I absolutely loooove a good BLT sandwich. Bacon, lettuce, tomato, and creamy mayo, the flavor combo of all combos.
Nerdy note: I recently learned more about why these ingredients work so well together thanks to this MinutFood video about umami. The glutamates in the tomatoes and nucleotides in the bacon team up to massively enhance the umami-ness. Basically this sandwich is an umami explosion with each bite.
Yet, I also love chicken and avocado. So naturally I thought one day, what if I combine them to make a super sandwich…the ChBLAT .
Despite my best efforts to create this dream sandwich, it would inevitably end with me looking like the perfect example of an infomercial fail: fillings refusing to stay in the sandwich, making a giant mess, and being very frustrated, having never achieved that ideal bite that includes all the ingredients.
Enter the ChBLAT salad.
This salad is everything I wanted from that dream sandwich, without any of the mess or frustration. I’ve intentionally kept the dressing thin so it coats the salad well without overpowering it or being too rich. Additionally, I suggest toasting the bread just enough to add some crunch, but not as much as a traditional crouton—keeping the spirit of the original sandwich alive.
I hope you enjoy this salad as much as I do and would love to hear any other BLT makeovers you’ve tried and loved in the comments!
ChBLAT Salad
Author: Natalie Smith
Ingredients
Salad
- 4 Boneless skinless chicken thighs
- 4 Slices of bread (gluten free if needed)
- 2 Tomatoes, sliced in to thick slices and then quartered
- 1 Avocado diced
- 8 Slices of bacon
- Romaine lettuce (Can use a mix of lettuces as well, baby cos, bib, butter, etc…)
- Oil spray for the bread
- Salt and pepper for the tomatoes and chicken
Dressing
- 6 Tbsp Mayonnaise
- 4 Tbsp Water
- 1 tsp White wine vinegar
- ½ tsp Lemon juice
- A pinch of salt
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 190 ℃ / 375 ℉.
Dressing
- Combine the mayonnaise, vinegar, lemon juice, and water.
- Check the consistency and add a bit more water if need, this dressing will be really thin which is nice since it is so rich.
- Add a pinch of salt to your desired taste.
Salad
- Salt and pepper the chicken and set aside while cooking the bacon.
- Cook the bacon over medium heat until your desired crispness in a pan on the stove.
- Remove the bacon to a paper towel lined plate, but keep the bacon fat in the pan.
- Bring the pan up to medium high heat and add the chicken. If it's splattering a lot I usually add a loose layer of aluminum foil over the pan.
- Cook the chicken for 5 minutes on one side, flip and cook for another 5 minutes. Once the chicken has reached 74 ℃ / 165 ℉, remove from pan and let rest of 5 – 10 minutes.
- While the chicken is cooking, slice the tomatoes thickly and then quarter them. Sprinkle with salt and drizzle with about a tsp of the dressing. Set aside until assembling the salad
- Line a baking sheet with foil and spread a thin layer of neutral oil over it.
- Cube the bread and add it to the baking sheet, spreading the pieces out so they have space and are not overlapping. Spray the bread with oil spray and bake for 10 minutes (flipping halfway through), or until slightly crispy and firm, but not as crispy as a traditional crouton.
- Chop the romaine lettuce adding to individual bowls.
- Chop the avocado, bacon and chicken (once cool enough to handle) in to 1 inch pieces.
- Build the salad, recommended order of ingredients: lettuce, avocado, chicken, bread cubes, and tomatoes (drizzling over any juices that have come out of the tomatoes while cooking the rest of the ingredients), and top with a thin drizzle of the dressing.
- I hope you enjoy!
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