Grilled Chicken Salad with Rustic Guacamole, Romaine and Queso Anejo

Fantastic salad. Takes a bit, but once you've done it a couple of times, it goes fast. :)

Serves 4

For the Dressing

1/2 cup vegetable or olive oil, plus a little more for the onion

4 garlic cloves, peeled and halved

Fresh hot green chiles to taste (i've done the canned green chiles so it wasn't so hot) you can do serrano or jalepeno, stemmed and halved

1/2 cup fresh lime juice

3/4 cup (loosely packed) roughly chopped cilantro

1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

salt

4 (about 1 1/4 pounds total) boneless, skinless chicken breast halves

1 medium white onion, cut into 1/2 inch slices (i've also just done green onions)

2 ripe avocados

2 medium romaine hears, sliced crosswise into 1/2 inch wide ribbons (about 8 cups)

About 1/3 cup grated mexican queso anejo or other garnishing cheese such as romano or parmesan

Heat the oil in a small skillet over medium. Add the garlic and chiles and cook, stirring frequently until the garlic is soft and lightly browned, usually 1 to 2 minutes. Pour the oil, garlic and chile into a blender jar or food processor. Add the lime juice, cilantro, black pepper and 1 scant teaspoon salt. Process until smooth.

Place the chicken breasts in a bowl and pour one-third of the garlic dressing over them, spreading it evenly over all sides.

Heat half the burners of a gas grill over medium high. Lightly brush or spray the onion slices with oil, sprinkle with salt. Lay the chicken and onion directly over the heat of the grill. Sear the chicken on both sides, then move it away from the direct heat, to finish cooking, usually about 5 minutes. Cook the onion until it is well browned, 3-4 minutes on each side. Chop the onion into small pieces and scoop into a bowl. Set the chicken aside to cool. (All of the grilling can be done in a grill pan on a stove over medium heat.)

Pit the avocados and scoop the flesh in with the onion. Add another one-third of the garlic dressing, then coarsely mash everything together with a fork or the back of a big spoon. Taste and season with salt, usually about 1/2 teaspoon.

Scoop the sliced romaine into a large bowl. Drizzle on the remaining garlic dressing and toss to combine. Divide among four dinner plates.

Scoop a portion of guacamole into the center of each plate. Cut each chicken breast into cubes and arrange over the guacamole. Sprinkle each plate with queso anejo (or its substitute) and your ready to serve.

A couple Riffs on this great salad: You can replace the grilled chicken with flaked hot-smoked salmon (i buy one that has a coarse black pepper coating). Watercress is a good addition to the romaine, or replace the romaine with a mixture of frisee and watercress.