I liked this salad, but would like to make a few suggestions. I do not think the garlic dressing is necessary or even adds that much to the dish, besides extra calories. An easy substitution I can think of off the top of my head is perhaps some fat free plain yogurt with a little garlic powder and fresh ground black pepper... You can play around with it or eliminate it all togehter. Also, for an additional crunch, you can add diced celery. It compliments the blue cheese as well. If you didn't want to pecan crust the chicken, you can add candied pecans to the salad.

WOW! this was amazing- the only thing I did differently was to cut the chicken into strips before coating with pecans and cooking... It was so good! My boyfriend- who is not much of a chicken or a salad eater asked me when I would make it again! Thanks so much for an awesome addition to the recipe box!

Yum-O! I used chopped walnuts instead of pecans, and it was fantastic! I used crumbled feta instead of bleu cheese and I floured and egged the chicken to make the nuts stick better. Will definetely make again!

I've been making this salad for about a year now and always get a thumbs up from my husband when I do (which is rare for salad). This time I made my own creamy garlic dressing with mayo and some cream. I added garlic salt and 2 crushed garlic cloves, some finely chopped basil and rosemary to it. I used to chop up the chicken before putting it on the salad, but this time I left it whole and that worked out much better (all the crumbs went into the salad). Also, I just threw Newman's Own Italian dressing on top and it tasted great.

I used chopped cashews instead of pecans. The chicken was the best baked chicken I've ever eaten.

COULDN'T FIND CREAMY GARLIC SALAD DRESSING. JUST USED EGG & MILK. WILL FINELY CHOP THE PECANS MORE NEXT TIME. DON'T CARE FOR BLUE CHEESE SO SUBED WITH FETA GARLIC. ALSO USED HONEY MUSTARD INSTEAD OF RANCH. FABULOUS! THANKS FOR SHARING THIS RECIPE LIANAD!

Wonderful! Followed other cook's suggestion to dredge the breasts in flour before the dressing and the nuts. Used 3 different nuts on the chicken - 25 min in the oven was perfect. Son found the melange of flavors in the whole salad to be a little too much but he loved the chicken. The adults loved the whole package! Will definitely repeat this one.

It was a good combination of flavor and textures.

My family loved this salad, even my 3 & 5 year old girls. I used more pecans than called for, but otherwise followed the recipe to the letter.

This was a good salad...not quite what I expected, though. I made a few changes per other reviewers: I used homemade balsamic viniagrette and mixed an egg in with the dressing to dip the chicken in. I also ran my pecans through the food processor until they were ground up fine like bread crumbs. Speaking of which, I threw a few bread crumbs in with the pecans to help form the crust. I was a little disappointed with the chicken, though. It didn't seem very flavorful to me. Could that be because I used Caesar dressing instead of Ranch? Dunno. I also added some candied pecans of my own (melt butter and brown sugar over low heat until combined, then toss with whole pecans and let rest). These went very well in the salad. Over all, a good idea for a salad. Thanks for sharing!

This is an excellent salad, I did make a couple changes, I marinated the chicken in a light ranch dressing and chopped garlic for 3 hours and then grilled it. I just added chopped pecans to the salad. This went extremely quick, rave reviews from everyone.

What a lovely salad. I made this for a luncheon I hosted and it was both pretty and delicious. I made a few changes by using the light creamy caesar dressing for the breading and a vinegrette for the dressing. Thanks for the recipe.

This salad was incredibly delicious! I could easily eat this once a week or more. You can bet I'll be making this one again and passing it along to friends.

I have a big issue with this salad. It has 70 grams of fat. No dish, especially a salad, should have that much. However, I decided to try it making a few easy adjustments to cut down on the fat. First of all, I used fat free dressings instead of the full on fat variety. I also bought oranges in juice and not in syrup, which doesn't change fat content but does make it a little healthier. Lastly, I substituted cheddar cheese for the blue cheese. I followed one reviewer's suggestion to lightly flour the chicken to help the pecans stick. It worked but made for a pasty texture that I did not care for. If I make it again, I will try the egg in the dressing or leave it unbreaded and sprinkle pecans on the salad. I also think that next time I will use the Ranch dressing to coat the chicken and the garlic to top. I also followed another reviewer's suggestion and used Craisins instead. That worked well. It was an easy salad to make but I wasn't all that impressed.

Similar to a salad I make, but I use crumbled goat cheese instead of bleu, and make a dressing w/balsamic vinaigrette, mayo, ginger, fresh garlic & cracked pepper, dash of nutmeg & pinch of dill weed. i also use half the amt. of creamy italian, and add two T.heavy whipping cream and omit the Ranch.Many good variations!

Awesome. I used Ranch dressing for everything and added the egg to dressing as suggested to help pecans stick. Thanks for sharing this one!

Scrumptious!! I didn't have time to do the crust, so I got a bbq chicken, shredded it, and just added the chopped pecans to the other ingredients, I also added a bit of the juice from the mandarins to the dressing. YUM!