Potato Salad with Honey Mustard Vinaigrette and Bacon

I'm a sucker for recipes that claim to be the best, and this is Bittman's "best (and simplest)" potato salad.  I'm also a sucker for mayo-less potato salads, and this one is pretty good.  I added some crunchy bacon pieces to it because no recipe should be called the best without bacon in it.

Another note: I made a fish recipe to go along with this, which I'm going to post next, and the honey mustard vinaigrette tasted really good with the fish. I imagine it would be a good salad dressing as well.


Potato Salad with Honey Mustard Vinaigrette
Adapted with bacon from: Mark Bittman


Ingredients

1 1/2 pounds small red potatoes, cut into bite sized pieces
1/4 cup red onion, chopped
1/2 cup fresh parsley, chopped
1/2 cup (or more) mustard vinaigrette (see below)
3-4 slices bacon, cooked until crispy

1. In a medium sized pot, cover potatoes with water, add a little salt, and bring water to a boil. When water starts boiling, reduce the heat to low and cook the potatoes for about 12 minutes, or until tender but not mushy. Drain.

2. In a skillet, cook bacon until crispy. Cut (or rip) into small pieces.

3. Toss the potatoes with the parsley, onion, and bacon and add as much honey mustard vinaigrette as you'd like (I used the whole mixture, which was just a little too much). Add salt and pepper to taste.
  
Honey Mustard Vinaigrette

1/2 cup olive oil
3 tablespoons wine vinegar (I used red)
1 heaping teaspoon of Dijon mustard or other good mustard
1-2 tablespoons honey

1. In a blender, mix together all ingredients until creamy (takes 2 seconds).

Chicken with Tomato-Dill Relish

Meghan made this Bon Appetit recipe last year and it was so good that I'd been thinking about it ever since. Epicurious calls it "dill chicken paillards with tomato-dill relish" ... apparently paillards are any kind of meat that is pounded thinly (or if you're a cheater like I am, bought thin) and cooked quickly.

I went home this past week to my parents' house on Long Island and decided to take advantage of their grill! Despite the awesomeness of having a grill to make this chicken on, I made it again last night on the stove and it was still pretty darn good. It felt so healthy that I had to immediately go out and eat some ice cream afterward. Van Leeuwen in Greenpoint has a mean pistachio ice cream, by the way.

My dad thought the chicken sauce was a little too mustardy, but everyone else seemed to like it as is. If you don't love mustard, you could always cut it down a bit. We didn't have any grainy mustard at home, but the smooth Dijon mustard worked fine as well.

The measurements for the sauce in the original recipe are a little skimpy, so I tripled it when making this for me and both my parents, and doubled it last night when making it for 2 people total. However, I did not triple/double the amount of cherry tomatoes, because then you'd just have an insane tomato frenzy going on.

Ingredients

4 boneless, skinless, and thinly sliced chicken breasts (or you can pound regular chicken breasts to 1/4 inch thick)
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1/4 cup chopped dill
3 tablespoons finely chopped shallot
1 tablespoon grainy mustard
1 tablespoon white-wine vinegar
1 pint cherry tomatoes, quartered

1. Whisk together oil, dill, shallot, mustard, and vinegar in a large bowl. Set aside 1/4 cup for the topping (use the rest to coat the uncooked chicken). Sprinkle chicken evenly with 1 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper, then add to dill mixture, turning to coat.

2. Toss tomatoes with reserved dill mixture and 1/4 teaspoon each of salt and pepper.

3. Grill chicken, turning once, until just cooked through, 3 to 4 minutes total. Serve topped with relish.

This chicken goes great with brown rice or mashed potatoes and roasted veggies or corn on the cob!

Tomato-dill relish:

This was my first time grilling. I think I'll need to leave NYC one day for the sole reason of being able to grill in a backyard:

Tip: Keep your eyes on the chicken. This is Gracie trying to sabotage our dinner! It almost worked.