Fig and Chicken Salad with Goat Cheese

Fig and Chicken Salad with Goat Cheese is the perfect summertime salad. It is my newest addition to the Olive Sunshine collection of fig recipes. If you have not already heard, it is fig season in Florida. I love fresh figs. Not because they are my favorite fruit, but because they are subtle and sweet and only availabe a few weeks out of the year. Brown Turkey Figs on a salad is such an incredible treat. It adds such a sweet complexity to greens.

Figs and the Produce

Olive Sunshine’s Fig and Chicken Salad with Goat Cheese is made on a bed of arugula. The peppery bite of the arugula is a great compliment to the sweetness of the figs. Any fresh fig will work on this salad. I love the hearty Brown Turkey Fig (the formal name is Ficus Carica) on this salad. I add several leaves of fresh mint for a cool, fresh crunch. Figs, Arugula and mint just make summer time salads come alive.

The Goat Cheese and Extras

One of the elements that make this salad so delicious is having quality extra virgin olive oils and vinegars. Obviously I love olive oil (Olive Sunshine?). I believe it is a crucial element of the Mediterranean Diet. The salad dressing I make for the salad is super easy and really tasty. I use a Blood Orange Olive Oil and a Lemon White Balsamic Vingegar and I throw some of the fresh mint leaves in to let it steep. Not at all overpowering, the dressing is light, sweet, fresh and tart all at the same time. I use a super creamy honey goat cheese to add a creaminess to the entire salad. The bites with the goat cheese, mixed with slices of fig and a sprig of mint, are my favorite bites. Didn’t I say the Fig and Chicken Salad with Goat Cheese is the perfect summertime salad?

The Chicken

I marinate the chicken in a Black Mission Fig Balsalmic Vinegar and then pan sear it. The vinegar carmalizes and creates a lovely, rich crust on the chicken, leaving the inside tender. The rich flavor of the fig on the chicken does not taste like the fresh Turkey figs, but instead just pulls out the sweetness of them. You may not be able to find the fig balsamic, but I urge you to use a dark balsalmic of your choice. It really dresses up the chicken so nicely and compliments the summertime goodness of the salad.

Fig and Chicken Salad

When my Sweetheart brings home figs from the grocery it really gives me reason to celebrate. Fig season always seems to catch me off guard and it is such a nice surprise. During the season we always buy a couple of varieties each week and I love to create different recipes with fresh figs. This lovely fig and chicken salad can be made all year-long, and you can certainly use dried figs. If you are lucky enough to get fresh figs then I urge you to try this lovely salad. Remember, fig season is short! Make sure to get your fresh figs today!