The Best Salads – Summer Chicken Recipes
Summer salads are one of my favorite foods. Today, I am sharing my three favorite salads and all-summer chicken recipes.
Chicken is a versatile, affordable protein you can enjoy all summer. Check out these recipes for fresh and fun ideas—there’s something for everyone. Enjoy!
I love chicken salads.
We eat them for lunch and dinner all of the time. Most of my salads are loaded with fun and sometimes unexpected ingredients.
I have three favorite recipes, and today I am sharing my three favorite salads, which are the best summer chicken recipes.
Farmer’s Market Chicken Taco Salad
We have a Farmer’s Market in our town each Thursday and I shop for my produce there as often as I can.
Do you have a Farmer’s Market near you? If you have a Farmer’s Market near you and haven’t gone before, you should try it. I love that the produce is so amazingly fresh, and the variety is fantastic. As a bonus, I love supporting small farms/businesses.
Recently I have started using ground chicken in tacos and salads Ground chicken is our go-to instead of ground beef and it is so good. I use the same taco seasoning for chicken as you would for beef, which is super yummy.
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There are only six easy steps to assemble the salad.
Start with the lettuce and add the tomatoes and avocados. Next, add the cooked chicken meat, corn mixture, and dressing. It’s that simple.
This Farmer’s Market Chicken Taco Salad is one of my favorite salads. It really highlights the amazing flavors of each vegetable. It is fresh and light and perfect for a summer lunch or dinner.
Farmer's Market Chicken Taco Salad
This salad really highlights all of the amazing flavors of the fresh vegetables from the Farmer's Market.
Ingredients
- 1 Bag of Spring Greens
- 1 red tomato, diced
- 1 yellow tomato, diced
- 3 small avocados, diced
- 2 ears corn, kernels cut off of the cob
- ¼ small red onion, diced
- Dash of olive oil
- ½ teaspoon Cumin
- ¼ cup cilantro, chopped
- 1 16 oz package of ground chicken
- ¼ package Taco Seasoning
- 2 handfuls of corn chips
- Dressing
- ¼ cup ranch dressing
- ¼ cup salsa
Instructions
- Brown the ground chicken in a saute pan together with the taco seasoning. You can add as much seasoning as you like, I use about ¼ of the package. Cook through until the chicken is fully browned.
- In a separate pan over medium/low heat, add a dash of olive oil. Once the oil is heated, add the corn kernels, diced red onion, cumin and chopped cilantro. Cook until the corn is browned. It will start popping out of the pan once the corn begins to brown.
- Once the chicken and the corn are browned, turn off the heat and allow them to cool.
- In a large bowl, add the bag of spring greens. If you are using a store bought bag of greens, you probably only need a little more than half of the bag.
- Add the diced tomatoes and avocados to the bowl with the greens.
- Once the chicken and corn mixture are cooled, add both to the bowl with the greens, tomatoes and avocados.
- For the dressing, mix equal parts salsa and ranch dressing. Dress the salad with as much dressing as you like.
- To finish the salad, crunch two handfuls of corn chips over the salad and serve!
The Best Blueberry Summer Salad Recipe
How much wonderfulness can be packed into a single salad? The ingredients for this Blueberry Salad Summer Chicken Recipe are blueberries, cranberries, mandarin oranges, and goat cheese. Yum! Does it get any better than that?
It’s easy to make and very refreshing. For the complete directions, click here to find the blog post.
The Best Blueberry Summer Salad Recipe
This is a fabulous blueberry salad. Its fresh, crunchy, and delicious.
Ingredients
- Salad Ingredients
- 5 cups romaine or salad greens lettuce
- 1 cup fresh blueberries
- 1/2 cup dried cranberries
- 1 can Mandarin oranges (drained)
- 1/2 avocado, cut in small pieces
- 1/4 cups of Goat cheese, crumbled
- Baked or Grilled chicken or fish (optional)
- Caramelized almonds
- 1/2 cup sliced almonds
- 2 TBL sugar
- 1/4 tsp pumpkin pie spice
- dash of cayenne pepper
- Homemade Blueberry Balsamic Salad dressing
- 1 TBL Blueberry Simple Syrup
- 1/3 cup Balsamic vinegar
- 2 TBL white wine vinegar
- 2 TBL dijon mustard
- 1/2 cup olive oil
- Blueberry Simple Syrup
- 1 cup of fresh blueberries
- 1 cup of sugar
- 1 cup of water
Instructions
- Mix almonds, cayenne pepper, sugar, and pumpkin spice in a frying pan. Heat over medium heat and stir constantly. Cook until the almonds are browned and the sugar is melted about 8 minutes. Do not burn. Place the hot almonds on aluminum foil until cool then break into small pieces.
- To make the Simple Sugar - Combine 1 cup of sugar, 1 cup of blueberries, and 1 cup of water in a saucepan. Bring to a boil and then simmer for 10 - 12 minutes until the liquid is the consistency of syrup. While cooking, stir occasionally and press the blueberries on the side of the pan to add flavor. Remove from heat and cool. Strain the mixture into a ball jar and seal tightly with the lid. Store in a refrigerator for up to one month.
- Mix ingredients for Blueberry Balsamic Dressing and store in a small jar with a lid. Refrigerate until needed.
- Mix all ingredients for the salad in a bowl. Top with almonds and toss with a few tablespoons of salad dressing.
You must make the caramelized nuts if you don’t make this salad. I put them on every salad I make, and they are amazing! (And very easy to make!)
The Best Summer Salad
I had a little fun with this summer chicken salad recipe and set it up like a salad bar. Don’t these ingredients look amazing?
I miss the days when salad bars were available, so I created one that worked well for our family. Everyone got to pick exactly what they wanted. I chose a little bit of everything for mine!
The Best Summer Salad
Ingredients
- Sugared Almonds
- 3/4 cup slivered almonds
- 2 TBL. sugar
- Chicken breasts:
- 4 chicken breasts
- 2 TBL olive oil
- 2 tsp poultry. seasoning, 1 /2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp pepper
- 1 head green leaf lettuce
- 2 avocados, cut into pieces
- 2 cans mandarin oranges (11 oz.)
- 1 cup sliced celery
- 1/2 cup goat cheese
- 1/2 cup dried cranberries
- 1 honey crisp or pink lady apple, diced
- 5 green onions
- Dressing:
- 2 TBL sesame oil
- 1/4 cup seasoned rice wine vinegar
- 1/4 cup vegetable oil
- 2 Tablespoons sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon pepper
Instructions
- To make the slivered almonds, place almonds and sugar in a stovetop pan. Cook at medium temperature for approximately four minutes. Stir with a wooden spoon the entire time. As soon as the almonds are golden brown, remove from heat and place on aluminum foil to cool.
- Place the chicken breasts in a baking dish, sprinkled it with olive oil, salt, pepper, and poultry seasoning and bake at 350 for twenty-five minutes. Cut into bite-sized pieces.
- Mix all ingredients for salad dressing in a container and shake.
- Mix all salad ingredients (or place in containers as a salad bar). Add sugared almonds and sprinkle with dressing.
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Frequently Asked Questions
I like to add chicken, both grilled and browned ground chicken, to salads. I start with multiple types of lettuce as I want to use spring mix and add spinach and arugula if I have it. You can load up my salads with vegetables, tomatoes, cucumbers, corn, edamame, carrots, beets, red and yellow peppers, green beans, and whatever I have in the garden, refrigerator, or at the market or farmer’s market. We often add enough to the salad to have salad for dinner.
Merriam-Webster defines a salad as a cold dish with raw greens, vegetables, and toppings. Given this definition, the sky is the limit! I also like salads that have fruit. One of my favorites is a green salad with grilled chicken and grilled nectarines.
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Thanks for the salad recipes! Can’t wait to try them all. Only thing better would be someone to make them for me 😊
Haha I hear that! Thanks Deanna, I hope you enjoy!
I would love to know which kind of taco seasoning that you like to use?
Lowrys or Trader Joe’s!
Thanks so much for the yummy, not expensive salad recipes! And so glad I can Pin them.
Yay! I am so glad you enjoyed them Meg, have fun making them!
I’m sure you don’t remember but years ago I took one of your oil painting classes at Karen Chicks beautiful home in Laguna Beach. Not only did you teach a wonderful class but you made the most delicious chicken salad that I make to this day. So these 3 recipes will definitely be added to my summer salad collection.
Of course I remember that! It is great to hear from you, Gail. I hope you enjoy these 3 salads!
The salads all look delicious. Especially the chicken taco salad! Yum! Thanks for sharing!
Thanks! I hope you enjoy!
I’m thinking of making your Best Summer Salad for a group of Bunco ladies. I will probably prepare in individual jars. What would you serve with it? For dessert I’m looking at your Mud Pie recipe or the cupcake/ ice cream dessert. If you have any other ideas for a ladies group let me know. Love your inspiration.
I would try my Deviled Eggs recipe! Sounds fun, I hope you all enjoy!
These all look so yummy!
These look so amazing Leslie! I would love to feature this in my Saltwater Sounds weekly blog post this weekend.
why cant we print out all the summer salads from all your friends? do we have to go into each of their websites to find the recipes?
Yes, head to their posts to see the recipes!
Yum! These salads sound amazing!
They are SO tasty! And just perfect for summer 🥰
Love your salads and the one Gail talked about @ Karens house. For my tacos, I sauté the ground chicken or turkey taste good too. Then I make cold slaw to put on top of chicken instead of lettuce & tomato. On a hot summer day it really cools us off.
That sounds so good Cindy! 🙌🏻
The salads all look great however I am allergic to avocado and when I see a recipe calling for it I usually skip it. Do you know of any ingredients that would help with the texture and taste of the missing avocado?
Hmm that’s a tough one Cindy but if I were to replace it I would try cauliflower, white beans or mashed banana! Hope that helps ☺️🙌🏻