This chicken salad is loaded with good for you whole food ingredients and it is dressed with a light citrus dressing. Your whole family will love it. It has been approved by my kids, they loved the blueberries! We had left overs and my daughter asked for it for lunch the next day. I gladly packed it up for her to have at school. 
I call that a WIN!!!
The best thing about a salad is you can put just about what ever you want in it and it will turn out great. They are so versatile and you can easily add more of or less of ingredients or even omit them and it will still turn out delicious.
Let’s talk ingredients. This salad has spinach, mixed greens, red onion, blueberries, broccoli, avocado, and almonds. Can you get any healthier in one dish?! You can make this with or without the chicken. With the chicken it makes it a whole meal or without would make a nice side salad. This salad is loaded with good for you antioxidants.
You can make this salad ahead of time and add the chicken and dressing when you are ready to eat. This is what I do. Once a week I need a quick easy meal and salads are generally my go to.
Salad dressings are always a dilemma for me. My husband will not eat anything that is mayonnaise or sour cream based and he doesn’t like the smell of vinegar, so I have to make citrus based dressings. This dressing acts as a marinade as well. Letting the chicken marinate will give you juicer, more moist meat but it’s not necessary. The dressing comes together quickly with just a few ingredients: maple syrup, stone ground mustard, orange juice, olive oil, and shallots.
If you are short on time or just don’t want to cook chicken, grab a rotisserie chicken from the store. It will be just as good.
- 1/4 c orange juice
- 1/3 c olive oil
- 2 tsp maple syrup
- 2 tsp stone ground mustard
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp pepper
- 2 Tbsp shallot, minced
- 6 oz spinach
- 7 oz mixed greens
- 1 1/2 lb chicken breasts
- 1/4 of red onion, thinly sliced
- 2 avocados, cubed
- 6 oz blueberries
- 1 cup broccoli, cut up
- 1/3 cup sliced almonds
- In a small dish or measuring cup whisk together all ingredients for dressing. Place 1/4 cup of dressing on the chicken and let marinate for at least 1 hour in the refrigerator. (It's ok if you don't have time to marinate, just place a little of the dressing over the chicken when you cook it.)
- Cook chicken in a pan on the stove until internal temperature reaches 165°F. Remove chicken from pan and let sit for 5 minutes before cutting. Cube or slice the chicken (which ever your prefer).
- While the chicken is cooking make the salad. Combine all salad ingredients in a large bowl. Add the chicken.
- Add dressing to the salad and toss to coat. Enjoy!
Please leave a comment and let me know how you liked the salad. I hope your family enjoyed it!
No Comments