Grilled Chicken Salad with Light Basil Dressing

This is our first year growing lettuce!  I am happy to say that it has been wildly successful and easy to do!  We started with Heirloom Solutions- Lettuce Heirloom Cutting Mixture Seeds.  The seeds were planted indoors on March 2nd and then transplanted into our raised bed on April 6th.  I have been busy and have waited to harvest some of the lettuce until today (May 19th) but I could have started harvesting it several weeks ago. 

I have been so amazed with the beauty of color and texture springing up in this raised bed.  Here are some great pictures below.  I have also shown how to harvest the lettuce at the end of this post if you are curious.  But for now its time to share the ingredients to this salad!

Salad Ingredients:
Lettuce
1 Chicken Breast
1/8 cup Red Onion
Shredded Mozzarella Cheese
Chicken Seasoning:
Mrs Dash Garlic & Herb Seasoning
Emeril's Original Essence
Dressing Ingredients:
2 tsp. Olive Oil
1 tsp. Lemon Juice
1/4 tsp. Dried Basil Flakes

STEP 1: Season chicken breast with Garlic & Herb Seasoning and Emeril's Original Essence.  Cook until no longer pink in the center (about 7-9 min. per side).

STEP 2: Cut up the chicken into strips or cubes.
STEP 3: Wash lettuce and dry.  Cut lettuce into pieces add to bowl.  
STEP 4: Cut onion and add to bowl.  Sprinkle on shredded mozzarella cheese.
STEP 5: Mix olive oil, lemon juice and basil in small separate bowl to make the dressing.  Add to salad and enjoy!

When to harvest:
Buttercrunch and other Bibb types can also be harvested at any size or you can choose to wait until its full (6-8 dia.) and cut the whole plant at the base.  You can also do the same with Iceburg.  
You can pick leaf lettuce at any size.
Romaine types will form a mid-rib before harvest. 

How to harvest lettuce:
Using your fingers gently pinch off the lettuce from the outside of the plant.  You can choose to leave the bud to grow more leaves or cut the whole plant at the base. 

Gently pinching off outer leaves

Cutting lettuce at base