Grilled Balsamic Chicken Salad with Spiced Pecans

I love this salad! So simple and tasty..a go-to!

I admit this may not be a fair review because hubby does not like arugula so substituted spinach.  We did not have raspberries so substituted pears.  Also used some left over roasted chicken instead of grilled.  We liked it - especially the pecans and based on other reviews, I did not cook them as long so they did not burn.  I did add a sprinkle of crumbled feta at the end which was a nice touch we thought.  Will make again with the raspberries and grilled chicken next time.

I had the same problem as another reviewer with the pecans. First batch (yes I had to make it twice!) I toasted as instructed then mixed in the brown sugar, hot sauce and butter and in no time flat it was burned. I threw it away and decided I must have over toasted that time so made it again. This time I barely toasted the pecans but as soon as I added the butter and brown sugar it burned again! They weren't as burned as the first batch so I used them but they were a sticky goopy mess. Everything else about the salad was great so I will make it again but I think I'll use a different spiced pecan recipe next time. Foodandwine.com has a recipe, Sweet Potato Gratin with Chile-Spiced Pecans, and those pecans are wonderful.

The whole family loved it.  My son especially loved the dressing, and have used it seperately on other salads.  Great & tasty recipe!

I really liked the idea of this recipe but I was disappointed in the outcome. I'm sure a better chef than me would not have had these problems, but the chicken was underdone (despite the outside looking overdone) and the pecans were slightly burned. I'm not sure how I could have messed up the dressing though since it was simply mixing ingredients together but it was bad. With that said, I will try again. Next time I will slice the chicken in half so it's not so thick, and I will not over-cook the pecans (will do 3-4 minutes after adding sugar, etc instead of the five minutes that the recipe states). I will not try the dressing again though. I'll either try a different dressing recipe or will just use our favorite store bought dressing, Kraft Olive Oil Vinaigrette. I also added craisins (because we didn't have raspberries) and thinly sliced onion.