Ingredients

Amount per serving to preference:
romaine lettuce
chicken thighs, prepared to preference or see step 1
boiled eggs, prepared to preference or see step 2
bacon, cooked according to package directions
semi-soft avocado, not too mushy to chop but soft enough to eat
crumbled feta or goat’s cheese

Optional: cooked corn pieces, chopped red onion, croutons (ex. chopped gluten free toast)

maple dijon dressing

Method

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Sprinkle salt and pepper on both sides of chicken thighs. Place on a baking sheet topped with a roasting rack or non-coated cooling rack. Place in the oven for 25-30 minutes until cooked through. Allow to rest.
2. Bring eggs to room temperature (I usually do this as I set the oven to preheat for the chicken). Bring a pot of water to a boil AND prepare a mixing bowl with an ice water bath. There should be enough water to cover the eggs being cooked, but you can cook them in batches if you are making a lot. Using a slotted spoon or sieve, gently place room temperature eggs into boiling water. For my medium-hard boiled eggs, I cook large eggs for 7-7.5 minutes or extra large eggs for 8 minutes. Immediately after cooking time is done, transfer the eggs into your ice water bath to stop the cooking process and prevent the yolks from turning green.
3. Wash and dry romaine lettuce. Cut or tear into bite-sized pieces.
4. Chop everything to similar sized, bite-sized pieces – peel and cube avocado; cube chicken thighs; peel and chop boiled eggs into chunks; dice bacon; cube feta or crumble cheese
5. To serve, add prepared romaine to a serving bowl or to everyone’s separate bowls. Display each topping in a row to showcase each ingredient. Top with dressing OR serve dressing on the side so everyone can add in their preferred amount and mix everything up themselves. This recipe is great to serve in bowls that are larger than the serving size so that there is room to mix all of the chunky ingredients together.

Notes:

1. For a vegetarian version, I like to have raw pumpkin seeds instead of bacon since they have a naturally smokey flavour, and substitute the chicken thighs for roasted chickpeas or roasted tempeh or tofu. The key here is to make sure that you are still getting a nice portion of varied proteins in the salad.
2. You can always use different lettuce(s) for this salad, but I really like romaine lettuce because it is hardy enough to stand up to all of the weighty ingredients in the salad.