Citrus, Chicken & Greens Salad

_{Updated 04.15.26}

For recipes for two, composed salads like this are especially practical because they bring protein, freshness, and a little elegance all in one bowl. The citrus helps wake up the greens and soften the savory notes of the chicken, making the whole dish feel brighter and more interesting than a basic salad. That balance is often exactly what a smaller meal needs.

This is the sort of recipe that works beautifully year-round, but feels especially good when you want dinner to be fresh and not too heavy. Citrus, Chicken and Greens Salad is clean, colorful, and very easy to picture on a two-person table.

Salads are one of my go-to dishes after a heavy workout. Why is it that we seem to be paying more attention to how much and how often we exercise when the weather improves? Is it that we feel cooped up during the winter? Is it that the heebie jeebies are getting the best of us? Or is it that our spring and summer clothes are thinner and more revealing and we feel not ready to reveal ourselves?

I don’t know what your rationale is, but I certainly feel the need to shift some of my workouts to outside when spring is in the air. Breathing fresh early morning crisp air always feels good and it makes me stronger; mentally and physically. As if I need to shed some of my ‘winter coat’. Additionally, I experienced that regular workouts (4-6 days a week), allow me to handle stress better and it helps me to feel better about myself.

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Key Ingredients in This Recipe

You’ll find the complete list of ingredients and exact quantities in the recipe below.

• Chicken breast, no skin, no bone
• Spices
  • Cumin
  • Coriander
  • Curry powder
  • Cayenne pepper
  • Allspice
• Grapefruit – you can use oranges, blood oranges, Meyer lemons or a combination.
• White wine
• Honey
• Dijon mustard
• Celery
• Mesclun lettuce
• Parmigiano Reggiano cheese

If you know me, you know that I am a little obsessed with food, in the good sense of the word obsessed. I wanted to start my own restaurant, my catering business, wanted to teach people how to eat healthier, without too much compromise. I still believe that, I still believe that most of us can eat whatever we want, of course within reasons and with some limitations. In principle, I don’t believe so much in healthy and unhealthy food, I believe there are healthy and unhealthy choices and lifestyles. All those ‘I wanted’ resulted in an e-commerce gourmet & specialty food business (sold in 2020).

This Citrus Chicken and Greens Salad is a great lunch or light dinner salad. It is tasteful and combines crunch, spice and refreshing citrus. Serve it with bread, rice, potatoes or just eat the salad by itself. Have a look at the short video below to have an impression how it is made.

How to Make Citrus, Chicken & Greens Salad

• Step 2 – Section the grapefruit, so there is no white pith visible. Check this post to learn how to do that – section a grapefruit. Hold the fruit over a bowl, so you save the juice that runs out of the fruit during the cutting. Once done, squeeze the rest of the juice out of the grapefruit; this juice is part of your dressing.
• Step 3 – Heat oil in a skillet and add chicken breast. Cook over medium heat for about 1 minute and then flip the chicken and cook 1 minute on the other side. Add white wine and heat to simmer. Turn off the heat, remove the chicken, wrap it in aluminum foil and keep it warm for about 10-15 minutes. The chicken will be done in that time. The total time depends on thickness of your chicken breast and whether you butterflied it.

• Step 5 – Clean the celery and cut it on a bias.

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• Step 6 – Time to put the salad together. Lettuce first, then the celery, followed by the grapefruit sections. Then place the chicken cutlets on top (sliced or whole) and drizzle with the dressing. Last but not least, sprinkle with grated Parmigianno Reggiano Cheese.

In this Citrus, Chicken and Greens Salad recipe, I used grapefruit. Of course you can use oranges, or lemon instead of the grapefruit or a combination. I like the grapefruit and blood oranges because of their contrasting color.