Southwest Chicken Salad

We eat a big salad for dinner at least once a week and this is one of my favorites. I love adding color with different veggies, protein with chicken and black beans, and an extra punch of flavor with feta cheese. The best part of this salad, hands down, is my famous creamy cilantro dressing.

Southwest Chicken Salad

All you need is a food processor or blender to make a dressing that is sure to become one of your new favorites.

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Prep Time 15 minutes mins

Cook Time 15 minutes mins

Total Time 30 minutes mins

Course Salad

Servings 6

Ingredients

  

Salad

• 3 heads romaine lettuce chopped
• 3 chicken breasts (about 1 1/2 pounds) cooked and chopped
• 1 red bell pepper chopped
• 15 oz can of black beans drained and rinsed
• 15 oz can of corn drained
• 1 medium cucumber chopped
• 4 oz feta cheese crumbled

Creamy Cilantro Lime Dressing

• 1 bunch cilantro de-stemmed
• 1/4 cup plain greek yogurt
• 1 lime juiced
• 1/2 avocado
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1/4 tsp salt

Instructions

 

Salad

• Cook chicken breast in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Once the internal temperature is 165 degrees remove from heat, chop, and set aside. (See Recipe Notes for chicken options).
• Wash, chop, and dry romaine lettuce.
• Place lettuce in the bottom of a large bowl. Add bell pepper, black beans, corn, cucumber, feta, and chicken on top.
• Mix together and drizzle with dressing. Only add dressing to the portion of salad you're going to eat so leftovers don't get soggy.

Creamy Cilantro Lime Dressing

• Separate cilantro leaves from the stem. No need to remove every single stem, just cut off the large ones at the bottom of the bunch.
• In a food processor or blender, add cilantro, Greek yogurt, lime juice, avocado, olive oil, and salt, and blend until smooth. The dressing will be thick. If you want a thinner dressing, add more olive oil or lime juice, 1 tablespoon at a time.
• Pour dressing over salad, mix, and serve!

Notes

I like to get pre-marinated chicken breast at our grocery store meat counter. Feel free to marinate a plain chicken breast or season it with salt and pepper for something simpler. Otherwise, you can use shredded rotisserie chicken. Once you add the dressing, your chicken will pick up tons of flavor. 

Feel free to add in additional veggies like tomato or any other colored bell peppers. You can also substitute the black beans for garbanzo beans and the feta cheese with sharp cheddar.

We like to save a portion of the salad for lunch the next day, just keep the dressing on the side or the salad will get soggy. 

My favorite Greek yogurt to use is Fage 2% plain Greek yogurt. 

To make the dressing dairy free you can leave out the Greek yogurt and add a whole avocado instead.