Delicious & Filling Chicken Salad Recipe: Beyond Boring Salads

Tired of dull salads? It’s time to upgrade your meals with a chicken salad that’s bursting with vegetables and flavor! This recipe will show you how easy and enjoyable it is to prepare a healthy and nutritious salad that tastes absolutely amazing. Try this easy chicken salad and see for yourself!

I don’t know what comes to mind when you picture chicken salad, but in the last couple of months, every time I ask my daughter what she wants me to make for the weekend, her answer is always the same – “Chicken Salad.”

During my many trips to the USA, office lunches often include this kind of salad, but those are usually just pieces of chicken on a mountain of lettuce with a creamy white dressing, based on mayonnaise with lots of spices. That’s not how I envisioned this salad.

When I thought about how to prepare this dish, I envisioned a salad that is a complete meal – including carbohydrates, proteins, and plenty of vegetables, and that’s how I set out to make it.

This isn’t a 5-minute salad. There are quite a few steps involved (not difficult at all), so just keep that in mind if you feel like making it. On the other hand, it’s a complete meal, and you can prepare a large quantity in advance for the rest of the week, and I promise you won’t get tired of it!

So, shall we begin?

Excellent and Easy-to-Make Chicken Salad

So remember – easy to make, not quick to make.

To prepare the salad, we’ll need to prepare the vegetables, marinate the chicken, prepare the carbohydrate (I made red rice), grill the chicken, and finally assemble the dish.

Again – each step on its own is very easy. The vegetables can be cooked in the same pot without waiting for the water to re-boil between each vegetable.

Tangy Marinade for Chicken Salad

First, we need to prepare the marinade in which we will soak the chicken and with which we will season the vegetables. Take a large jar and add:

• 1/3 cup lime juice (2 large limes) or lemon juice
• 2/3 cup olive oil
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
• 1 tablespoon mustard (smooth or grainy)
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1 teaspoon oregano
• 1 teaspoon thyme
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper

Close the jar tightly and shake until you get a smooth and uniform marinade.

Pour about 1/3 of the marinade over 4 chicken breasts and mix well so that the chicken is well coated. Keep the rest of the marinade in the jar.

Cover the chicken and leave it out of the refrigerator for about an hour, until the chicken reaches room temperature, but at least an hour in the marinade. You can also prepare it the night before and keep the chicken in the refrigerator, just take it out an hour before grilling.

Preparing the Vegetables for the Salad

First thing – it’s a salad. Don’t be obsessive about the quantities. Nothing will happen if you have a little more or a little less.

Take a large pot of water and bring it to a boil.

Green Beans:

Take about 300-400 grams of green beans and blanch them for about 6-7 minutes in the boiling water. Be careful not to overcook them so they don’t become too soft. After 6 minutes, take one bean and rinse it under running water. Take a bite and check its condition, and cook it for a little longer if needed.

When the beans are ready, remove them from the water and place them in a bowl of ice water to stop the cooking process.

Once the beans have cooled, trim off the ends, cut them into 3 pieces, and set aside.

Broccoli:

While the beans are cooking, take a large head of broccoli and break it into small, bite-sized florets. Cook the broccoli for about 4 minutes until it’s just tender-crisp, so be careful not to overcook it.

Also, transfer the broccoli to a bowl of cold water after cooking, or place it in a colander and rinse under cold running water.

Edamame:

You’ll need about one cup of shelled edamame. You can buy shelled edamame or simply cook a bag of whole edamame and snack on whatever is left over.

Corn:

Cook 2 ears of corn for about 7 minutes. Once the corn is cooked, you can finally turn off the heat and drain the water. After the ears have cooled slightly, take a sharp knife and remove the kernels from the cob. You don’t have to separate all the kernels; you can leave some connected.

O-T-H-E-R Vegetables:

• Take about 12 cherry tomatoes and cut them into quarters.
• Take 3 cucumbers, halve them lengthwise, and then cut them into half-rings.
• Thinly slice a red onion into rings.
• Thinly slice a small piece of red cabbage.
• For the base of the salad, take 3-4 types of lettuce/greens and cut them into bite-sized pieces.
• Slice 6 radishes into thin rounds.
• Take 2 ripe avocados, halve them, and use a spoon to separate the avocado from the skin. Slice the avocado into strips and place them on the salad with the pit-side up. You can do this step just before serving to prevent the avocado from browning.

Carbohydrates: To Be or Not To Be

Since we want a satisfying meal, we also need carbohydrates.

I prepared red rice (simply cook according to the manufacturer’s instructions).

(Reminder to self – if cooking the rice in an electric rice cooker, add an extra 3/4 cup of water than what is written on the recipe (for every cup of rice))

Instead of rice, you can prepare quinoa, small roasted potatoes, buckwheat, or whatever you like.

How to Cook Chicken for Chicken Salad Without Drying It Out

There are two ways to cook the chicken – on a grill/Ninja Grill for a few minutes. In this case, grill for 4 minutes on each side and then another 1.5 minutes on each side. Before the second grilling, make a cut on one of the breasts and check for doneness.

The chicken should be completely cooked and white, with no trace of pink, but be careful not to overcook it in order to avoid drying out the breast.

You can also prepare the chicken in the oven at 220°C (430°F) for 18 minutes, and if you want, you can add another 2-3 minutes on the grill setting.

After grilling the chicken, cover it and wait 5 minutes before slicing.

When you grill chicken (or any meat), the juices “contract” and concentrate in the center of the cut. Resting gives the juices time to redistribute evenly throughout the cut, resulting in a juicier piece.

After 5 minutes of resting, slice the breast into slices approximately 1 cm thick.

Assembling the Salad

So, we have everything ready to assemble the salad.

Divide the lettuce among 4 large, deep serving plates.

Divide the rice and place it in a mound on the edge of the plate.

Divide all the vegetables among the plates, each type of vegetable separately.

Place the sliced chicken breast on the plate.

Pour the marinade over the salad and the chicken.

For more recipes, follow me on Instagram