>>One of my favorite things to take to a winery when I know I'm going to have a picnic is this vineyard chicken salad.

I love this salad.

It's so versatile.

It's just delicious.

I eat it all year long with different kinds of fruits.

So what we're gonna do is get a few things going here just to start assembling our salad.

I love a good red onion in my salad.

I think it really makes the salad pop.

If you're not an onion lover, don't worry.

You can leave the onion out.

You can put in anything to the salad that you love, but I just wanna show you my favorite combination.

So we're gonna take a little red onion and I like to just slice that in half rings.

Get all of that off of that, all of that leathery, papery stuff.

There we go.

You know that if that papery onion part sticks to your fingers, it's going to stick to your palate or your friend's palate, so let's just give some nice thin slices to this onion.

And this is really a matter of just building a beautiful salad, something that you really want to present.

All right.

And then I like to just take those rings, let's just put them right here.

There we go, and then let's break down a pineapple.

Now, pineapples are really easy to break down.

They're also really easy to shop for.

The best way to shop for a pineapple is to make sure you don't need it that day, and then look for a pineapple that, when you pull the center stem out from the top, it has just enough give that you pull and it pops out.

If it just falls out, the pineapple is over ripe.

If it doesn't come out at all, you need to give it about a week.

Okay, now let's just take the top and bottom off your pineapple, and then we're just gonna go around the edge of the pineapple, and cut off all of that outer area.

You don't want these little eyes in your pineapple, so make sure you cut all that out, and if you need to go back with paring knife, do so.

Now we've pulled all of that off.

Go back and just check to make sure all of those little eyes are out, and then let's just take all of our peel and throw it to our compost, and then you wanna make sure you kind of wipe up the board a little bit, because if you have all of that peel there and all of those little eyes, you don't wanna get those in your salad.

So let's go down the back of the pineapple from the top to the bottom, just right down the center like that, and then you'll have that nice hardcore in the center.

We wanna just flip that over and then quarter that, just like that, and then pull out that heart.

Then you can go back, get out any of those extra little eyes that you see.

Now let's just move these to the side and cut up this beautiful quarter.

We won't need all of it for this single salad.

I also love to do this in a big platter.

It's just beautiful.

(knife hits board) So just nice bite size pieces, and then we're gonna take some of those and put them in a section here, and who can resist just a bite?

All right, so we have pineapple.

Oh, that is so good, and now let's take a chicken breast.

I just grilled this this morning, and I want to cut my chicken breast slightly off straight.

It makes it much easier to cut, particularly when you're on a picnic, and maybe you have plastic forks instead of a regular fork and knife, so let's just cut that, and I want to lay that right down the center, so this is gonna give me my nice spine.

Just go right there.

There we go.

So now we have this gorgeous salad with some chicken, some onion, some pineapple.

Let's dress it up with some more color.

So we've got some blueberries here.

I've already got that purple over here, so I just want to get those blueberries near my pineapple, and I'll just line that up a little bit, kind of intersperse.

You know, sometimes cooking is not about cooking, it's just about making it pretty so that people want to eat it.

Remember, you eat with your eyes first, then with your nose, and then with your mouth, and I've got some fresh strawberries.

Now I wanna take these strawberries, and just put on both sides, or red on one side, and then I'll do raspberries on the other.

How about that?

So let's go with some raspberries here, and strawberries here just like this.

So let's add a little raspberry to that blend on this side.

Just to give it a little pop.

There we go.

Beautiful, just like that.

Now let's take a little bit of blue cheese.

I love blue cheese in this.

It adds a lot of salt, a lot of depth, that creaminess.

I just adore blue cheese, and whenever you choose a blue cheese, get a nice quality blue cheese.

If you get a lower quality blue cheese for this, it's too tangy, and then let's just add a little blue cheese here and there.

There we go.

Now for this particular salad, I love a honey poppy seed dressing.

It adds sweetness, and it really pulls together all that fruit, the saltiness of the blue cheese, and that it's gonna work perfectly with our lovely rosé.

So in my bowl, I have some Dijon mustard, about two tablespoons, and I wanna add to that about four tablespoons of seasoned rice wine vinegar.

Now I like using seasoned simply because it already has some salt and sugar in it.

Let's give that a whisk.

(dressing swishes) Then I'm gonna take about the same amount of honey as I had mustard, so about two tablespoons.

There we go.

This is one of your chances to get a nice local honey into your salad dressing, so I'm just gonna take a little blend of salt and pepper here.

This is half salt, half pepper, so let's just give a little sprinkle of about three quarters teaspoon mixed together, and then we're just gonna whisk that.

Now here comes the fun.

We're going to emulsify in some olive oil.

Now olive oil will go right into this as long as it's being whisked the entire time.

If you have trouble and your bowl keeps sliding around, put a nice wet towel or paper towel under it.

It will keep the the bowl right in place.

(whisks dressing) And we're going to add about three tablespoons of olive oil all together, a little drizzle at a time.

(whisks dressing) There we go, and it all comes together so beautifully there, and then let's add some poppy seeds, about a teaspoon of poppy seeds.

I love this dressing.

Now let's just taste it a little bit for salt and pepper.

Mm Perfectly sweet, perfectly salty, perfectly peppered.

(cheerful music) Now let's put a little bit on our salad.

Oh Just a nice drizzle all over.

You want to make sure that you really get it across that chicken that's been grilled, and then a drizzle all around that plate.

So we have this gorgeous rosé.

This is a blend of Cab Franc, Merlot.

I love a rosé with this salad.

I also love a good sparkling with this salad.

Mm Oh yeah, I taste all three of those grapes just popping through.

So beautiful.

Now let's give it a little taste.

Just gonna try a little berry here.

Mm That dressing is perfect.

You don't want a dressing that's overly sweet for your wine, just like with desserts.

This pairs so beautifully.

So next time you head off to a vineyard on a Saturday or Sunday, and you know you're gonna pack a picnic, take this salad along.

You'll never be disappointed.

(cheerful music)