Southwest Chicken Salad
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Southwest Chicken Salad is the perfect grilled chicken salad recipe for summer! Juicy chicken, roasted corn and garden veggies topped with tangy honey lime dressing. Make this easy recipe for dinner tonight!
Do you grill your meals outdoors during the hot months of summer? I do, and not only because it keeps the kitchen cool. Grilled foods taste better and as long as they aren’t overloaded with unhealthy ingredients, they’re usually healthier too.
You can grill salmon in foil or make grilled pineapple salmon for some healthy protein. For veggie side dishes, make some grilled cauliflower steaks or grilled cactus salad. Meals like those are low in calories and full of flavor.
For the bbq chicken lovers, I have plenty of healthy grilled chicken recipes, including this off the hook, southwest grilled chicken salad!
Grilled Southwest Chicken Salad
This salad recipe combines three of my favorite foods; bbq chicken, Mexican street corn, and apricots! Adding them to a healthy salad with southwest veggies like avocado and peppers, chickpeas and tangy honey lime dressing makes it a winner of a summer dinner!
The grilled corn is off the hook delicious, and it’s easy to make too. Those little charred bits of corn add some seriously big flavor to the salad!
You can make a little or a lot of it, so it’s perfect for a small family meal or for feeding a crowd at picnics and get-togethers with family and friends. Plus, it’s made and on the table in 30 minutes!
Ingredient Notes
- Chicken– I use chicken tenders for this recipe because they grill more quickly than a whole chicken breast. If you need to grill larger pieces of chicken, just be sure to cook them to an internal temperature of 165°F.
- Corn on the cob– If you can’t find any fresh ears of corn at the market, it’s okay. You can use fire roasted corn instead. It’s sold in the frozen vegetables aisle of most stores, and I’ve seen it at specialty stores like Trader Joes, too.
- Garbanzo beans– Feel free to switch up the ingredients to suit your taste preference. I love chickpeas (garbanzo beans) and they have a lot of health benefits, so I like to toss them into a salad like this one. Black or kidney beans would be delicious in a southwest chicken salad, too.
You can use canned beans or cook them yourself. Check out this post on how to cook chickpeas if you need instructions!
Grilled Chicken Salad Recipe Video
Watch the video in the recipe card at the bottom of this post to see how I grill everything and assemble it.
Prepping Ahead
One really nice thing about this grilled chicken salad recipe is that you can prep a lot of the ingredients ahead of time.
When you get home from the store, spend 30 minute cleaning and prepping any veggies that you’ll need. Then, place everything into Ziploc bags or an airtight container and you’ll be good to go. It’ll save you a lot of time later!
Grilled Southwest Chicken Salad + Video
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp mayonnaise
- 2 ears corn on the cob ,husk and silk removed
- 1 pinch kosher salt
- 1/2 tsp ground cumin
- 8 chicken tenders
- BBQ sauce
- 2 tbsp honey
- 2 tbsp lime juice
- 1 pinch kosher salt
- 3 cups mixed salad greens
- 1/2 each red, green and orange bell peppers ,diced
- 1 avocado ,diced
- 10 dried apricots ,chopped
- 1/2 cup cooked chickpeas (optional)
- fresh cracked black pepper ,to taste
Instructions
- Preheat grill to 350°F.
- Brush mayonnaise all over both ears of corn. Sprinkle with kosher salt and cumin and grill until cooked and slightly charred (about 12-15 minutes total). Allow to cool and cut kernels off cob. Set aside.
- Grill chicken tenders 2 minutes per side, or until cooked through depending on size, basting with BBQ sauce. Remove from grill, allow to rest (then chop into bite size pieces) while you make salad.
- To a mixing bowl add honey, lime juice and salt. Whisk together then add the salad greens. Toss to coat,  divide salad greens on two plates.
- To the same bowl, add grilled corn, bell peppers, avocado, apricots, chickpeas (if using) and chopped BBQ chicken. Mix well and divide on top of salad greens. Season with fresh cracked black pepper and serve.
Video
Nutrition
The information shown is an estimate provided by an online nutrition calculator. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
This recipe first appeared here on Kevin Is Cooking in June 2015. The content has been updated to include a video.