Peach Chicken Salad with Peach Basil Dressing-Improv Challenge

One of the main things I like about the Improv Challenge which Kristen from Frugal Antic of a Harried Homemaker  hosts is that it makes me think about ingredient combinations that I might not have thought of myself.

This month’s challenge is to use peaches and an herb.  Every time that I thought about what herb to use, a little voice in my head kept saying, “basil, basil, basil,” much like that duck in the Aflac commercial.

I decided that basil it was and went looking for recipe ideas.  I found a salad dressing recipe at food.com that used a peach and basil that I knew I could adapt to what I had in mind.  The poster there used fresh basil, and I would highly recommend that.  I had to use dried basil and felt that it did not quite give me the flavor I was looking for.

For the salad part, I chose to use peaches, chicken, green onions, celery and red pepper.  I sprinkled the peaches with lemon juice and the salad kept well for several days.  To make the salad a little more special, I added some Easy Glazed Walnut Halves for garnish.

This was a really fun Improv Challenge to do.  If you would like to join in next month, you can find all the details on Kristen’s Improv page.

Peach Chicken Salad with Peach Basil Dressing
3 ripe peaches
2 T. lemon juice
1T. extra virgin olive oil
1/2 T. chopped fresh basil or 1 1/2 t. dried
2 1/2 T. vinegar
1/2 t. salt
1/2 t. celery seed
2 t. sugar or to taste
1/8 t. coarse ground pepper
1/3 c. mayonnaise
3 ribs celery, chopped
1/2 c. thinly sliced green onion
1/2 c. diced red pepper
2 c. chopped cooked chicken breast
1 recipe Easy Glazed Walnut Halves (you won’t need them all for this recipe, eat the leftovers for a snack)
Iceberg lettuce leaves for serving

Peel peaches and chop two of them into a medium mixing bowl.  Pour lemon juice over peaches, mix well and set aside.  Peel and slice remaining peach into a blender or food chopper.  Add olive oil, basil, vinegar, salt, celery seed and sugar and blend until smooth.  Add mayonnaise and blend until well mixed.  Add celery, green onion, red pepper and chicken to the peaches in the medium bowl and mix well.  Add prepared dressing and mix until salad ingredients are very well coated.  Chill at least several hours to blend flavors.  Serve in iceberg lettuce leaves and garnish with Easy Glazed Walnut Halves.  Makes 4 servings.

To see what other Improv bloggers chose to do with peaches and herbs, check out the links below.

Linking to these great parties:

Catch a Glimpse Thursday

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Tasty Thursday

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