BBQ Chicken Salad
Updated March 26, 2019
Last weekend we had a dinner party at our house, but we didn’t do any of the cooking. Our good friend, Ben, came over with all of the ingredients and made an amazing BBQ Chicken Salad for us and a group of our friends. We were happy to share our kitchen, especially since we reaped the reward-a very tasty meal.
Ben is sharing his special BBQ Chicken Salad recipe today. Trust me, you will want to make this salad again and again. I am already craving it. Mixed greens are topped with bbq chicken, black beans, tomatoes, corn, and fried onions. Warm red potatoes with shallot parley butter are also served on the side. The salad is finished with avocado vinaigrette and blue cheese vinaigrette.
I loved everything about this salad, especially the homemade dressings. They are to die for. I had a salad without the chicken and it was plenty flavorful, so if you want a vegetarian version, go ahead and leave the chicken off. Everyone else loved the chicken though:)
If you think salads are boring, try Ben’s BBQ Chicken Salad. It will become one of your favorite meals.
BBQ Chicken Salad
Ingredients
For the Avocado Vinaigrette:
- 2/3 cup olive oil
- 1/3 cup rice vinegar
- 1 medium shallot chopped
- 3 tablespoons peach jam
- 1 medium ripe avocado
- Salt and pepper to taste
For the Blue Cheese Vinaigrette:
- 2/3 cup olive oil
- 1/3 cup rice vinegar
- 1 medium shallot chopped
- 1-2 garlic cloves dry pan roasted and chopped
- 2 tablespoons peach jam
- 1 cup sour cream
- 1 cup blue cheese or Gorgonzola
- Salt and pepper to taste
For the potatoes:
- 2-3 pounds red potatoes washed
- 1 stick butter
- 1 medium shallot minced
- 1 small bunch parsley finely chopped
For the chicken:
- Chicken breasts
- BBQ sauce-use your favorite brand
For the salad:
- Mixed greens
- Tomatoes chopped
- Black beans rinsed and drained
- Corn
- French fried onions
Instructions
- To make the avocado vinaigrette-put all of the ingredients into a food processor or blender. Mix until smooth.
- To make the blue cheese vinaigrette-put all of the ingredients into a food processor or blender. Mix until smooth. If the dressing is too thick, add a drizzle of extra olive oil and mix again.
- To make the potatoes-boil a large pot of water and salt well. Boil potatoes until they are fork tender. Drain the water and return potatoes to the pot. Stir in butter, shallot, and parsley. Stir well. Set aside and keep warm until serving.
- Grill the chicken and brush each piece liberally with bbq sauce. Cut into strips and set aside.
- To plate the salads-place mixed greens on a plate. Lay the sliced chicken on top of the greens. Top with tomatoes, black beans, corn, and fried onions. Place a few warm potatoes on the side. Drizzle entire salad with avocado vinaigrette and blue cheese vinaigrette.
Have you tried this recipe?
Leave a comment below and share a photo on Instagram. Tag @twopeasandpod and hashtag it with #twopeasandtheirpod
If you like this BBQ Chicken Salad, you might also like:
Honey Lime Grilled Chicken Salad from Evil Shenanigans
BBQ Chicken Chopped Salad from What’s Cookin, Chicago?
Grilled Chicken Salad with Red Pepper Sauce and Feta from We are Not Martha
I love main dish salads like these – perfect for summer!
This is so pretty. Love BBQ chicken!
This looks so fresh and delightful! A perfect dish for spring and summer! 🙂
Or one in the winter to just wish that spring was here already!
Love all the colors in this salad and the avocado vinaigrette sounds so interesting!
Amazing looking salad. What an awesome lunch/dinner idea!
Love that there are two dressings in this salad! Ben sounds like a great friend to make this for you & Josh 🙂
One of my favorites!
What a beautiful salad!! I LOVE the addition of potatoes!
Terrific! That salad looks so appetiting and beautiful. Perfect for the season.
Cheers,
Rosa
I LOVE avocado based dressings! My husband would love this.
How yummy! I would have never thought to put french fried onions on something like this, but it sounds so good! Looks like you got this at a restaurant! Great photos, Maria!
They add a nice little crunch!
Wow- that looks restaurant quality! And how fun that their are potatoes included. Delicious!
I love hearty salads and this one definitely looks like it would fit the bill. The colors are gorgeous!
I’m not a friend of salad myself but if I met more salads like this they might become very good friends. Looks delish!
By the way, I tried that stuffed pepper recipe on Wednesday night and it was amazing! Thanks again for sharing 🙂
psdeepdish.blogspot.com
Glad you liked the stuffed peppers!
That looks like a refreshing salad, and a great way to use BBQ chicken! Yum!
The avocado vinaigrette sounds amazing!!
It is amazing. I could drink it:)
Maria, I’m going to admit that I normally skim over most of your non-baking posts. But this salad! This salad could not be ignored. It looks amazing! And it just screams summertime to me. I’ll be making this for sure, and probably grilling the barbecue chicken. Thanks so much to you and Ben for sharing!
that looks delicious! I may just have found my dinner for tonight! 🙂
The dressing looks absolutely perfect! I love bbq chicken 🙂
I can’t wait for warmer weather so I can get to grilling. This salad looks out of this world! Thanks for sharing!
Hi Maria-The avocado vinaigrette sounds amazing! Love the chicken and potatoes in this incredible salad. 🙂
This looks so good!!! I am going to have to try this one, I love BBQ chicken!!
Yum! I love BBQ Chicken Salad. I like that you added potatoes.
Wow, this is my kind of salad. So colorful and gorgeous!
What a unique salad! Totally bookmarking to try soon. Gotta love friends who bring food!
Love, love, love this salad! Both of the vinaigrettes sound AWESOME too. I wish Ben would come cook at my house :).
You had me at Avocado Vinaigrette.
This looks delicious, Ben and Maria! Combining my favorite way to cook chicken and a scrumptious bunch of salad ingredients, this would be perfect for lunch or dinner! Thanks for sharing.
Oh I can’t wait for the cold weather to be over so I can eat salads like this all day every day!
I cannot wait to try the avocado vinegrette, it sounds amazing!
Mmmm… I want this right now, looks incredible!!
i love the Avocado Vinaigrette: option! cannot wait for the sun to come out so I can make this for friends!
What a great salad! I love different twists!
I’ve been really trying to eat more salads lately and when they look as good as this, it won’t be hard! Thanks to your friend, Ben!
This salad looks gorgeous! How sweet of your friend to make dinner, that’s always a plus! The 2 dressings sound amazing. Double the goodness 🙂
I go crazy for salads that are totally loaded with goodies, just like yours! A good hefty salad makes me SO happy! Your avocado vinaigrette sounds like the perfect topping for this salad. The chicken, potatoes, the veggies…that’s totally a meal. Nicely done!
wow, I’ve never seen such mouth-watering looking salad before!
salad greens and delicious bbq chicken are a fantastic mix
chili’s has an amazing bbq chicken salad, and this reminds me of that in all the right ways. nice work!
Now that’s my kind of salad – love it!!
I love anything BBQ, and this salad looks divine!
This is a gorgeous salad! YUM!
I love a good salad! Especially the salads like this that can be the main dish!
Now, THAT’S a Salad. And totally what I’m hungry for RIGHT NOW.
What a fantastic combination of flavors and textures in this salad. This is definitely one to try.
looks good!
This looks so pretty, almost too pretty to eat!
This looks so good!!!
wow, i am so impressed. i want to eat that NOW! beautiful 🙂
My mouth is watering! Making this one day this week for sure.
this is the BEST loaded salad! I really felt like I was eating at a restaurant–I’m already craving it again
I saw this on Pioneer Women the other day. I made it last night for dinner, and all I have to say is YUUUUUUMMMMM!!!!!
I just made this last night. We have two small kids who aren’t into salads for dinner, but it was easy enough to deconstruct this and separate it out for them. My husband and I LOVED IT! Possibly the best salad I have ever made. I was only going to make one of the dressings (because I”m lazy like that) but I am sure glad I made both. Not a fan of blue cheese, but everything complimented each other so well that I think I may have been converted! Thank you so much for sharing!
Nicole-I am so glad you enjoyed the salad. Thanks for letting us know!
I just made it to serve to family coming over tomorrow. IT looks like A LOT of dressing which makes me think I will have dressing left over. How long do you think these dressings would last in the fridge?
They will keep in the fridge for 2-3 weeks.
This salad looks wonderful and I can’t wait to try it. Sorry if this is a dumb question, but I was wondering if you used canned French fried onions or made your own? Thank you for sharing this delicious looking recipe!
We used canned French fried onions. Enjoy!
I’m adding sliced avocados too!
I made this for a group of 40 ladies at church. It was a great success. I used Taco Chicken from Our Best Bites and it made this salad amazing.
This was amazing! Two sauces on one salad – brilliant. I’ll be making this again very soon and spreading the culinary love to all my friends.
Glad you enjoyed the salad.
I bookmarked this salad the day PW featured it on her site. And have been back to drool over it at least 2-3 times a week since. I finally made it this past weekend. I have to say that I wasn’t crazy about the avacado vinaigrette by itself. I wanted to taste the avacado and I thought the rice vinegar really overpowered it. That being said – when everything came together… OH MY GOODNESS! It was SOOOO GOOD! It was also not nearly as much work as the long list of ingredients implies. Thank you so much for sharing!
Made this tonight. Really delicious and different! Thanks so much for sharing!
Glad you liked the salad!
You know what, I’m very much inincled to agree.
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We have made this twice and have NOT been disappointed either time. Thanks for sharing the recipe!!! 😉
You are welcome! Glad you like the salad!
Oh. My. Word. This recipe was absolute perfection! I had to adapt a little bit (newlywed, no space for a grill yet!) but it still worked. So delicious AND hubby approved. Thank you so much for sharing! It was the perfect answer to a long, long week.
Glad you both enjoyed the salad!
Can I ask if you use seasoned rice vinegar or unseasoned?
Unseasoned!
Hi. I can’t wait to try this recipe. I linked your post to my blog You can check out the link here. http://www.samanthaandersenphotography.com/2012/05/i-am-running-out-of-titles-for-this.html.
Thanks for the dinnertime inspiration.
Thanks for posting this recipe, it was delicious! I made it for my husband and myself for dinner last night and we felt like we were eating a fancy restaurant salad! I really enjoyed the sweet and tangy bbq sauce (we used Sweet Baby Rays) in combination with the avocado and blue cheese dressings. I also topped the salads with cherry tomatoes, black beans and fresh corn like you suggested. One note though – the recipe really does make quite a bit of dressing, so if there are only two (or even four) people eating I would recommend cutting the dressing recipes in half. We also enjoyed the red skinned potatoes with fresh parsley (I used flat leaf), shallots and butter. This was a great lighter option for a Spring/Summer dinner – I will definitely be making this again!
This looks amazing, and like the perfect salad for me to serve for my meat-loving boyfriend who needs his greens to be interesting. Is it really critical to use to blue cheese dressing AS WELL, since I have a casein allergy which means I can’t do cheeses or creams? I hope using the one dressing will still keep the integrity of the salad’s flavours!
Thanks for sharing this recipe! I never considered ways to make BBQ a healthy eating option. I can’t wait to try this!