Summer Panzanella Salad with Grilled Chicken
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Panzanella is one of my favorite summer side dishes to make - it's bright, fresh, delicious, and so easy. The thing that really sets this panzanella apart is to salt the tomatoes and let them sit in a strainer set over a bowl while you prep the rest of the salad. The tomatoes will release a lot of their juices, which you'll add to the vinaigrette, making it even more tomato-y!
I also use olive bread and chopped olives in my panzanella, which I love (I am obsessed with olives, if you haven't already figured that out) but you can absolutely skip them and use any other kind of crusty bread for the croutons if they are not your thing!
The vinaigrette for this salad is one of my absolutely favorites - it's an acidic, dijon vinaigrette that also has some diced red onion in it, instead of putting raw onion in the salad. You'll let the diced red onion sit in a little champagne vinegar (you can sub white wine vin or red wine vinegar if you don't have champagne vinegar) and the vinegar will take the edge off the onions before you make the rest of the dressing. I use this dressing on a lot of other salads, it keeps really well if you don't end up using all of it.
The chicken in this dish is SO simple, yet so flavorful. I cook them in a cast iron skillet on the stove, but if you have a grill you can absolutely use that too. If you're using a meat thermometer to cook them, you want the breasts to read 155. Otherwise 5 minutes per side on a hot cast iron skillet is a good rule of thumb - just check the chicken is cooked through / opaque white and the juices run clear. If your chicken breasts are particularly thick, you may need an extra minute or two per side. I use this chicken in a lot of other recipes too, and I love having leftovers to toss on a salad for a quick lunch or in a chicken caesar wrap (I have a recipe here for that too!). So make a little extra if you want to have some leftovers!
While this dish is simple enough for a week night, it's also a really great one to make for a casual dinner party too. Sub GF bread to make the whole thing gluten free. Serves 4 for dinner.