Hi Lovelies!

Last weekend, my sister sent me a pin of this grilled chicken that looked SO good I just HAD to try it. Well, boy am I glad I made it, because it was delicious! I have the recipe for you with a couple little notes of things I would do differently!

Grilled Chicken With Barley-Corn Summer Salad

Ingredients:

• Chicken breasts
• Medium barley, 3/4 cup
• Frozen corn, 2 cups- thawed
• Cherry tomatoes, 2.5 cups cut in half
• Red onion, recipe calls for 1/2 cup diced, but I think it could have used 3/4 cup
• Bacon, 4-5 slices (I totally forgot about the bacon, and now looking back realize how much more amazing it would have been with it.)
• salt & pepper
• Garlic, recipe calls for 1 clove, but I think 2 would have been better
• Olive Oil, about 3 tbsp
• Water
• Red wine vinegar, 1 tbsp
• Lemon, one half squeezed
• Fresh basil leaves

The Barley-Corn Summer Salad serves 4-5 people.

Instructions:

1. Make the tomato vinaigrette. This will be used as a marinade for the chicken as well as a sauce for the barley-corn summer salad. First, get your food processor out.
2. Place the following into the food processor: 1 cup cherry tomatoes, garlic clove(s), 1 tbsp red wine vinegar, 2 tbsp olive oil, squeezed lemon juice, 2 tbsp of water, 2 tbsp diced red onion, and a dash of salt and pepper. I also added some fresh basil to this because basil is my favorite- about 2 leaves worth of it.
3. Turn on your food processor and let it run until a liquid is formed.
4. Put your chicken breasts into a Ziploc baggie and pour some of the tomato vinaigrette into it. The recipe says 6 tbsp, but I think I used much more than that, use your discretion- cover the chicken enough that it will soak in.
5. Put the chicken in the fridge to begin marinading.
6. Next, cook your barley according to the directions on the box. We used the 3/4 cup recipe and it was MORE than enough for the 2 of us, probably enough to feed 4.
7. While your barley is cooking, you can start on the bacon- the ingredient that I forgot. Cook it to your liking and break it into tiny pieces.
8. Once your barley is done cooking, let it sit and cool for 10 minutes or so. Then pour it into a big bowl!
9. Here we will add the rest of your diced onion (1/2-3/4 cup), halved cherry tomatoes (1.5 cups), 2 cups of thawed corn kernels, bacon pieces, some fresh basil (7 or 8 leaves), and the rest of the tomato vinaigrette from earlier. Mix everything until it is all coated with a layer of the vinaigrette. Add salt and pepper until it suites your taste.
10. Put the salad into the fridge so that it stays chilled, and get out your chicken!
11. Grill your chicken until it is thoroughly cooked.
12. To serve, scoop some barley-corn summer salad onto your plate and add the grilled chicken on top! We also grilled up some red wine vinegar asparagus to go with it all, which was delish!

A NOTE:

Making this recipe next time, I think that I would make extra of the tomato vinaigrette. It would have been nice to have had some to warm up and serve over the chicken to give it even more flavor! Just something to think about!

Recipe adapted from Iowa Girl Eats.

 This one will be going into my recipe book as a keeper! I have been eating the leftovers all week long and still can’t get enough! This salad would be a great side dish to bring to a summer potluck, and would definitely be something no one has ever tried. Let me know if you do make it, and if you make any sort of alterations that turn out great. Enjoy!

Linking up with: Treasure Box Tuesday,Wednesday Round Up