Chicken Poppy Seed Salad

This is Melanie's recipe and it is wonderful. Since she has never posted it, I had to get it out there for you all to enjoy it too! Mel is a born hostess and party planner... she has hosted an engagement party for every single one of her 4 younger siblings and at mine she served this salad...along with a whole bunch of other delicious foods, as you can imagine! My mother-in-law recently remarked how much she liked this salad that night. (It's been 4 years...must be a great salad, right!) So here you go... just in time for summer. Yeah!

Chicken Poppy Seed Salad

submitted by Brittany

Spinach leaves

Romaine leaves

Grilled chicken, sliced (grill with lots of lemon pepper seasoning)

Red onion, sliced thinly

Crispy bacon, crumbled

Shredded mozzarella cheese

Toasted almonds (or you can sugar the almonds. Put sliced almonds in a pan with lots of granulated sugar (about equal amounts). Cook on medium heat until sugar melts, coating the almonds as they brown.)

The best part... The Dressing:

1 1/3 cup sugar

2 tsp salt

2 tsp dry mustard

2/3 cup red wine vinegar

3 Tb Maui or Vidalia onion, chopped

2 cups canola oil

3 Tb poppy seeds

Mix the first 5 ingredients in a blender, then slowly add the oil, blending until thick. Stir in poppy seeds. Toss all ingredients together with generous amount of dressing before serving.

*This makes a lot of dressing! If you need a really big salad for a party then start with a large bunch of spinach, large head of romaine, 4 chicken breasts, 1 lb bacon, etc. I rarely make a salad that big so that is why there are no "amounts". So have fun with it - you're going to love it!