Grilled chicken avocado salad is perfect for spring and summer. It’s made with chopped lettuce, crunchy cucumber, spicy red onion, creamy avocado slices, and perfectly juicy grilled chicken! Toss everything in a simple, homemade lemon and olive oil dressing for the best, fresh flavor. This delicious, hearty grilled chicken salad is a great option for lunch or a light dinner.
A gorgeous grilled chicken salad full of seasonal produce just can’t be beat. If you’ve got some other veggies on hand, feel free to use up what you’ve got!
I love BBQ season so much! There’s something about the warm weather that just makes you want to fire up the grill.
Ingredients to Make Chicken Avocado Salad
Skinless chicken breast — I generally use two small chicken breasts and I like to buy organic chicken because I find the texture is juicier and less woody.
Hot sauce — You can also use barbeque sauce if you’d like a less spicy version!
Seasonings — kosher salt, black pepper, and a pinch of crushed red pepper flakes. You can also add some dried oregano for extra flavor.
Veggies — Romaine lettuce or baby spinach or spring mix, cucumber, avocado, and red onion. You can also add cherry tomatoes.
Lemon juice and olive oil — For the dressing!
Instructions:
Grill and rest chicken:
- Place chicken in a large bowl and season it with salt, pepper, and hot sauce. Grill your boneless skinless chicken breast over medium-high heat for 3-4 minutes per side, until it reaches an internal temperature of 165°F.
- Remove the chicken from the grill and allow it to rest for about 10 minutes.
Begin assembling salad:
- Meanwhile, add chopped greens, cucumber, red onion, and avocado slices to a large salad bowl. I like using the largest bowl I have so there’s plenty of room to toss everything together.
Make dressing:
- Add the ingredients for the dressing in a small mason jar or bowl and whisk until emulsified. You can also add a teaspoon of Dijon mustard if you prefer.
- Drizzle dressing over everything and toss until produce is well coated, then slice chicken and place atop salad. Serve this grilled chicken salad immediately and enjoy.
Recipe Tips
- A meat thermometer is helpful when grilling chicken! It helps ensure that you don’t under or overcook your meat, making it perfectly delicious and juicy.
- If you don’t have a grill, you can still make this grilled chicken salad recipe! Simply use a grill pan instead. You can also use a simple cast iron pan.
- Do not slice your chicken right after grilling. Let it rest for at least 10 minutes, this will help the meat to retain moisture and will make it infinitely juicier.
- If you have leftover grilled chicken, you can definitely use it up in this salad and save yourself some time!
- If your red onion is too spicy, you can soak slices in some cool water to help mellow them out.
- If you’re making this grilled chicken salad recipe ahead of time, leave the dressing and avocado separate! Add both right before serving.
Recipe Variations
Baked chicken thighs or Grilled Chicken Thighs also work wonderfully if this salad if you prefer them over breast meat.
Turn up the heat: You can use my spicy Cajun grilled chicken in this recipe if you want an extra kick.
Make my flavor-packed grilled chimichurri chicken and whip up a chimichurri chicken chopped salad instead!
Use another protein: Sub chicken for grilled shrimp.
Add nuts: you can use almonds, walnuts and so on.
For so much flavor add feta cheese and some strawberries too.
More Chicken Salad Recipes
How To Store Leftovers
Transfer leftover grilled chicken salad to an airtight container. Refrigerate for 1-2 days. If you plan ahead and store dressing separately, this salad will last a lot longer, more like 3-4 days! I also recommend slicing the avocado right before serving if you’re making this recipe ahead of time.
Grilled Chicken Avocado Salad
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Ingredients
For the Salad
- 5 cups lettuce chopped
- 1 cup cucumber sliced
- ½ avocado sliced
- ½ cup red onions sliced
For the Salad Dressing
- 1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- A pinch of red crushed pepper
- Salt and black pepper to taste
Instructions
For the Chicken
- Season chicken with hot sauce, salt and pepper.
- Place chicken on a greased grill or grill pan and cook for about 3-4 minutes on each side, or until the chicken is cooked though.
- Leave the breast chicken to cool down, slice it and set aside.
For the Salad
- In a large salad bowl, add first the lettuce, and then top it with cucumber, red onions and avocado.
- In a mason jar, pour the freshly squeezed lemon juice and olive oil. Add salt and pepper and red crushed pepper. Whisk everything together. Continue to whisk while streaming in the olive oil. Taste to check the seasoning and pour over the salad.
- Add the sliced breast chicken. Enjoy!
Tips
- If you don’t have a grill, you can use a grill pan instead.
- Let chicken rest at least 10 minutes before slicing.
- If your red onion is too spicy, soak slices in cool water.
- You can use chicken leftovers in this recipe if you already have cooked chicken in the fridge.
- If you prefer chicken thighs, feel free to swap them.
- If you want to make this ahead of time, hold off cutting the avocados as they’ll brown.
Nutrition Information
Nutrition information is calculated using an ingredient database and should be considered an estimate.
Frieda Grischkowsky says
Made this salad for lunch today for my daughter and me. We both liked it a lot. I added a spiralized small red beet to the salad just because I had one on hand and it added some color. I also used a whole avocado. Otherwise, prepared exactly according to recipe. Very tasty and refreshing for a hot summer lunch!
Olivia Ribas says
So happy to hear that and red beet sounds amazing 😉
Delilah says
I made this for my family and I and we absolutely loved it! Very easy to make (I am 11 and made it all by myself)! The only problem is our red onion was completely rancid. This recipe is definitely a keeper, and the dressing is one of my all time faves now!
Delilah says
Also we are vegetarians so we used the Quorn chicken instead and it worked great.
Olivia Ribas says
That’s absolutely amazing. So happy to know you all enjoyed it 😉
Ogechi Uwaoma says
What can I use to substitute lemon in the dressing. As I can’t take lemon or lime
Olivia Ribas says
You can use balsamic vinegar.
Susan Pedersen says
In place of the lettuce, could spinach be used?
Olivia Ribas says
Absolutely!
Thank you for sharing says
Looks great for lunch or dinner with an add roll
Olivia Ribas says
Absolutely!