Wholesome Southwest Rooster Salad Recipe with Creamy Dressing

This southwest hen salad packs tons of taste right into a meal-sized salad that can 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 constituted of Greek yogurt. 

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

You possibly can prep the hen and dressing prematurely in addition to pre-chop all of the veggies. Such a lifesaver when you should get one thing on the desk rapidly for dinner or perhaps a work-from-home lunch.

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

Components for Southwest Rooster Salad

Use these easy and recent elements full of dietary worth to make this scrumptious southwest hen salad recipe. You should definitely take a look at the recipe card for the precise quantities of every ingredient you’ll want. 

• Rooster: boneless skinless hen breasts are one among our go-to lean protein sources for salads like this one. You may also use leftover hen or choose 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 possibly can substitute with 1 tablespoon of taco seasoning should you’d want. 
• 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, Pink 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 strive others like inexperienced onion or cooked zucchini. 
• Black Beans: add additional 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 you could find tortilla strips – you should use these as an alternative of chips.   
• Southwest Dressing: the do-it-yourself dressing for this salad is made additional 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 exchange the yogurt within the southwest dressing with a plain, dairy free yogurt. 
• Add a distinct protein: you’ll be able to 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 test that your tortilla chips are licensed gluten free (most are made with out gluten).
• Make it a “hen salad”: you can even 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 possibly can serve it over prime of the romaine or wrap it up in a burrito.
• Strive a distinct salad dressing: the chipotle dressing on this shrimp salad would even be scrumptious should you’re searching for one other do-it-yourself dressing moderately than store-bought. You possibly can additionally strive it with store-bought ranch dressing.

The way to Make Southwestern Rooster Salad

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

Make the Rooster: 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 via. Enable to chill then cube the cooked hen or use this hen shredder software to make it even simpler!

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

Assemble the Salads: Divide salad elements between 4 massive bowls and serve. 

Meal Prep and Storage

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

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