How to make chopped salad in advance
With four kids and a pool, we host a lot of summer parties. Although there are a lot of local restaurants that I could easily order a takeout chopped salad to serve, I've found that prepping a few of the recipe steps before a party or even a family dinner makes this chopped salad recipe easy to make at home.
One of my favorite tricks for serving salad to a crowd is to prep the lettuce ahead of time and keep it in a jumbo zip style bag and have all the rest of ingredients chopped up in separate containers. When getting ready to serve, I add all of the ingredients to the bag of lettuce including the dressing, close the bag, shake it up and pour it into a serving bowl. This allows the lettuce to stay crisp and I don't have any mess in the kitchen.
All of the ingredients in this recipe can be prepped ahead of time. Using a store bought rotisserie chicken can help you shave off some prep time and if desired you can heat both the chopped chicken and bacon crumbles in the microwave prior to adding them to the salad to have a blend of hot and cold ingredients.
Whether you double this for a party or serve it as a entree dinner salad this has always been a popular recipe at our house!
• Crystal Maleski, is a mom of four from Long Grove who shares family favorite recipes, dinner ideas and a printable grocery shopping list each week at www.makedinnereasy.com.