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This BBQ chicken salad is one of my favorite salad recipes. It is the perfect meal for a hot summer day and a great lunch any day of the week.
Some of our other favorite main dish salads include Tri Tip Steak Salad, Pomegranate Pork Salad, and Crunchy Asian Chicken Salad. All great choices for lunch or dinner.
Main Dish Salad Idea
We’ve been having a heat wave in Portland. And one thing is for sure, when the temperatures get above 90 degrees the last thing I want to do is turn on my oven! Salads seem to be the meal of choice around here when the temperatures are high.
Ideas for Leftover Chicken
This BBQ Chicken Salad is the perfect solution to leftover chicken. You can also buy a rotisserie chicken at the store. If you absolutely have to cook the chicken yourself, be sure and check out my post on how to cook chicken in the microwave or my favorite slow cooker shredded chicken recipe. Just add some BBQ sauce to the cooked chicken and you have what you need for this BBQ chicken salad.
How to Make BBQ Chicken Salad
Chicken. Take shredded or diced cooked chicken and coat with BBQ sauce.
Corn. I usually used canned corn but if you had fresh you could cut it off the cob. I like to roast it first on the grill.
Black Beans. Use canned or you can make your own with this Instant Pot Black Bean recipe.
Fresh Chopped Tomatoes. You could also use cherry tomatoes cut in half.
Cheese. We like Monterey Jack but Colby Jack or Cheddar works great too.
Avocado. Sliced or diced or you could use a scoop of guacamole instead.
Lettuce. We prefer romaine and sometimes add in some baby spinach too.
Dressing. Make a dressing of half Ranch dressing and half BBQ Sauce. Or you could just drizzle the salad with ranch dressing and then with BBQ sauce separately instead of mixing the two together first. Either way it’s delish!
Tortilla Strips. If I want a little more crunch I will add a handle full of tortilla strips, or broken tortilla chips work too.
This salad is so easy to put together. Just combine all your ingredients on top of a bed of lettuce. Drizzle with dressing and enjoy!.
This is one of those salads I can eat over and over again all summer and not get tired of it. I always top it with some tortilla strips for a little extra crunch. I’m a big fan of crunch in my salads.
Some of my other favorite summer salad recipes:
- Strawberry Watermelon Orzo Salad
- Delicious Strawberry Poppyseed Salad
- My favorite Strawberry Spinach Salad
For all of my other favorite kitchen products and tools visit my Amazon Store.
Did you know I wrote a cookbook? Check out the Holiday Slow Cooker Cookbook for 100 delicious recipes
BBQ Chicken Salad Recipe
BBQ Chicken Salad
Ingredients
- 2 chicken breasts shredded chicken covered in your favorite BBQ Sauce
- 1/3 cup bbq sauce
- 6 cups Romaine lettuce
- 1 cup corn drained
- 1 cup black beans drained
- 1/2 cup Monterey Jack cheese grated
- 1 tomato diced
- 1 avocado diced
- Tortilla strips
- 1/4 cup ranch dressing
- 1/4 cup bbq sauce
- 1 cup tortilla strips
Instructions
- Cook and shredded chicken. Cover in 1/3 cup of bbq sauce or more if needed.
- Combine romaine lettuce, corn, black beans Monterey Jack cheese, tomato, avocado.
- Mix together 1/4 cup ranch dressing and 1/4 cup bbq sauce and add to salad, stir to coat. I prefer to just drizzle the two separately over the salad and then toss.
- Garnish with tortilla strips
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Nutrition Facts:
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Originally posted August 2010
Marjorie says
I made this for a luncheon this week, and the women raved about it. Thanks for sharing!
Wendy Webster says
Can’t wait to try this ons–here is a link to a chicken pasta salad that I fell in love with this summer. It is delicious! http://www.ksl.com/index.php?nid=204&sid=9798526
Jennifer Barker says
Been there, done that! Sorry about your crazy day- but the salad looks delish! I think I will do the same- invite my friends over for this salad before seeing Eat, Pray, Love. Did you like the movie?
Angela June says
I LOVE that salad @ CPK… If you google search “california pizza kitchen bbq chicken salad” you’ll get lots of options for copycat recipes… I recommend checking them out for the ranch dressing recipe… it requires lots of ingredients, but is Oh So Good! And you’ll get the exact same flavor as the restaurant’s salad. 🙂 Enjoy!