I have really been enjoying salads for dinner lately and I am currently absolutely crushing on this blackberry balsamic grilled chicken salad with crispy fried goat cheese! This salads base is fresh blackberries starting out with a blackberry balsamic vinaigrette that is used both to marinate the chicken and as the dressing for the salad! The salad is filled out with lettuce, avocado, nuts, onions and goat cheese along with the grilled chicken and of course plenty of fresh blackberries. Instead of simply sprinkling some crumbled goat cheese onto the salad, which would be OK, it is formed into patties, coated in breadcrumbs and fried until nice and golden brown and crispy on the outside and warm and melty on the inside! This blackberry balsamic grilled chicken salad with crispy fried goat cheese is one tasty and fresh summer meal!
As it turns out, the star of this show is the crispy fried goat cheese! You really, really should try this amazing salad, but if you don’t you absolutely
need to try the crispy fried goat cheese! I practically inhale, usually long before it gets to the salad!
This salad would also be great with other berries so feel free to replace the blackberries with one or more of raspberries, blue berries, strawberries, etc!
Feel free to add some prosciutto or crispy fried bacon!
Blackberry Balsamic Grilled Chicken Salad with Crispy Fried Goat Cheese
Blackberry balsamic marinated and grilled chicken black berry salad with crispy fried goat cheese and avocado!
ingredients
- 1/2 cup blackberries
- 2 tablespoons white balsamic vinegar
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
- 1 teaspoon tamari or soy sauce
- 1 large clove garlic, minced
- salt and pepper to taste
- 8 ounces goat cheese, either sliced into 1/4 inch thick discs or formed into small balls
- 1/4 cup flour
- 1 large egg, lightly beaten
- 1 cup panko breadcrumbs (or breadcrumbs)
- 1/2 pound chicken breasts
- 6 cups lettuce
- 1 cup blackberries
- 1 avocado, sliced
- 1/4 cup red onion, sliced
- 1/4 cup walnuts (or pistachios or almonds)
For the blackberry balsamic vinaigrette dressing:
For the fried goat cheese:
For the salad:
directions
- Puree everything in a food processor or with a blender.
- Dredge the goat cheese slices/balls in the flour and coat in egg followed by breadcrumbs and fry in oil over medium heat until lightly golden brown before setting aside on paper towels to drain.
- Marinate the chicken in half of the vinaigrette for 30 minutes to over night before grilling over medium-high heat until cooked and slightly charred, about 2-5 minutes per side, and setting aside to cool and slice.
- Assemble the salad and enjoy!
For the blackberry balsamic vinaigrette dressing:
For the fried goat cheese:
For the salad:
Option: Add prosciutto or crispy bacon!
Note: Best enjoyed while the fried goat cheese is still warm from frying!
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You make some delicious looking salads! Yummy!
So many yummy and vibrant flavors!
I'm heard over heads in love with this gorgeous dish!
This salad is stunning and I love what you did with the goat cheese!
Beautiful! What other cheese would you recommend?
I made mine with mozzarella, kind of like fried cheese sticks. Much better option for those who despise goat cheese, like me!
I made mine with Brie and it was fantastic!
wow- this is gorgeous!
I swapped feta
Wondering what I could swap out the flour with?
Instead of using flour, I used almond flour and for the bread crumbs, I used pulverized pork rinds. I put them in a baggie and used a rolling pin until they they looked like bread crumbs. Delicious!
Great idea to use crushed pork rinds!
Dawn Alva: Rice flour would work.
WOW! This was dinner tonight and it was a winner. I've got blackberries growing in the yard at the peak of ripeness and put them to good use. Thank you it was absolutely scrumptious.
Hi Kevin ! 😀
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preparing to make ur salad ; excited to serve it to my family ! 🙂
I cannot wait to make this.. Do you crush up the berries/blend them?
This was AMAZING!! The goat cheese was pretty hard to fry though, the log I bought was wet and smooshed when I tried to cut it. I managed to fry them though, and man, were they tasty! The dressing is delicious. Will definitely make again 🙂
Love this salad so much! I never realized how easy it is to fry goat cheese! Thank you so much!
So I ended up using an emulsifier for the dressing. The recipe did not specify how to get the dressing that is shown in the pictures. Rather than just keep the blackberries whole, I chose to emulsify mine with the other ingredients to get a smooth vinaigrette. Then added the extra whole blackberries to the salad. This worked out much better for me, so it’s just a suggestion. Otherwise this was a great recipe! 🙂
This is the best salad I have ever had in my life. Hands dow.
One of the best and easiest main course salads EVER. Omg, the vinaigrette is to die for! The only things I did differently were: 1) added some cooked farro to beef it up for my hollow-leg husband and 2) pan fry the chicken instead of grilling it. Oh, and I sprinkled on some pomegranate seeds because I had them! So so so so SO good.
I’m making this salad later on this week for dinner, but I have a question first. Do you have any tips on slicing the goat cheese so it doesn’t crumble and stays in nice little discs? I was cutting goat cheese recently for another recipe, and it IS rather crumbly. BTW, I think this salad looks absolutely beautiful with the purple and green. It’s so pleasing to the eye. I can’t wait to try this!
The brand that I get usually holds together pretty well when slicing and I can push it back together into a disc if it does crumble. If your crumbles too much, you can always just form it into balls (or another shape).
I wanted to report back about the salad since I made it for dinner tonight. This salad is not only beautiful to look at, it is incredibly delicious! I loved everything about it. All the salad ingredients paired well together. The blackberry vinaigrette is SO good! One thing I did was strain the seeds after making the dressing to cut down on the number of seeds in the salad. Totally worth doing, IMO. The fried goat cheese is amazing! I appreciate your suggestion about pushing the goat cheese back together if it crumbles apart. This may not be an appetizing comparison, but it’s almost like playdough where you can just form it into shape with your fingers. That’s what I had to do, because I was not getting neat slices, and the slices were rather large anyway, so I made them into smaller round slices. This recipe is a keeper! Thank you!
My goat cheese was not crumbly but wet so I put my log of goat cheese in the freezer for just a short time and I was able to slice it nicely. This salad is to die for by the way. Outstanding!
How do you get the dressing to look like the picture? I realized after blending it, that the dijon mustard makes it much more cloudy looking. Also I think my clove of garlic was a little too large as it made it quite pungent.
Did you use a blender to puree? A high powered blender can leave it cloudy; this is due to it incorporating tiny air bubbles into the dressing. It does not affect the flavour and it will clear up if you let it sit for a while (or overnight); just shake it up or mix it again when ready to use.
Love all things balsamic. I think I’ll like the blackberry twist. Great way to change up our regular grilled chicken.