My family likes salads and we are always looking for new variations of the traditional lettuce salad. The other day, I came across some recipes on Pinterest for homemade Olive Garden salad dressing. We are big fans of Olive Garden dressing. They do sell it by the bottle and we have purchased quite a few over the years. I didn’t happen to have any on hand that particular day so I tried the homemade. It turned out well.
With the homemade dressing being the inspiration, I needed some protein to complement it. We are also a big fan of the McCormick marinades. We use them on average of at least once a week. As time goes on, you will easily figure out our favorites. On this particular day, however, I did not have any that would work with the dressing, so I experimented. I mixed the ‘base’ for most of the marinades I use: 1/4 cup olive oil, 2 TBSP water, 2 TBSP vinegar. I added about 1 1/2 TBSP Italian Seasoning and 2-3 crushed garlic cloves. I stirred this up and poured it over a few chicken breasts and baked them. Once they were done and slightly cooled, I shredded them.
I built the rest of the salad with artisan lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, black olives, feta cheese and shredded Italian cheese. I put some of the shredded chicken on top and poured on the dressing. We really enjoyed this combination and will likely be repeating it. Happy ending.
