Description
A simple, nutritious homemade fuji apple salad is the best salad ever! Though a copycat of Panera Bread’s Fuji apple salad, this homemade recipe is loaded with fresh ingredients, including homemade apple chips, and tastes way better. Homemade is indeed the best. I hope you can give this healthy copycat Panera bread Fuji apple salad recipe a try!
Ingredients
- 5 oz Arugula (142 grams). Use any green of choice); lettuce mix also works perfectly for this salad.
- 1 Chicken breast (100 grams); oven-baked chicken breast
- 1 – 2 Fuji apple(s); bake to make apple chips or buy store-bought ones.
- 1/3 – 1/2 cup cherry tomatoes; sliced into halves
- 1/4 cup toasted pecans; toasted
- 1/4 cup Blue cheese
- 2 – 5 rings of pickled red onions or fresh red onions (add as much onions as you desire).
Instructions
- Prep Your Chicken. Start by washing your chicken breasts and patting them dry with a paper towel. Season liberally with salt and black pepper. Add a sprinkle of red pepper flakes and a dash or ¼ teaspoon each of Slap Your Mama and Knorr seasonings.
- Bake the Chicken. Cover your seasoned chicken and bake at 350F until fully cooked, tender, and moist.
- Prep the Pickled Onions. You can chop up red onions to use in this salad or pickle them to give them more flavor. Pickling is optional, but I highly recommend it. Watch my video to learn how to pickle red onions effortlessly.
- Prep the Pecans. I have always loved toasting my pecans. However, you can use store-bought toasted pecans to save time. Want to toast them yourself? It’s easy! To toast pecans, place a clean, dry pan on the stovetop, add 1 tablespoon of water, 1 teaspoon of monk fruit sweetener, and a dash of salt, and combine. Then, add 1/3 cup of raw pecans and continue to stir until they absorb all the liquid and are toasted. Remove and place on a parchment paper-lined surface. Be sure to separate them so they don’t stick together. Then, set aside for the salad.
- Prep the Apple Chips. Make homemade chips by slicing the apples thinly and spreading them on the baking rack.Sprinkle a dash of ground cinnamon on both sides. Then bake at 200 until dry and crisp. *Cinnamon is optional. You can skip this step and use store-bought apple chips.
- Assemble your Homemade Fuji Apple Salad. Once your ingredients are prepped, grab a big salad bowl. Put in the arugula or any other greens you intend to use first. Then, slice the deliciously cooked chicken breasts and place them on the arugula. Add a generous amount of pickled onions, cherry tomatoes, homemade apple chips, blue cheese, and pecans. Add a generous amount of Fuji apple salad dressing to finish it off.
- Serve and Enjoy. This salad is super easy to make ahead of time. Prep all the ingredients and assemble them whenever you’re ready for an amazing salad!
Notes
Note that you can make the chicken way ahead of time or at the beginning of your week. Alternatively, you can use leftover chicken.
You can also toast your pecans in the air fryer using this recipe, or you can buy store-bought toasted pecans.
Make my homemade apple chips, or go ahead and buy them at the store. I like Seneca apple chips brand.
Want pickled onions but don’t want to do the work? You can buy those at the supermarket too! Watch this video if want to pickle your own onions. TBH, it’s easy and so good!
If you wish to bake your own apple chips, as I did, please note that it takes a bit of time, so be patient. Do not bake the apples at a high temperature.
This salad recipe makes a whole meal for one person or sides for two!
Time calculation only includes the time needed to assemble the salad.
The salad dressing is not included in the recipe calorie calculation because I don’t know how much you wish to use.
