When I was a kid, summer vacation always started with an annual trip to McDonalds. The pilgrimage, which coincided with the last day of school, was something that I looked forward to for weeks, and I always got the same thing: a 6 pack of chicken nuggets with honey mustard sauce.
It's strange to look back now and think about how much I looked forward to the oddly uniform nuggets of spongy mystery meat, but in retrospect I think it may have been the sauce. The sweet floral honey and tangy acerbic mustard are contrasts that go together like black and white.
While this grilled chicken with honey mustard dressing shares ease and speed with its distant cousin from the Golden Arches, that's about where the similarities end. It's a quick weeknight meal that you make, not because it's quick, but because it's delicious.
The chicken is seasoned simply with salt and pepper before going on the grill, so the flavor of the chicken has a chance to shine. As such, be sure to use the best quality chicken you can find. Together with subtly bitter mustard greens, peppery arugula and the sweet and the tangy dressing, this makes for a delicious protein packed meal that will fill you up without bogging you down.
Finally, if you get bored with the honey mustard dressing, you could make my ginger miso dressing, or creamy sesame dressing for this as alternatives to mix things up. And if you're using your grill to cook this already, my Grilled Endive Salad would make a great side dish.
More Chicken Salads
📖 Recipe
Units
Ingredients
- 250 grams boneless skin-on chicken thighs
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
- 80 grams baby greens
- 2 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil
- 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- 1 tablespoon honey
- 1 tablespoon whole grain mustard
- ½ tablespoon lemon juice
- ½ teaspoon hot mustard (optional)
Instructions
- As far in advance as you can, sprinkle both sides of the chicken with the salt and pepper. Ideally you'll let it sit for 30 minutes so the salt can penetrate the meat, but if you're short on time, you can move ahead right away.
- Wash the salad greens and dry in a salad spinner.
- Heat a grill or grill pan until hot.
- Drizzle 2 teaspoons of olive oil onto the chicken and rub all over both sides.
- Place the chicken skin-side down on the grill until it has good grill marks, and then flip and grill until the chicken is cooked through (registered 160 degrees F on a thermometer). Transfer the chicken to a cutting board and let it rest for 10 minutes.
- Whisk the olive oil, honey, whole grain mustard, lemon juice and hot mustard together in a bowl.
- Slice the chicken into bite-sized pieces.
- Drizzle a few spoonfuls of dressing onto the greens and toss to coat. Salt and pepper to taste.
- Arrange the chicken on top of the salad and drizzle with the remaining dressing.
Richard says
This is the best use of a Chicken thigh I have come across - at least using it as the star not an ingredient. Normally I end up tweaking these recipes a bit for my taste, but this one is spot on. A+ 🙂
It sounds pretty plain and simple, but the end result is fantastic. I'm tempted to brine it gently, but I am not sure I want to mess with perfection.
Marc Matsumoto says
Hi Richard, I'm happy to hear your enjoyed it! Chicken thighs might be my favorite cut of meat because they're so versatile (as an ingredient, as a flavoring, or as the star of the show). I have a few other recipes on here where they really shine, so I hope you have a chance to check them out. Here's a method I've been enjoying recently that gets really crisp skin with juicy meat: https://norecipes.com/chicken-ginger-scallion-sauce/ It works with any sauce.
Marc Matsumoto says
BTW, regarding a brine it's certainly an option to make the chicken more moist, but it does have tradeoffs (it waters down the natural flavor of the chicken while preventing the skin from crisping). If you just want to infuse it with flavor, a dry brine is the way to go.
Marc Matsumoto says
There are a lot of sites out there you can look up estimated nutritional value of each ingredient by weight. Then you can total them up. I don't include the nutritional values here because they can be wildly inaccurate (for example the amount of calories in 250 grams of chicken will depend largely on how much fat the chicken you buy contains).
Kathy Elmore says
I would like to know where to find the nutritional value of them as well.
Kathy says
Where can I find the nutritional values of these recipes?
Patricia Horton says
this will be my sunday dinner the chicken looks delious
Tay Mor says
I'm Jamaican, so it will be difficult for me to 'season' the meat so sparsely with just salt and pepper, but I will deffo give this recipe a shot! Seriously the imagery alone made me drool!
Jen Haylock says
deboning a chicken leg is pretty easy...I always buy my chicken whole and debone then make stock out of the bones. the main trick is to chop the knuckle off the end of the drumstick before slicing into the meat. this way you only have to deal with the knee joint which once you have sliced the leg lengthwise and scraped down the bone with the knife to separate the meat and bone should just be able to be broken away from the cartilege. digging the rest out isn't too difficult but can be a little fiddly. make sure you have a very sharp thin blade (like a filleting knife) and practice will do the rest
Tristan Leterrier says
l tried it yesterday and it's just delicious. I had to learn how to debone chicken leg myself (it isn't sold deboned in france) but wow, it was worth it.
the crispy chicken skin, the juicy meat , and the dressing with the salad are in perfect harmony !!
Marteen Hook says
Grilled chicken with honey and mustard sounds very delicious. I am going to try this recipe asap. Thanks for this superb recipe.
Yogicfoodie says
Thank you for wonderful lunch!
Next time I'm going to make a gallon of this honey mustard dressing.
I did put a bit more lemon juice in, however, my quest for the best honey mustard
dressing is over.
Thank you.
Marc Matsumoto says
Hi Kirstine, if your oven has a broil mode, and you can move your rack to the top position, you should be able to do it in the oven. Just put a wire rack on a baking sheet and put the chicken on the rack before putting it under the broiler. Broil skin side down until the meat side is browned and then flip and broil until the chicken is cooked and the skin is starting to crisp.
kirstine says
marc, can I still do it with oven like baking it? thanks.
Marc Matsumoto says
Hi Monica, it's hard to give you a recipe without trying it out first, but you could probably do something by eliminating the peanut butter and brown sugar and cooking down some mangoes after you've fried the garlic, ginger and spices. Hope that helps.
Monica says
I know that this is not related AT ALL, but your cooking inspires me to try and make up recipes. That being said, I'm using your slow roasted salmon technique and while the curry sauce you created to pair it with is AMAZING, I have a ton of mangoes and avocados. I was wondering if you knew of a mango curry sauce similar to the one above that would pair well with the salmon. Any tips suggestions would be awesome 🙂 (the avocados I used for a mango avocado salsa that I tried with the salmon)
Asha Shivakumar says
Omg..this looks so good Marc. I've been following your blog from when I saw your tutorial on youtube for photography. Your pictures are beautiful.
Melanie W says
This looks great, perfect for the summer!
McDonalds was a road trip staple for me too.