An easy summertime Southwest BBQ Chicken Salad. Chicken marinated in a cilantro green sauce, grilled and served overtop a southwest style mixed green salad with black beans, sweet corn, sun-dried tomatoes, pepperoncinis and creamy avocado finished with a BBQ ranch dressing.

A refreshing twist on a tasty summer salad that combines BBQ and ranch dressing with an herbed green sauce marinated chicken. This salad is easy to toss together, bursting with lots of colors and great flavors. Serve this up any day of the summer.

GREEN SAUCE

A mixture of fresh cilantro, green onions, garlic, oil, dijon and jalapeno all blended together to make a vibrant green sauce to marinate the chicken. Light and fresh flavors soaking into the chicken to build some flavor and help tenderize the meat before grilling.

I always start off by prepping my chicken. Its definitely a protein that I don’t like cooking as is. I find it easily gets dry and looses its flavor and can be bland. So I like to give it a little bit of a prep before serving. Whether its tenderizing it with a mallet, soaking in a brine or throwing it into a quick marinate, any of these are always great options when planning to cook chicken. The first thing I do it tenderize the meat just a bit by pounding it down with a mallet to make it more even in thickness. For this particular recipe it gets tossed in a green herb marinate for 30 minutes to 1 hour before going on the grill. Of course it can be refrigerated overnight. I like to grease the grill a little extra when cooking chicken just to be sure that it won’t stick. Its just one of those meats that tends to stick to the grill.

THE FILLINGS

To keep it southwest, this salad has beans, corn and a creamy bbq base sauce. A part from those ingredients, you can include whatever you have on hand or access too and what’s in season to you. Of course I love to pair it with avocado, add a little bit of heat with the pepperoncini’s.

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Print Recipe

Southwest BBQ Chicken Salad

Southwest BBQ chicken salad filled with mixed greens, chopped lettuce, black beans, sun-dried tomatoes, pepperoncini, sweet corn, and avocado, topped with grilled green sauce marinated chicken and a BBQ Ranch dressing.

Prep Time30 minutes mins

Cook Time10 minutes mins

Course: Salad

Cuisine: American

Keyword: BBQ ranch, chicken, grilled, Healthy, lunch, salad, southwest

Ingredients

• 2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• 1 cup cilantro, loosely packed
• 2 green onions, roughly cut
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 tbsp dijon mustard
• 1 jalapeno
• 1/3 cup olive oil
• salt and pepper
• 1 cup mixed greens
• 2 cups lettuce head, chopped
• 1/2 cup black beans
• 1-2 cobbs of sweet corn, boiled or grilled and removed from the cobb.
• 1/4 cup pepperoncini, chopped
• 1/3 cup sun-dried tomato, chopped
• 1 avocado, chopped

BBQ Ranch Dressing

• 1 cup homemade or store bought Ranch dressing
• 1/3 cup BBQ sauce of choice

Instructions

• Marinate: in a blender, combine cilantro, green onion, garlic, dijon, jalapeno, olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Blend until smooth. Pour overtop the chicken and refrigerate at least 30 minutes.
• Preheat the grill to 350 degrees F. Grease well with cooking oil and grill the chicken 4-6 minutes a side depending on thickness and cuts until fully cooked inside. Remove from the grill and let rest 10 minutes.
• To make the salad: Combine the greens, lettuce, beans, corn, sun-dried tomato, pepperoncini, and avocado into a bowl. Mix to incorporate.
• To make the dressing: Combine ranch and bbq sauce together.
• Serve the salad with grilled chicken and drizzle overtop the dressing. Enjoy!