Southwestern Chopped Salad is a party on a platter! Filling, fresh, and colorful, this entree salad recipe will liven up your dinner table.
Confession: my friends and I were regulars at all the chains in high school.
TGI Fridays, Carlos o’Kelly’s, CHILI’S – nothing was safe! I re-created Chili’s spicy, slightly-thick bowls of Chicken Tortilla Soup many years ago, and am back with another copycat recipe that I used to order there on the regular: Southwestern Chopped Salad (though they call theirs Sante Fe Chicken Salad.)
Regardless of what you’re calling it, this salad is still stuffed with all the same tasty ingredients!
A base of thinly shredded romaine lettuce is tossed with local sweet corn, creamy black beans and avocado, plus fresh pico de gallo and crushed blue corn tortilla chips which not only add a fabulous color to this beautiful dish, but a salty, satisfying crunch. While Chili’s drizzles their salad with ranch dressing plus a spicy santa fe sauce, to keep things simple and low-fuss I dressed my salad in Salsa Ranch Dressing aka salsa mixed with, you guessed it, ranch dressing.
It’s the simple life over here, folks, won’t you join me?!
I’m telling you, this dish is a treat to eat. Savory, sweet, fresh, crunchy, creamy – totally interesting. Since this salad has black beans for protein and is enormous, I kept it meatless, but if you want to divy up the recipe amongst four people instead of two or three, add grilled chicken, shrimp, or steak on top and you’re set!
Start by mixing up a batch of fresh Pico de Gallo. Before making my own PdG I was totally indifferent about the oft overlooked condiment served in tiny plastic cups next to burritos and nachos which, in my experience, almost always went untouched. Homemade PdG though? INSANE. Ridiculously good in this salad and/or dunked into with tortilla chips. It’s just a mix of chopped tomatoes, white onion, jalapeno, cilantro, lime juice, and salt. Simple ingredients, tons of flavor.
Add your desired amount of pico de gallo (aka what’s left after attacking it with chips) to a big bowl with 9oz shredded or chopped romaine lettuce, the kernels from 2 ears sweet corn, and 1/2 cup black beans then toss to combine.
Last step is to add 1 chopped avocado and a couple handfuls of crushed blue corn tortilla chips then drizzle with Salsa Ranch Dressing and toss again to combine. Scoop onto plates then dig in! I hope you enjoy this fresh and colorful summer feast!
Ingredients
- 9 oz shredded or chopped romaine lettuce
- 2 ears sweet corn, kernels sliced from cobs
- 1/2 cup black beans
- 1 avocado, chopped
- Handful blue corn tortilla chips, crushed
- Ranch dressing
- Salsa
For the Pico de Gallo:
- 2 vine-ripened tomatoes, seeded and chopped
- 1/4 small white onion, minced
- 1/2 jalapeƱo, or more or less, seeded and minced
- 1/4 cup packed cilantro, chopped
- juice of 1/2 lime
- salt
Directions
- Combine ingredients for the Pico de Gallo in a small bowl then set aside. Can be done a day ahead of time.
- Stir together desired amounts of Ranch dressing and salsa (I used roughly 50/50 ratios) in a small bowl to create Salsa-Ranch dressing, then set aside.
- Add romaine, sweet corn, black beans, and desired amount of pico de gallo to a large bowl then toss to combine. Add avocado, crushed tortilla chips, and Salsa-Ranch dressing then toss again to combine. Serve immediately.
Nutrition
Nutritional values are estimates only. Please read our full nutrition information disclaimer.
Thank you for solving tonight’s “what’s for dinner?” dilemma. Delish!
I love this salad at Chili’s!…it’s all I’ve ever had there-just can’t get past it on the menu!…Thank’s for the idea! Linda
Happy belated! Hope this year is rad for you! :)
This is perfect for book club that I host next week. You always come through with the perfect recipes!
Please consider doing a detailed post on the Shrimp and Crab boil! It looks fantastic!
Happy birthday! Hope you feel better soon. The pictures were great and I will try this salad soon!
This looks so yummy, but according to my research, corn is a grain and contains gluten. Any suggestions on what to replace it with?
Not all grains have gluten in them. Corn doesn’t have gluten in it, though it could cause an allergic / inflammatory reaction. (I am one of those blessed people who have to avoid both corn and gluten.)
I bet you could always do a bit of rice or quinoa if you need a crunch to replace the corn. Firm veggies, like zucchini, could be good.
Hi Debb! Corn is a grain, but is gluten-free (not all grains contain gluten,) so this recipe is safe to eat on a gluten-free diet.
This salad looks amazing! Avocado and beans in a salad – you can’t go wrong with that.
Happy belated birthday to you! I also got smacked with a stupid summer cold, including an annoying keep-me-up-all-night cough, over the weekend and wouldn’t wish it on anyone for their birthday weekend so I’m glad to see you pushed through & had a great time anyway!
Seafood boils are seriously the best. We started a yearly tradition in my parents backyard a few years ago and I look forward to it each time. All of the neighbors come over, we have more food than we could ever possibly try to eat and it. is. phenomenal. *double high five emoji*
Ughhhh….summer colds are evil!! Hope you are on the mend!
Oh my delicious. Love this!
It looks like Lincoln had a blast last weekend! I hope you are feeling better. This salad looks amazing- it’s going on my meal plan next week!
Thank you, Brianna! I hope you love the salad!
Dumb question time :) Did you cook the corn on the cob first? Could you use steamed corn in a bag if you don’t have corn on the cob? Thanks – and feel better!
Not a dumb question at all – I should have clarified! These are just raw kernels cut right off the cob. You could definitely used frozen >> thawed corn, or even canned corn!
dang it! I didn’t have any snores this weekend what was I thinking?!?!?!?