top.

It's now time to mix all of your cooked vegetables in with your lettuce and dig in. There is so much flavor, and so many different colors, you won't even realize you're eating vegetables. It's delicious, and yet it's so good for you too! I promise!