Wholesome Southwest Hen Salad Recipe with Creamy Dressing

This southwest hen salad packs tons of taste right into a meal-sized salad that can also be easy to make. Seasoned hen, avocado, black beans, and corn are tossed along with a creamy Greek yogurt-based southwest dressing. 

Feeling bored of your go-to salad recipes? Spice issues up with this southwest hen salad! This salad critically has all of it – seasoned hen, tons of veggies, tortilla chips for crunch, and a scrumptious creamy dressing made out of Greek yogurt. 

This one can also be meal prep pleasant – which is at all times a win in my ebook.

You’ll be able to prep the hen and dressing upfront in addition to pre-chop all of the veggies. Such a lifesaver when you must get one thing on the desk shortly for dinner or perhaps a work-from-home lunch.

For much more nutritious recipe concepts, take a look at my full record of wholesome salad recipes!

Elements for Southwest Hen Salad

Use these easy and recent substances filled with dietary worth to make this scrumptious southwest hen salad recipe. Be sure you take a look at the recipe card for the precise quantities of every ingredient you’ll want. 

• Hen: boneless skinless hen breasts are considered one of our go-to lean protein sources for salads like this one. You may as well use leftover hen or decide up a rotisserie hen if you wish to pace up the prep for this salad. 
• Seasoning (chili powder, cumin, garlic): so as to add a lot of taste to the hen, you’ll add all these spices earlier than baking. You’ll be able to substitute with 1 tablespoon of taco seasoning when you’d choose. 
• Romaine Lettuce: I like the crunch of the romaine for chopped salads like this one, however you should use different greens like iceberg lettuce, spring combine, or spinach.
• Candy Corn, Tomatoes, Bell Pepper, Purple Onion, Avocado:  a traditional mixture of veggies that’s excellent for this southwest hen salad. Be at liberty to omit any that you simply don’t like or attempt others like inexperienced onion or cooked zucchini. 
• Black Beans: add further protein in addition to fiber to this filling meal-sized salad. 
• Tortilla Chips: love the added crunch of some crumbled tortilla chips on salads like this one. If yow will discover tortilla strips – you should use these as an alternative of chips.   
• Southwest Dressing: the home made dressing for this salad is made further creamy from Greek yogurt. You simply toss it right into a small blender with salsa, lime juice, cilantro, honey, cumin, and salt. 

Variations

• Make it Vegetarian/Vegan: skip the hen and add extra black beans to make it vegetarian. For the vegan model, you’ll additionally want to switch the yogurt within the southwest dressing with a plain, dairy free yogurt. 
• Add a special protein: you may simply use the identical spice mix on some salmon for this salad as an alternative of hen. 
• Make it gluten free: this recipe is gluten free as written so long as you double verify that your tortilla chips are licensed gluten free (most are made with out gluten).
• Make it a “hen salad”: you may as well make this like a hen salad for a sandwich or wrap by tossing the hen, corn, tomatoes, pepper, onion, and avocado in a bowl with the dressing. You’ll be able to serve it over prime of the romaine or wrap it up in a burrito.
• Strive a special salad dressing: the chipotle dressing on this shrimp salad would even be scrumptious when you’re in search of one other home made dressing slightly than store-bought. You may additionally attempt it with store-bought ranch dressing.

The right way to Make Southwestern Hen Salad

This wholesome southwest hen salad recipe is easy to place collectively in a number of steps. 

Make the Hen: Add the hen breasts to a baking sheet sprayed with cooking spray. Mix the chili powder, cumin, garlic powder, salt and pepper in a small bowl and blend. Add the juice and zest of the lime to the hen then sprinkle the spice mix onto the hen and bake for 15-18 minutes or till cooked by way of. Enable to chill then cube the cooked hen or use this hen shredder instrument to make it even simpler!

Make the Dressing: To make the creamy dressing, add all of the substances to a small blender and puree till easy.

Assemble the Salads: Divide salad substances between 4 giant bowls and serve. 

Meal Prep and Storage

Meal Prep: you may simply prep most of the components of this salad upfront after which assemble whenever you’re able to eat. You may make the hen and the dressing 3-4 days upfront and retailer in an hermetic container. The veggies can be chopped 3-4 days upfront and saved within the fridge till prepared to make use of.

Storage: this salad shops greatest with the dressing in a separate container. It is going to final about 3-4 days within the fridge (with out dressing) or 1-2 days (with dressing).