Honeydew Salad with Chicken Paillards and Chili Glaze

Talk about a cool salad and I mean that in every way possible. Cool to make, cool looking and cool to the palate - that is if you don't go overboard with the chile. I knew I had when I looked over at Big Guy and saw beads of sweat forming on his forehead, but then again it could have been due to the rest of the menu.

Bet you never thought you'd hear it from me, but I may be guilty of overkill last night as far as spicy heat goes. 

This Melon Salad is a repeat from way back in 2009 when I used what we had on hand in the refrigerator at the time to make this cool summertime treat. A cross between a salad and salsa, it's a real keeper and includes cubes of honeydew melon and peeled, seeded English cucumber along with red onion and fresh ginger in a lime juice brown sugar dressing.

The only issue is it also includes a jalapeno which are much, much milder than the sorrano I had on hand and used last night... holy hotstuff Batman, that salad was HOT when it should have been cool. Well at least it looked cool.

How was I to know that the chili glaze I cooked up to go with chicken paillards would be dynamite too? When you take a look at the recipe from myrecipes.com, you'll be thinking "What is she, crazy? With a teaspoon of red pepper flakes, of course it's gonna' be hot".

Well honestly, I figured we were kind of immune to that kind of heat but obviously not. It had me in tears and running for the tums, so you might want to reduce the amount of red pepper flakes to better suit your palate. I know I will next time and I'll simply dip the chicken in the sauce instead of pouring it all over the place. I mean you can always add more heat but you sure can't take it away! Yup, I musta' been taking stupid pills. 

Regardless of the excess in the scoville department, it was all extremely delicious - at least to the cement mouth man of the house. In fact, he's asking for a repeat of it all tonight but he'll just have to keep on asking because I'm thinking I'll be putting "milque toast" on tonight's menu. Just sayin'. 

By the way, the chicken paillards are simply a butterflied chicken breast, cut in half and pounded thin, seasoned well with salt and pepper, coated in an egg wash and dusted in all purpose flour. Fried in a quarter inch of oil in a hot skillet for about 3 minutes total, they're a super quick way to cook up a hunk of cluck and can be dressed up with darn near anything. Put 'em on a caesar salad, or cover with a pile of salsa, or load 'em into a bun along with some barbecue sauce and coleslaw and you'll have your family moaning in glee. 

Honeydew  Salad

1/4 cup fresh lime juice

2 Tablespoons brown sugar

4 cups cubed honeydew melon

1 English cucumber, peeled, seeded & chopped

1/2 cup chopped red onion

1 jalapeno pepper, chopped

2 tablespoons minced fresh ginger

Salt & pepper to taste

Combine lime juice and sugar in a bowl, stirring until sugar dissolves. Add remaining ingredients and refrigerate until serving time. 

A year ago - Easy 5 Hour Stew 

Comments

[Lea]

Another case of appearances can be deceiving - eh? In that photo, your meal looks sooooooo cool and refreshing! HA! But then again - sweating in the heat does cool you off!

[Big guy]

I thought it was just dandy in all respects. But I repeat myself. Just saying. "Milque Toast" Hon that don't even sound good, and it's spelled funny.

LU

[June]

Lea - kind of a shocker for sure but talk about fire in the hold. LOL

Big Guy - "Milque Toast" it's not likely something you'll ever have to worry about but I figured maybe you'd google it :-) LU2

[Lorraine]

Wow! Never thought I see the day when JBug would be thinking of toning it down. The salad does look good though (nice photo) and thinking about the suggested sandwich too.

[joanne]

Sounds really good to me, as I remember seeing tears in someone's eyes as to how HOT it can be (giggles)-love the combination! That is on my menu for sure!

[June]

I'm still suffering from Canadianitis ...it's Big Guy who has cement mouth. I just try unsuccessfully to keep up. LOL

[June]

Joanne - think you'll really love the salad too. The combination of flavors is kind of a go with anything.