Summertime calls for healthy salads that are easy to make and don’t require heating up the oven. Even though we are fortunate enough to have A/C in our home, some days I just don’t want to turn on the oven and heat up the kitchen. I also find when it’s blazing hot outside, salad is the only thing that will satisfy. It’s crisp and cool and my appetite gets suppressed with the heat. Not that this is a bad thing, mind you! I have never been that girl that “forgets to eat.” I might get too busy to eat a meal some days, but I never forget.
This salad is so simple and it only requires heating up a skillet and you don’t even have to do that if you don’t want to. You can certainly use cold chicken breast pieces, but I prefer to heat mine up.
I start by cutting up some grilled chicken breasts. I add them, along with some barbecue sauce to a dry skillet and heat them through. Believe it or not, just adding the barbecue sauce and heating it up with the chicken makes the chicken taste like it was barbecued on the grill. This is just a little way around that will save you some time, especially if you are using chicken breast strips that were already grilled before you brought them home from the grocery store.
The rest of the salad just requires some chopping, some cheese shredding, some veggie washing and some assembly. I like to use Spring mix for the greens and add some black beans, yellow or white corn, fresh cilantro, grape tomatoes, Jack cheese, crushed up tortilla chips for a little crunch, and some of my favorite Litehouse Lite Ranch dressing. This post is not sponsored in any way, I am just picky about bottled dressing and I really happen to like this brand.
I am not including directions or measurements in this post, because it’s really just assembling ingredients in whatever ratio you like. It’s fresh and delicious and perfect for a hot summer night with a tall glass of ice water.
Barbecue Ranch Chicken Salad
Ingredients
- Grilled chicken breasts, cut into bite-sized pieces
- BBQ sauce
- Spring mix
- Grape tomatoes
- Yellow or white corn
- Black beans, rinsed and drained
- Shredded Jack cheese
- Crushed tortilla chips
- Fresh cilantro
- Ranch dressing
Instructions
That looks like such a tasty salad/meal for summer. Definitely need to add that in to our rotation!
I hope that you will! It’s so simple and is always a hit in my house.
Looks great – and that’s such a smart trick with the chicken!
Thank you so much 🙂
Thank you! I like to find ways to cheat sometimes. Don’t tell anyone 🙂