joe’s honey mustard salad;

Joe’s honey mustard salad is my gateway salad. For those who don’t like salad, Joe’s honey mustard salad hits the perfect spot. With breaded chicken and angel hair pasta, you get lots of salad greens in every bite, but it still feels filling. And the different ingredients add so many different textures. You’ve got the thin strands of pasta, the crunchy and hearty chicken as well as crisp lettuce, crunchy bell peppers, and carrots.

I always start with the angel hair pasta for Joe’s honey mustard salad. I start by bringing salted water to a boil and cooking my angel hair pasta. Do you have to use angel hair? No, not necessarily, but in my opinion, it is a superior choice for this salad.

I’ve used spaghetti instead of a thicker noodle, and it’s just not the same. Angel hair pasta is thin and keeps your bite of Joe’s honey mustard salad from getting overpowered by pasta. You want the thin pasta to disperse some. It is, after all, a salad first and foremost. Not a pile of pasta with some leafy greens.

The quick toss of angel hair pasta in sesame oil helps twofold. The sesame flavor subtly elevates this salad from good to great.

secret to success;

It’s crazy how such a simple dressing of the pasta packs so much flavor. The quick toss with sesame oil helps twofold. Firstly, it keeps your pasta from sticking, just as you’d coat it with oil. And clumpy pasta would be a tragedy because, again, you don’t want to overpower the salad with pasta. But secondly, the sesame flavor subtly elevates this salad from good to great. It adds an extra little depth of flavor that brings everything together.

I always store my pasta separately from the salad, so I have the option of heating it up or not. You can serve warm or cold, but I like the option of either. Most often, I’ll heat some of the pasta and chicken up together for Joe’s honey mustard salad first. I find this feels like a more robust meal to me when I have a warm element. But it’s not necessary, and eating it cold is equally satisfying, especially on a warm summer day.

When it comes to the chicken, you have multiple options with varying levels of investment. The goal here is to make salads convenient and exciting—or at least not boring. I want to look forward to a salad and make it have some element I look forward to eating.

Sometimes, for me, that’s a dinosaur chicken nugget. Or a spicy chicken patty that I can heat from the freezer. Convenient, flavorful, and easy to prep (read: toaster oven it before serving.) I fully admit that homemade breaded chicken is superior in flavor, but you know, sometimes I just want a little bit of processed food to go with my health food. Frozen chicken nuggets or tenders can scratch that itch. Not to mention that using frozen patties eliminates handling raw meat, multiple ingredients, and the actual cooking part of the recipe (past boiling water for the pasta).

Homemade breaded chicken is superior in flavor, but sometimes I crave just a little bit of processed food and convenience so I opt for Dino chicken nuggets or frozen spicy chicken patties.

secret to success;

If you choose to make the chicken yourself, it’s pretty much your standard breaded chicken cutlet. Butterfly it and cut it thin so it cooks fully and gets a good crispy coating to chicken ratio. Coat in flour, egg bath, and then panko bread crumbs, and then pan fry. Again, like the pasta, I tend to store it separately or with the pasta so I can heat it up just before I eat a serving.

While things are cooking or boiling, I turn to the chopped salad part of this recipe. Chop and dice and throw everything together. Not really too much complexity here.

I will say, I swear by these aeration containers for meal-prepping salads. I just toss chopped salad ingredients into the basket, and it seems to keep my salads fresher, for up to a week, sometimes beyond. Joe’s honey mustard salad can actually last past the week mark since there aren’t too many wet components to speed up wilting, etc. Especially if you keep the pasta and chicken separate.

I swear by these aeration containers for meal prepping salads—it keeps things fresh up to a week or more.

secret to success;

And then the thing that ties everything together in Joe’s honey mustard salad: the dressing. Can you use storebought honey mustard? Sure. Does making it yourself blow any storebought dressing out of the water? Also yes. It’s just so much tangier and flavorful if you make your own. But again no shade here, I’ve used both. Even if I’m looking for shortcuts, I will usually spend a few minutes to whip together the homemade honey mustard anyway.

Can you use storebought honey mustard? Sure. Does making it yourself blow any storebought dressing out of the water? Also yes.

secret to success;

So when you put together all the components in Joe’s honey mustard salad, you actually get a salad I’m excited to eat.

secrets to success;

Want all the best tips and tricks to make this recipe a success? Check out the blog post above to find out more!

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more recipes;

Looking for other classic recipes? Check out these great options:

• I know the flavor combo on these crockpot jelly BBQ meatballs can sound a little odd at first, but let me assure you, they’re delicious as an appetizer or main entree!
• Another healthy salad with a dressing to die for: sweet celery salad. That dill parmesan dressing I could just eat by itself. But that’s not as healthful without the salad part.
• For a summer potluck, I love a good BLT potato salad. Basically take everything you love about potato salad and toss it on a traditional salad. The creaminess from the potatoes essentially serves as the dressing, and again, keeps you full!