Chicken, Chickpeas and Tomatoes

The very first time I dined at Lambert's Barbeque, I was clever enough to order their Anchiote Seared Chickpeas and Goat Cheese appetizer, which is one unbelievable bite after another.  Since then I've poked at that flavor profile - creamy tang of goat cheese, warm earthiness of the chickpea, brightness of the tomato.

In our box this week, I ordered some heirloom tomatoes and I had one vine-ripened fella doing time on my kitchen sink.  I decided to play up those flavors on a salad, thanks to a bounty of romaine and radicchio from the basket.

I had some (mostly) thawed chicken breast, so I rubbed it with smoked paprika, salt, pepper, and some herbs de provance and popped it into a 350 oven for about 30 minutes.

In a hot pan, I added one well-drained and rinsed can of chickpeas, some diced spring onions, and some giant chunks of the freakishly large garlic cloves we got in the box along with a little olive oil, salt, pepper and paprika.  I chopped the lettuces and put them on the plate, and then chopped the tomatoes to toss in with the chickpeas, which at this point had started toasting up all pretty-like.

It timed out pretty well, as I was just tossing the chickpeas and tomatoes onto the salad bed when the chicken finished, which I chopped into strips and added to the salad, along with a sprinkle of goat cheese.  This salad needed no dressing.  Between the goat cheese, the multi-faced flavors of three different tomatoes, the giant chunks of roasted garlic and extremely juicy chicken, every bite was full of win.