When it comes to warm weather you really can’t beat a delicious salad. This BBQ Chicken Salad has all your favorite salad ingredients, plus some! Making it the perfect summertime dish.
BBQ Chicken and me have a great relationship. I has always been one of my absolute favorite things to eat. I’m a real chicken gal by heart.
I also love me a good salad, the more things in the salad the better, and that my friends is why I am in love with the BBQ Chicken Salad.
Everything in this salad itself works so well with one another, the sweetness of the bbq sauce and the tomatoes, the creaminess of the avocado, delicious!
Charred corn adds another element from the grill that plays off the chicken. And the cheddar and black beans make this a hearty filling salad.
When I say that you need to try one salad it has to be this BBQ Chicken Salad, you really can’t go wrong and you can really switch it up to your liking.
We used ranch as our dressing of choice, but multiple others that we have used include Honey mustard, Thousand Island, Green Goddess, or even just more bbq sauce.
We haven’t tried a dressing that hasn’t worked well, but ranch is always my go-to, so usually I really stick with that when it comes to certain salads, but that is a personal choice!
Some of my other favorite summertime salads include Macaroni Salad, Chicken Caesar Pasta Salad and Tuna Pasta Salad. You really can’t go wrong with a delicious salad any time of the year.
WHY THIS RECIPE WORKS:
- With homemade grilled bbq chicken this recipe is super fresh.
- The charred corn really adds an element to this salad that takes it to another level.
- You can doctor up this by omitting or adding different ingredients to your liking!
INGREDIENTS NEEDED (FULL RECIPE AT BOTTOM):
Chicken breast
Kosher salt
Pepper
Bbq sauce
Corn
Cooking spray
Romaine lettuce
Avocado
Grape tomatoes
Black beans
Cheddar cheese
Red onion
Ranch dressing
HOW TO MAKE BBQ CHICKEN SALAD, STEP BY STEP:
- Season the chicken on all sides with salt and pepper. Spray the corn lightly with the cooking spray. Preheat the grill over medium heat and oil the grates. Grill the chicken, flipping occasionally until an internal temperature reaches 165ยฐF.
- About 5 minutes before the chicken is done cooking, start to brush it with the bbq sauce. You want to make sure not to add the bbq sauce too early or the sugars in the sauce will burn. This will take about 20 minutes total, depending on the size of the chicken.
- While the chicken is cooking, add the corn to the grill and char it on all sides. Take the corn off the grill once it is charred to your liking.
- Cut your chicken in to strips, set aside.
- To assemble the salad, add the lettuce, avocado, tomatoes, black beans, cheddar cheese, and red onion to a large bowl. Cut the corn off the cob and slice the chicken and add it to the bowl with the salad ingredients.
- Dress with ranch dressing or dressing of your choice and serve.
WHAT KIND OF BBQ SAUCE SHOULD I USE?
This is absolutely a personal choice, but I love the sweeter BBQ sauce on my chicken so we usually use Honey BBQ as I feel like it really goes well with grilled chicken.
Any kind of BBQ sauce that you want to use you can, experiment with different sauces as it can change the flavor of the BBQ Chicken Salad altogether. To a spicier sauce for a kick, or regular sauce for just plain Jane.
The choice is really up to you, if you have your favorite homemade BBQ Sauce then you can also use that as well. There is no right or wrong choice when it comes to the sauce.
WHAT IS THE BEST LETTUCE TO USE?
For our salads we always prefer romaine. It is what we have always tried to use and continue to use in most of our lettuce salads that we do make.
If you do not want to use romaine, you can substitute with iceberg or even Bibb lettuce for this, or you can even get a salad mix if you want a variety of greens as well.
As long as you have enough greens called for in the ingredients then you should be fine, the only lettuce I DO NOT recommend is shredded lettuce.
DO I HAVE TO USE AN EAR OF CORN?
No, if you do not want to use an ear of corn you can use canned corn, drained and then you can char it on the stovetop if you’d like or just leave it as is.
CAN I USE ANOTHER TYPE OF CHEESE?
Yes! You can use any of your favorite block cheese in this recipe, we just prefer cheddar. We also like Colby Jack, Monterey Jack, Pepper Jack, etc.
I would use what you think would be a great flavor combination to pair with the flavors in the salad itself.
HOW TO STORE:
I do not recommend storing this recipe as it is best served right as it is assembled and using the avocados and not eating them right away can cause them to brown.
If you want to store and serve later you can mix up all the ingredients, omit the avocados, chicken and dressing until ready to serve. You can also dress each plate with your dressing as well.
TIPS AND TRICKS:
- You can dice or slice your avocado in this recipe depending on your size preference.
- Use any kind of dressing that you like, we love ranch so we went with that but this goes great with other dressings or just more BBQ sauce.
- If you do not want to use an ear of corn, you can use a can of corn, drain and then char it on the stovetop if you like.
- Romain is our go-to lettuce, see some other options above.
- You can dress each plate with the ranch if you desire instead of drizzling over the salad in bowl.
- Add or omit any of the ingredients to your liking!
- Use your favorite bbq sauce, this will really change the flavor so have fun playing around, we use Honey BBQ.
- Feel free to switch up the cheese in this recipe.
Want a delicious summertime salad that you will want to make over and over again? Then you will not be disappointed with this BBQ Chicken Salad!
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BBQ Chicken Salad
Ingredients
- 1 chicken breast boneless, skinless
- ยผ teaspoon kosher salt
- ยผ teaspoon black pepper
- ยผ cup bbq sauce we use honey bbq
- 1 ear of corn
- Cooking spray
- 6 cups diced romaine lettuce loosely packed
- 1 small avocado small diced
- ยฝ cup grape tomatoes cut in half lengthwise
- ยฝ cup black beans rinsed and drained
- ยฝ cup small-diced cheddar cheese
- ยผ cup small-diced red onion
- Ranch dressing for serving
Instructions
- Season the chicken on all sides with salt and pepper. Spray the corn lightly with the cooking spray. Preheat the grill over medium heat and oil the grates. Grill the chicken, flipping occasionally until an internal temperature reaches 165ยฐF.
- About 5 minutes before the chicken is done cooking, start to brush it with the bbq sauce. You want to make sure not to add the bbq sauce too early or the sugars in the sauce will burn. This will take about 20 minutes total, depending on the size of the chicken.
- While the chicken is cooking, add the corn to the grill and char it on all sides. Take the corn off the grill once it is charred to your liking.
- Cut your chicken into strips, set aside.
- To assemble the salad, add the lettuce, avocado, tomatoes, black beans, cheddar cheese, and red onion to a large bowl. Cut the corn off the cob and slice the chicken and add it to the bowl with the salad ingredients.
- Dress with ranch dressing or dressing of your choice and serve.
Notes
- Nutritional value does not include dressing.
- You can dice or slice your avocado in this recipe depending on your size preference.
- Use any kind of dressing that you like, we love ranch so we went with that but this goes great with other dressings or just more BBQ sauce.
- If you do not want to use an ear of corn, you can use a can of corn, drain and then char it on the stovetop if you like.
- Romain is our go-to lettuce, see some other options above.
- You can dress each plate with the ranch if you desire instead of drizzling over the salad in bowl.
- Add or omit any of the ingredients to your liking!
- Use your favorite bbq sauce, this will really change the flavor so have fun playing around, we use Honey BBQ.
- Feel free to switch up the cheese in this recipe.
Nutrition
Tornadough Alli is not a nutritionist or dietitian, and any nutritional information shared is an estimate. If calorie count and nutritional value is important to you, we recommend running the ingredients through whichever online nutritional calculator you prefer. Calories and values can vary depending on which brands were used.
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED JUNE, 2021
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