Peaches are my all-time favorite fruit. We make this dish a LOT during peach season! You can make it as an entree salad or you can make the chicken and peaches as your main dish and serve it with your favorite summer veggies on the side.

When I was in college (let’s not discuss how long ago that was, thankyou!) I lived in an apartment complex with monthly newsletters that included a recipe of the month. This was the recipe for July 1999 (I suppose I just gave myself away, but there you go.) It’s so easy and SO delicious it works just as well for a weeknight meal as it does for entertaining. We’ve only recently (ahem, tonight) made it into a salad. It worked beautifully…and (bonus!) the whole family loves it which makes me ever so happy. I hope this will make you and yours as happy as it makes us. Happy summer eating!

Grilled Chicken and Balsamic Peach Salad

Ingredients

• 1 cup Italian salad dressing
• 1 lb boneless skinless chicken breasts (I use two large and cut them in half long ways to make 4 thinner cuts of chicken)
• 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
• 1/4 cup molasses
• 4 ripe peaches, peeled, pitted, and halved
• romaine lettuce, cleaned and torn or chopped into bite size pieces. 1 1/2 – 2 cups per serving
• goat cheese
• blueberries

Directions

Place chicken breasts in a bowl or large ziplock bag. Pour Italian dressing over the chicken, seal (or cover) and refrigerate for 1 hour.  Drain and discard dressing.

Place heavy duty foil in one side of your grill (to be used later for the peaches. It will save you a HEAP of clean up!!) Preheat your grill to medium heat. Grill chicken for 6-8 minutes per side or until cooked through.

Mix balsamic vinegar and molasses in a medium bowl. Add the peaches and toss gently to coat. Place on the foil on the grill during the last six minutes of chicken grilling time. Grill for 6 minutes turning and brushing with additional vinegar mixture.

At this point you have two options: #1 Place the chicken on a serving platter, slice the peaches and place over the chicken, then drizzle with remaining vinegar mixture. Serve with your favorite summer side dish.

Here they are off the grill, before any slicing took place: 

Option #2 Slice the chicken and place on a bed of lettuce. We had some gorgeous Romaine given to us straight out of a friend’s garden. (Thanks Mary!!)

As a side note: The bowls I served this in, with the mosaic peaches on them, were my grandma’s dishes. She loved peaches so much that I’m told she babied them, turning them multiple times a day to ensure perfect ripening. I felt it was only appropriate to serve this meal in her dishes! 🙂

Slice peaches and place on top of the chicken. Then add some crumbled goat cheese, and another summer treat, blueberries:But wait!! I forgot the last part! Drizzle with some of the extra Balsamic Vinegar and Molasses mixture and serve: