Olive Garden Salad Chicken

So I may be the ONLY one out there, but I am OBSESSED with salad at Olive Garden. I mean obsessed. I love everything about it from the crunch of the croutons, the red onions, the parmesean, and of course the best part- the dressing! So I always buy a bottle whenever I go there to eat, and then recreate the salad at home. While Lee and I were eating lunch at our local Olive Garden this past weekend, I got this crazy idea to turn the salad into a main course. Last night, I turned the experiment into dinner, and it worked out great! I think it will be a new staple around here.

Ingredients
1/4 of a red onion
1 lb chicken breasts
Shredded parmesean cheese
Olive Garden salad dressing

First I put the chicken breasts in a ziploc bag and added enough salad dressing to coat all of them. Let that sit while you get the rest of the meal going.
Heat a few tablespoons of olive oil over medium, depending on how much onion you are using, in a non stick skillet, preferably one that you can put in the oven. I cut my red onion into thin slices and sauteed them in the olive oil until they got really soft and sweet. Next I added my chicken breasts and cooked over medium high heat for ten minutes per side. While the chicken is cooking, preheat the oven to 375 degrees. After I cooked the chicken on the stove, added a little more salad dressing to the pan just to add a little more of my favorite part! Then I sprinkled some parmesean cheese onto each chicken breast, and popped the entire pan in the oven for 20 more minutes or until the chicken is done and the cheese is golden and bubbling on top.

Twenty minutes later..my favorite side dish turned into a main dish! I'm sure there are people out there who's favorite part of Olive Garden salad is olives, or the tomatoes, or whatever..throw it in! Make it your own. If anything, last night was proof that sometimes making things up as you go along works:) I didn't even decide to put it in the oven until halfway through cooking!

For my side dish I made a risotto with red onion and sweet corn, which turned out beautifully and tied all the flavors of the meal together. Hopefully I'll be blogging very soon about risotto (my newest food addiction) and I'll include that recipe for you too! I'm about to get "serious" about this blog again;)
HAPPY COOKING!



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