This southwestern salad is bursting with all kinds of tasty tidbits: crunchy bacon and tortilla strips, tomatoes, lettuce, cheese and homemade pico de gallo, all coated in an easy BBQ ranch dressing.
ingredients
Bacon and Tortilla Strips
BBQ Ranch Dressing
Salad
Pico de Gallo
directions
Fry the bacon in a medium skillet over medium heat until crisp, about 8 minutes. Drain on paper towels. Add some vegetable oil to the bacon skillet and fry the tortilla strips until crisp, approximately 1 minute. Drain on paper towels.
In a bowl, whisk together the mayonnaise, sour cream, barbecue sauce, parsley, chives and garlic. Adjust the consistency with buttermilk to make it a little thinner. Taste and add hot sauce and salt as needed.
Put the lettuce, tomatoes, scallions, bacon and most of the cheese into a bowl. Drizzle over the dressing and stir. Scatter over the pico de gallo, tortilla strips and the reserved cheese, then serve.
Dice up equal quantities of tomatoes and onions. Roughly chop the cilantro. Now slice 1 or 2 jalapenos in half. With a spoon, scrape out the seeds. (If you like things spicy, leave in some of the white membranes.) Dice the jalapenos very finely; you want a hint of heat and jalapeno flavor, but you don’t want to cause any fires. Now dump these 4 ingredients into a bowl.
Slice the lime in half and squeeze the juice from one half into the bowl. Sprinkle with salt and stir together until combined. Be sure to taste the pico de gallo and adjust the seasonings, adding salt or more diced jalapeno if needed. Yield: 8 servings