Balsamic Chicken and Sweet Potato Salad

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This Balsamic Chicken and Sweet Potato Salad is a wholesome meal filled with some of my favorite foods.

Today I am revisiting a recipe that I first created 3 1/2 years ago. At the time I was on a modified version of the paleo diet, and had cut out flour, sugar, and dairy. It wasn’t much fun, but I did lose 6 pounds. The diet involved eating lots of lean protein and vegetables, and this Balsamic Chicken and Sweet Potato Salad was one of my go-to meals. I love that it is made with fresh wholesome ingredients, and it a dinner that you will feel good about eating.

When I originally posted the recipe I suggested adding dried cranberries and goat cheese if you were not on a strict diet. This time around I added both and they add so much flavor to this dinner. The creamy and tart goat cheese is a perfect match for the balsamic glazed chicken and sweet potatoes. Even though this is a salad, it is really hearty since it has chicken and a sweet potato. It’s filling and anything but boring.

This meal comes together easily in 45 minutes. First, you dice the sweet potatoes and roast them for 40 minutes. While the sweet potatoes roast you cook the chicken and toast the pine nuts. It is an easy process and a foolproof recipe. If you are feeling extra hungry, and want to save some time, you could cook the sweet potato in the microwave and you could use store-bought rotisserie chicken instead of cooking chicken breasts.

I like to have this salad for dinner, it is the type of thing I will eat after an evening workout, since if I went to the trouble of working out, I shouldn’t eat an unhealthy dinner that totally cancels out the workout.

I prefer to keep the spinach raw, but you could quickly saute it and serve the chicken, sweet potatoes, and other toppings over cooked spinach.

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Balsamic Chicken and Sweet Potato Salad

This Balsamic Chicken and Sweet Potato Salad is a wholesome meal filled with some of my favorite foods.

Prep Time 45 minutes

Total Time 45 minutes

Servings 4 servings

Ingredients

• 2 Sweet Potatoes
• Salt and Pepper
• 4 tablespoons Olive Oil
• 1 pound Chicken Tenderloins
• 2 tablespoons Balsamic Vinegar
• 1/4 cup Pine Nuts
• 1 pound Baby Spinach
• 4 tablespoons Crumbled Goat Cheese
• 4 tablespoons Dried Cranberries

Instructions

1. Heat your oven to 400 degrees. Peel and dice the sweet potatoes. Then place in a bowl, add 2 tablespoons olive oil and a generous amount of salt and pepper. Toss ingredients together. Then spread the sweet potatoes out on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Bake for 40 minutes, until soft and lightly browned. Stir the potatoes after 20 minutes to make sure they cook evenly.
2. Meanwhile, prepare the chicken. Season the chicken with salt and pepper. Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in a skillet over medium high heat. Add the chicken and the balsamic vinegar. Cook for about 4 minutes per side, until browned. Then cover the skillet and reduce heat to low. Cook chicken for another 10 minutes, or until no longer pink in the center.
3. Spread the pine nuts out on a baking sheet. Bake in the oven with the sweet potato for 2-3 minutes, until the pine nuts are slightly browned.
4. Assemble the salads. Spread a big handful of baby spinach out on a place. Then add a chicken breast, a scoop of roasted sweet potatoes, and some goat cheese, dried cranberries, and pine nuts. Finally, drizzle the excess olive oil and balsamic from the skillet over the salad.