Warm Grilled Chicken and Arugula Salad

I love long weekends!!!! Today, I am celebrating the fact that it's almost the Fourth by relaxing and doing things around the house. The weather is perfect, warm and breezy and my grill is just itching to be used. OK, I can't tell what my grill is thinking, but if it could talk I am sure it would say "turn me on", so I did. Last night I was perusing my Nigella books and found a simple salad from the book Forever Summer. Using that as inspiration I came up with the following. I had some amazing arugula and red onions from the Farmer's Market and this is what I put together.

Warm Chicken and Arugula Salad
(Inspired by Chicken Salad with Spinach and Bacon in Forever Summer by Nigella Lawson)

1 heaping handful arugula
1/4 small red onion, sliced
3 slices center cut bacon, sliced*
1 chicken breast pounded think with a mallet or a small saucepan
1 tbsp red wine vinegar
coarse salt and freshly ground pepper

Place chicken breast in a large plastic bag and pound until 1/4 inch thick. Season both sides with salt and pepper and grill over medium high heat for 4 minutes on each side until cooked all the way through. Remove chicken from the grill, slice into chunks and set aside.

Add bacon to a fry pan and cook over medium until crispy, about 8 minutes. Remove bacon with a slotted spoon and reserve the fat in the pan. Add onions and cook until soft and slightly caramelized, about 7 minutes. Add vinegar to the pan and make sure to scrape up any drippings. Remove from heat, taste and season with pepper and salt if necessary. Add bacon back into the dressing.

Place arugula on a medium plate. Top with grilled chicken and then bacon and onion dressing.

*Center cut bacon does not release as much fat as regular bacon so if desired, add a little bit of olive oil to the dressing.

This was incredible! I loved the combination of the spicy arugula with the sweetness of the onions and the salty bacon. Hooray for summer!