Attention all crunch lovers: your Chopped Chicken Salad with Chili-Lime Vinaigrette is calling!
Oh my gosh, have you seen the ecard that’s floating around – “I love you until you start eating“? Story of my life. Hearing chewing noises is akin to licking cloth on the shudder scale in my book. Which is weird because I LOVE crunching. To the point where I look up from my nightly bowl of chips and Ben’s pale. I never crunch out loud in public of course, I’ve got more self awareness than that, but sometimes at home I just can’t help myself!
Anyway, in case you overindulged in food, drinks or both this past holiday weekend, I’ve got a healthy salad recipe for you to get back on track, that tastes anything but.
You’ll love the combo of a convenient, store-bought chopped lettuce blend that’s tossed with crispy toppings like cucumber, apple, green onion, homemade crunchies, and a to-die-for Chili-Lime Vinaigrette. Plus avocado. It’s the anti-crunch but I can’t stop putting it on, well, everything.
Normally in salads I eat all the lettuce first, saving the crunchy toppings for last as “dessert”, but in this salad every bite tastes like your last. Audibly crunchy and seriously delicious. It tasted way better than I thought it would as I wrote the recipe.
If you want a huge bowl of healthy that’s crunchy to the last drop, this salad’s for you!
Start with the crunchiest part of the chopped salad – DOLE Asian Blend chopped lettuce mix. I spied this ultra–crunchy combo of green cabbage, red cabbage, broccoli slaw, carrots, snap peas, and kale at the store last week and this salad almost immediately started coming together in my mind. The kale in there is what really sold me!
Add the salad to a big bowl (might want to do two batches if you don’t have a massive one,) then add 1 cup chopped cooked chicken. This is a great way to use leftover grilled, sauteed, or rotisserie chicken. I used leftover smoked chicken that Ben made on Memorial Day.
We were going to grill but at the last minute he decided to snag a couple chickens from Costco and smoke ’em low and slow for 5 hours, finishing with a BBQ glaze. OMG best thing to come out of his smoker EVER!
Toss in 1 small cucumber that’s been seeded and chopped next. I left the skin on because it’s not only good for you, but super crunchy too.
In goes 2 chopped green onions – crunchy and zesty.
And 3 Tablespoons chopped salted peanuts. Have you ever had chopped peanuts in your salads? Dynamite! You can totally taste them through all the other toppings, too. If you don’t like peanuts for whatever reason, use crunchy sliced almonds, pepitas, or pistachios instead.
I can’t have a salad without something crispy and sweet so in goes 1 chopped red apple.
Now this is a crunch-lovers salad, but nothing makes the crunch more fun than a creamy contrast so add 1 chopped avocado on top!
I decided to dress the Crunch Lover’s Chopped Chicken Salad with my favorite Chili-Lime Vinaigrette, as suggested by the salad bag. That’s just 6 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, 2 Tablespoons honey, the juice of 1 lime, 1/2 teaspoon chili powder, salt and pepper added to a jar or bowl then shaken or whisked to combine. This dressing is a little sweet and a little smokey, and so easy to shake together real quick.
Drizzle as much of the dressing as you want over the salad then toss to coat.
Finally add the pièce de résistance – chili-lime crunchies! Oh yes, the same ones I used to top my Peppercorn-Crusted BBQ-Ranch Burgers. They are perfection in this salad and stay perfectly crunchy even after being tossed with the vinaigrette which echoes it’s mouthwatering flavor. The crunchies take just 10 minutes to prep and bake so don’t skip ’em.
After giving the salad one last toss to incorporate the chili-lime crunchies, scoop into a big bowl then dig in!
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Crunch Lover’s Chopped Chicken Salad with Chili-Lime Vinaigrette
Description
Gluten-free Crunch Lover's Chopped Chicken Salad with Chili-Lime Vinaigrette is a fresh and filling salad that's full of satisfying crunch!
Ingredients
- 12oz bag DOLE Chopped Asian Blend salad mix
- 1 cup cooked and cubed chicken breast
- 1 red apple, chopped
- 1 small cucumber, seeded and chopped
- 1 avocado, chopped
- 2 green onions, chopped
- 3 Tablespoons salted peanuts, chopped
- 2 white corn tortillas, cut into 1/2″ strips lengthwise then cut in half
- extra virgin olive oil
- juice of 1/2 lime
- chili powder and salt
- For the Chili-Lime Vinaigrette:
- 6 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 2 Tablespoons honey
- juice of 1 lime
- 1/2 teaspoon chili powder
- salt and pepper
Directions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees then add tortilla strips to a bowl. Mist or drizzle with extra virgin olive oil or nonstick spray then drizzle with lime juice and season generously with chili powder and salt. Toss to coat then spread out on a baking sheet and bake until crunchy, 7-8 minutes, then set aside to cool. My tortillas did not turn golden brown so make sure you don’t over-bake and burn the strips.
- For the Chili-Lime Vinaigrette: combine ingredients in a jar with a tight fitting lid or bowl then shake or whisk to combine.
- Combine the rest of the ingredients with the vinaigrette then toss to coat. Add baked tortilla strips then toss again and serve.
This recipe is courtesy of Iowa Girl Eats, http://iowagirleats.com.
This salad is HUGE, so bring your love for crunching as well as your appetite. I know you’ll love each bite. Enjoy!
This salad is just irresistible! I love the ingredients- chicken, salad, peanuts, avocado, apple.. and the dressing.. yummy!
You are the queen of salads! I eat your sizzling fajita one all the time! But, I LOVE a good crunch, so I MUST try this! Pinned :)
This is my kind of salad for sure!! Love it. :)
Love this idea. Salads are such a favorite around here when it gets hot (it was 90 yesterday) and you don’t feel like eating heavy dinners. Thanks, Kristin!
Yum, what a colorful salad! I never think to add apples to salad, smart idea.
This salad looks fantastic! I love the chili-lime vinaigrette! You thought of everything- avocado, apple, tortilla strips… and your photos are gorgeous!
I am right there with you on the crunch! This salad is like my ideal salad!
Oh my gosh, a guy at work is so loud when he eats. I can’t stand it! I have to remove myself from the situation!
Ewwww…I am shuddering at the thought!!
i really wish that i could get my husband to eat salads that have everything good in them like this. he is a boring salad man and unless i force it, he won’t do the entree salad thing. this might be a “husband is traveling” meal.
Looks yummy! Can you talk a bit more about your smoker? We’ve been thinking about getting one. What type do you have & do you love it?? Would love to see a post on smokers!
Can I say that I thoroughly love all of your recipes. I love the combos and that they’re super easy to make. Thanks!
Great idea for a gluten-free ‘crouton’!
You are killing me with those crunchies!
IGE- Your salads are always so amazing! Thanks for all the time you put into your site! Yours and PW are my absolute favorite food blogs!
Oh my goodness. You have the best recipes!
My husband is a hugeeeee texture person and always has to have some sort of “crunch” in everything he eats. He would love this salad!
This salad looks so delish my mouth is watering and my tummy is growling. The chili-lime sounds so good, especially with the avocado. I’ve never been a big fan of apples in salad, but I trust you, so I’m gonna go with it. Thanks!
Yum! This looks so good. A great summer salad. I love a good crunch in my salad.
What a fresh and tasty looking salad. Salads for dinner are one of my favorite parts about summer.
That’s me!!! I’m a crunch lover!! And I think I’ll be a lover of this salad for sure when I try it!
This looks perfect!! I love the pop of color the apple adds. I’m like you – I eat the lettuce first in salads – can’t wait to try this :)
KA-BOOMMMM! best salad EVER! I loveeeee crunch!!!! I remember taking the last few seats in class and secretly munching crisps with friends and trying not to make that’crunch’ sound audible! hahaha!!!! This salad is soooooo delicious! I love ALL THE crunchy elements that you’ve added and those chilli-lime crunchies just take it to the NEXT LEVEL!
Just enjoyed a salad similar to this today with the new Kraft “Lime Vinaigrette”. I also tried it on my zucchini!
New to blogger, would love for you to check out my new blog! Any feedback would be greatly appreciated!!
This salad looks terrific! I pinned it so I can try it later.
Can you sub agave for honey without changing the flavor too drastically?
Sure! It’s sweeter than honey though so I’d start with 2 teaspoons then add more until you get to a level you like.
[…] night I made Iowa Girl Eats Crunch Lover’s Chopped Chicken salad with Chili-Lime Vinaigrette. As she noted, you can use leftover chicken for this which is what I did. I had citrus grilled […]
I recently saw my first bag of chopped salad mixings. A great idea!
I have never heard of removing the seeds from a cucumber. They are great as fiber to keep you healthy.
This is my kind of salad! I love all of the extra toppings.
I can’t wait to make this salad. Frankly, I’ve been getting a little burned out on salads and have been looking for a way to get interested in them again but I’m not really creative enough to come up with something on my own. This looks crispy, filling, fresh and so colorful! I’d also love to share this recipe on my blog with due credit going to you if you wouldn’t mind. It’s a salad that deserves publicity:)
I made this for dinner tonight and loved it! Found I only needed about half of the dressing. Thanks for the healthy and delicious recipe!
[…] had this crunch lover’s chopped chicken salad last night – SO GOOD. Seriously. I wasn’t sure what I was going to think about all […]
[…] Crunch Lover’s Chopped Chicken Salad with Chili Lime Vinaigrette (IowaGirlEats.com) […]
Made this the other night for my family (but substituted a pear for the apple). My dad said it was one of his new favorite salads. Thanks for the yummy recipe Kristin!
[…] Crunch Lover’s Chopped Chicken Salad from Iowa Girl Eats […]
[…] Crunch Lover’s Chopped Chicken Salad with Chili-Lime Vinaigrette – recipe from Iowa Girl Eats. […]
[…] I’ll be using the other half of the chicken to make this crunchy chopped chicken salad – we made it a little while ago and really loved […]
[…] Crunch Lover’s Chopped Chicken Salad with Chili-Lime Vinaigrette […]
[…] Crunch Lover’s Chopped Chicken Salad With Chili-Lime Vinaigrette […]
This has been one of my “go to” salad dishes since the first time it was posted. Today I knew I had all the ingredients so decided to make for dinner tonight. I go to grab the Asian Salad mix and it was a coleslaw mix….what to do?? I mad it with the coleslaw and it was equally delish, just a little different. :-)
[…] The Recipe can be found HERE […]
[…] Here is one crunchy, fresh and filling chopped salad to start the list! To know the full recipe, please head to Iowa Girl Eats. […]
[…] The Recipe can be found HERE […]
[…] The Recipe can be found HERE […]
[…] The Recipe can be found HERE […]
[…] didn’t try again for a while. Then one day I came across another recipe The Crunch Lover’s Salad. I have never actually made the salad so I cannot attest to how good it is, though it looks […]
[…] Get the recipe | Iowa Girl Eats […]
This was a huge hit in my house. I love recipes that give us a huge punch of veggies and fruits. I also like that it’s easily customizable. We’re not huge fans of avocado, so I just don’t add it. So many recipes rely on avocado, but I felt plenty full without it.
[…] didn’t try again for a while. Then one day I came across this recipe, The Crunch Lover’s Salad. I have never actually made the salad so I cannot attest to how good it is, though it looks […]