Southwest Chicken Salad

Marinated chicken, colorful Tex-Mex toppings, and a creamy Cilantro Lime Vinaigrette top a bed of crispy lettuce for this mouthwatering Southwest Chicken Salad. It’s gluten-free, dairy-free, and packed with all the good things your body craves. Prep ingredients ahead and enjoy all week long.

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Ingredients

Let’s meet the key ingredients of this nicely balanced salad. I suggest marinating and cooking the chicken in bulk ahead of time and freezing any extras for later.

• Cooked chicken breasts, diced or sliced – This is where you can either take a major shortcut and just chop up rotisserie chicken from the store OR take this salad over the top by prepping either Southwest Chicken or Cilantro Lime Chicken ahead.
• Leafy green lettuce – Look for a crisp variety like Green Leaf or Romaine. Chop into bite-sized pieces.
• Cherry tomatoes
• Black beans
• Corn – I love to slice it fresh off the cob, but feel free to use canned (and drained) or frozen corn.
• Avocado – Select a large, ripe one that gives a little when you press on it.
• Red onion – Dice this fairly fine so it’s not too overpowering in a bite.
• Limes – Cut into wedges for serving. I like to squeeze a slice over my salad.
• Cilantro Lime Vinaigrette – Mix up a batch of this amazing dressing. Or, if cilantro isn’t your thing, try our Southwest Ranch Dressing instead.

Keep scrolling for even more ideas to add to your salad, if you want to mix things up.

How to Make Southwest Chicken Salad

This is what will take the most time, so I’d suggest prepping as much as possible ahead on a weekend and storing it in the fridge (see meal prep tips below).

Chop the cooked chicken into bite-sized pieces or slices. Chop the cherry tomatoes, red onion, and avocado. Drain and rinse the black beans. Cut the corn off a cob (or drain from a can). Whip up a batch of Cilantro Lime Vinaigrette (or Southwest Ranch Dressing).

To Make a Large Salad:

1. To a large serving platter, add the lettuce, black beans, corn, red onion, avocado, cherry tomatoes, and diced or sliced chicken.
2. Either drizzle most of the dressing over the top and toss OR serve the dressing on the side.
3. Serve each individual salad with a lime wedge to squeeze over the top.

To Make an Individual Salad:

Add the following to a bowl:

• 2 cups chopped lettuce
• 1/4 cup black beans
• 1/4 cup corn
• 1/4 cup halved cherry tomatoes
• 1-2 tablespoons diced red onion
• 1/4 of a diced avocado
• 1/2 of a diced/sliced chicken breast or about 3/4 cup diced chicken
• 3-4 tablespoons Cilantro Lime Dressing (or Southwest Ranch Dressing)
• 1 lime wedge (squeeze over the top, if desired)

Meal Prep Tips

Use the weekend to prep most of the components of this salad and store in air-tight containers in the fridge to enjoy all week long. This salad is great to take for lunch or throw together on a busy weeknight.

Here’s what you can prep in advance and store in the fridge:

• Marinate, cook, and dice Southwest Chicken or Cilantro Lime Chicken. (Pro tip: Double and freeze an uncooked or cooked batch for later too!) Alternately, buy a rotisserie chicken from the store and chop up 2 1/2 cups for this recipe.
• Mix up the recommended Cilantro Lime Vinaigrette (or our Southwest Ranch Dressing).
• Rinse and chop up lettuce.
• Drain and rinse the beans and corn.

When you’re ready to make your salad, all you’ll need to do on the spot is dice some avocado and slice some cherry tomatoes (they don’t store well in the fridge).