Description
Piled high with fresh veggies, BBQ chicken, and a creamy BBQ ranch dressing, this salad is summer on a plate!
Ingredients
Scale
For the Salad:
- 6–8 cups fresh greens
- 12 oz. cooked chicken breast, cubed or shredded
- 1/4 cup BBQ sauce
- 1 cup black beans, drained and rinsed
- 1 cup corn
- 1 cup halved grape or cherry tomatoes
- 1 avocado, diced
- 1/4 cup diced red onion (or green onion)
- 1/4 cup fresh cilantro, minced (optional)
For the BBQ Ranch Dressing:
- 2/3 cup mayonnaise
- 2–3 Tablespoons BBQ sauce
- 2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt (or more, to taste)
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper (or more, to taste)
- 1/4 teaspoon dried dill (or 1 Tablespoon fresh dill)
- 1/8 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/8 teaspoon onion powder
Instructions
For the Salad:
- Combine Chicken & BBQ Sauce in a medium bowl and stir to coat well. Feel free to add more BBQ sauce if you want it more thoroughly coated.
- Layer Salad Ingredients. Add lettuce to a large serving bowl (or on plates for individual servings), layer bbq chicken, black beans, corn, tomatoes, avocado, red onion & cilantro on top of the lettuce.
- Drizzle with BBQ Ranch Dressing and toss to coat well, adding more if desired.
For the BBQ Ranch Dressing:
- In a jar or bowl, combine mayo, BBQ sauce, vinegar, salt, pepper, dill, garlic powder & onion powder. whisk together. Taste and add additional BBQ sauce or seasonings, as desired. Store in the refrigerator up to 1 week.
Notes
- BBQ Ranch Hack. If you don’t want to make my full bbq ranch dressing from scratch, you can combine 1/2 cup of your favorite ranch dressing with 2-3 Tablespoons BBQ sauce.
- More Mix-Ins. Try adding crispy chickpeas, crispy tortilla strips, bell peppers, jicama, bacon, or diced hard-boiled egg if you like. If you’re not dairy free, a little cheddar, Pepper Jack, or cotija cheese could be delicious here, too!
- Make It Paleo. To make this barbecue chicken salad paleo, you can swap out the corn and black beans for other veggies (jicama, cucumber, bell peppers, and celery are nice!). Then, you’ll want to make sure you’re using paleo-approved ranch and barbecue sauce.
- Meal Prep It! This salad is great for packing ahead. To make it into a mason jar salad, just pour the BBQ ranch dressing on the bottom of your mason jar, then add your chicken, veggies, and lettuce (in that order). You may want to leave the avocado out, or squeeze a little lime juice over it to keep it from browning. To serve, just give it a serious shake and a stir with a fork, or pour the whole thing out into a bowl and toss to combine everything.
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Category: Salads
- Method: No-Cook
- Cuisine: American