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Southwest BBQ Chicken Salad with Avocado Lime Ranch Dressing

This Southwest BBQ Chicken Salad is made with flavorful grilled chicken on a bed of crispy romaine lettuce topped with sweet corn, black beans, crispy red onions, juicy grape tomatoes, tortilla strips, shredded cheddar cheese, and drizzled with a sweet and spicy BBQ sauce and Avocado Lime Ranch Dressing.
Prep Time10 mins
Cook Time10 mins
Total Time20 mins
Course: Dinner
Cuisine: American
Keyword: bbq chicken salad, Chicken Salad, healthy dinner, light dinner, southwest chicken salad
Servings: 1 person
Author: Lisa Brown

Ingredients

For the Salad

  • 4-6 ounces chicken breast
  • ½ tbsp cooking oil or non stick spray
  • 1 tbsp southwest seasoning see recipe notes1
  • 3 cups shredded romaine
  • ¼ cup sweet corn
  • ¼ cup black beans mix them with some hot sauce for some extra kick
  • 5-6 grape tomatoes
  • sliced red onion as much as you like
  • 1-2 tbsp shredded cheddar cheese
  • 1-2 tbsp tortilla strips
  • 1 tbsp your favorite BBQ sauce for best results, put it in a squeeze bottle with a fine tip
  • 2 tbsp Avocado Lime Ranch Dressing

For the Dressing

  • 1 medium avocado about ½ cup
  • ½ cup sour cream
  • 1 cup milk
  • 1 packet Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing Mix
  • 1 lime

Instructions

For the Dressing

  • Remove peel and pit from avocado and discard.
  • Place avocado, sour cream, milk, and ranch mix into food processor.
  • Blend until smooth.
  • Pour into bowl or container. Squeeze lime juice into dressing and stir.

Make the Salad

  • Place chicken in between two sheets of plastic wrap. Using a meat tenderizing mallet, pound out chicken until it is very thin and even throughout. Be careful not to tear.
  • Season both sides of the chicken with southwest seasoning, salt, and pepper.
  • Prepare all of the salad topping and fixings and have them ready to go. Chop the lettuce, saute the corn if desired, slice onion, add some hot sauce to your beans, etc.
  • Heat oil in non stick pan over medium high heat. Cook chicken for about 3-4 minute per side, depending on how thin you hammered it.
  • Remove from pan. Slice chicken.
  • Assemble salad how you like. I like to start with a bed of lettuce and then distribute everything evenly throughout.
  • Drizzle a little drizzle of BBQ sauce across the whole salad. **This works best in a squeeze bottle with a small nozzle. The idea is to get just a little bit of BBQ flavor.
  • Drizzle Avocado ranch on top.
  • Enjoy!

Notes

  1. If you want to make your southwest seasoning from scratch, there are tons of recipes to make your own, or purchase them premixed. I opted for a premixed fajita seasoning from John Henry.