Grilled Chicken Salad with Sweet and Spicy Dressing

It is so freaking hot outside. It's so hot I used the max air conditioning in my car while running errands yesterday. That's practically unheard of. I'm always cold, so if I'm actually hot enough to crank the A/C, it's because it's freakishly hot and humid.

I did head down to the gym downstairs this afternoon knowing I wouldn't want to go anywhere near the Y tonight. The YMCA is big on fans, but not so much on air conditioning. At least the work gym is as cold as the rest of my office building.

I was such a slug last week that it felt really good to jog again. I've been working toward a 5K, and I'm sure I could run the whole thing but I'm super slow. I don't have that kind of time in my work day so I usually work on speeding it up rather than working for distance. I've always been a slow runner but a few years ago I was able to easily run a 10 minute per mile pace. Now I struggle. I'm slowly but surely getting back there.

I hit up Costco on my way home and picked up a gigantic container of salad greens. It didn't cost much more than my usual small clamshell at the grocery store, surprisingly. So, considering the heat, tonight's dinner was a salad — Grilled Chicken with Sweet and Spicy Dressing.

It was good, but maybe not outstanding. It's the dressing I'm unsure about. It's similar to the lime vinaigrette from Newman's Own that I can't stand. The dressing on this salad, though, is tolerable. But I would say just tolerable is a good thing. Maybe I just don't like lime salad dressings. If you do, you'll probably like this. I liked the spiciness of it, at least.

The chicken, though, was the standout. I didn't let it marinade for the full hour.. maybe 20 minutes? But it was still really good. Just the right amount of citrus, smokiness and garlic. I would actually make this chicken as a stand alone without the salad bit.

I think this chicken would be really good for soft tacos or anything else where you might want a garlicky lime grilled chicken. Yum.