Easy grilled chicken breast gets a major upgrade with creamy, tangy, homemade honey mustard sauce. Grilled Chicken Salad with Honey Mustard Dressing is a light, healthy meal with tons of flavor.
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A Crisp, Fresh Dinner Idea!
Every so often, it’s nice to make a big, colorful salad for dinner. Crunchy and cool, bursting with flavor, and healthy, salad just needs a good dressing to tie it all together. In the case of this yummy grilled chicken salad, honey mustard is both the salad dressing and a great marinade for the chicken breast. So good!
For vegetables, we’ve got almost every color represented here – sunny yellow corn, cool green-and-white cucumber, bright red tomatoes, and the purple beauty of raw red onion. It’s so appealing, and so nutritious, too! Add in the healthy protein from grilled chicken and a sweet, finger-lickin’ homemade honey mustard, and you’ve got a dinner everyone will devour!
If you love this recipe, make sure to check out my favorite Grilled Rosemary Honey Mustard Chicken and this Baked Honey Mustard Chicken for an easy weeknight dinner!
What You’ll Need
To make this salad, you’ll need all of your favorite salad-friendly veggies, some chicken breasts, and a few other odds and ends – including a batch of my homemade honey mustard dressing. Let’s take a closer look!
For the Salad
- Chicken Breast: Pound the chicken breasts thin, and trim any excess fat or skin.
- Honey Mustard: You’ll need a small amount of honey mustard sauce for marinating the chicken.
- Romaine Lettuce: I use romaine lettuce hearts, washed and chopped. You could substitute iceberg lettuce or spring mix, if you prefer.
- Bacon: The bacon should be cooked, cooled, and chopped.
- Tomatoes: Cherry tomatoes, halved, are just right in this recipe! Halved grape tomatoes would also be great, or you can simply dice your favorite variety of tomato.
- Corn: Fresh or frozen, either works.
- Cucumber: Thinly slice your cucumbers. If you prefer to peel them, that’s fine too.
- Onion: A little bit of red onion, peeled and thinly sliced, adds lovely color and a peppery crunch.
- Avocados: Each avocado should be cut in half, peeled, and sliced.
- Salt and Pepper
For the Dressing
- Honey Mustard: In addition to marinating the chicken, honey mustard sauce is great as a base for the dressing!
- Olive Oil: Extra virgin olive oil gives the best flavor.
- Lemon Juice: Fresh lemon juice is great, but bottled is fine if you have it.
- Garlic: Finely mince a clove of garlic. Avoid cloves that are sprouting or have green centers.
- Salt and Pepper
Is Honey Mustard Sauce Healthy?
Unfortunately, many honey mustard dressings and sauces aren’t very healthy – they can be full of artificial ingredients, unhealthy oils, and a lot of sugar. That’s why I really recommend making your own! My recipe is super easy, only using five basic ingredients to make a honey mustard dressing that’s mouthwateringly flavorful – sour, sweet, and savory, all at once.
How to Make This Wholesome Grilled Chicken Salad
To make this recipe, you’ll need to wash and cut your produce, grill up the chicken, and make the salad dressing. None of these tasks takes very long, so it’s a quick meal. Always handy to have a quick dinner recipe on hand!
- Marinate the Chicken. First, get the marinating started. You don’t have to marinate this very long in order for it to be flavorful! Just place your chicken breasts in a medium-sized bowl and gently toss with the honey mustard to coat. Cover and place in the refrigerator while you preheat the grill (or a grill pan).
- Make the Dressing. While the chicken marinates and the grill heats, you can make the dressing. Add all of the dressing ingredients to a small bowl or jar, and whisk or shake well to combine.
- Grill the Chicken. Once the grill is preheated, take the chicken out of the refrigerator, and grill it until the chicken reaches an internal temperature of 165°F – about 4 minutes per side. Rest the chicken on a clean plate while you assemble the salad.
- Assemble the Salad. Fill a large serving bowl with the chopped romaine lettuce. Scatter the bacon, tomatoes, corn, cucumber slices, onion slices, and sliced avocado on top of the lettuce. Then, slice the chicken into strips, and arrange them evenly over the salad. Enjoy! Drizzle the prepared honey mustard dressing over the salad, gently toss to combine, and sprinkle with additional pepper if you like. Serve immediately.
Tips and Variations
So that’s it! A hearty, healthy, satisfying chicken dinner that’s a little bit different, and full of flavor! I hope you try this one – you’ll love it! And before you go, check out these helpful tips and fun variations.
- Don’t Skip Pounding the Chicken: When it comes to making chicken breast, you really want to hit that sweet spot of cooking the chicken to a safe temperature without drying it out. Pounding the chicken to an even thickness helps this process a lot! If the chicken is uneven, the thicker parts won’t cook as quickly as the thinner parts.
- Veggie Swap: You can add any vegetables you like to this salad! And don’t stop at veggies – feel free to add fruit, chopped nuts, cheese, hard-boiled eggs, and more!
- Get Grillin’: For a double-whammy, try grilling some corn on the cob, sliced zucchini, or pineapple while you grill the chicken. Easy side dish!
Serving Suggestions
This grilled chicken salad is truly a complete meal in one dish. However, it is also great with a side or two! If you’d like to add a side to your salad, try one of these!
- Bread: Warm dinner rolls, crusty baguette slices, or Homemade Croutons – you can’t go wrong with your favorite bread for a side!
- Soup: Soup and salad is a dreamy combination! And this Creamy Roasted Mushroom Soup is an absolute delight, perfect for serving with warm chicken and crisp, bright veggies.
- Fries: Another winning combo is cool salad and crispy fries. These healthy and Crispy Baked Sweet Potato Fries are easy to make with only four wholesome ingredients.
Storing Leftover Salad
If you plan on storing leftovers, the most important thing to remember is to only add dressing to the portion of salad you are eating. That way, any uneaten salad can be stored without dressing. Salad stored without dressing will last for several days. Dressed salad will only last a day or so before wilting. Either way, store your salad in an airtight containers to keep it as fresh as possible!
Grilled Chicken Salad with Honey Mustard
Ingredients
For the Salad
- 1 pound chicken breast, pounded thin and trimmed
- ¼ cup honey mustard sauce, for marinade
- 4 cups romaine lettuce hearts, washed and chopped
- 5 strips bacon, cooked and chopped
- 1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
- ⅓ cup corn, fresh or frozen
- ⅓ cup cucumbers, thinly sliced
- ¼ cup red onion, peeled and thinly sliced
- 2 small avocados, halved, peeled, and sliced
- Sea salt and pepper
For the Dressing
- ½ cup honey mustard sauce
- 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 3 tablespoons lemon juice, fresh
- 1 garlic clove, finely minced
- Sea salt and pepper, to taste
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Instructions
- Place your chicken breasts in a medium-sized bowl. Pour ¼ cup of prepared honey mustard sauce over the chicken and gently toss to coat. Cover and marinate in the refrigerator while you preheat the grill (or grill pan).
- Prepare the dressing in a jar or small bowl. Add the ingredients to the jar: ½ cup honey mustard, extra virgin olive oil, fresh lemon juice, minced garlic, and a pinch of salt and pepper. Mix or shake well to combine. Set the dressing aside.
- Once the grill is preheated, remove the chicken from the refrigerator. Grill the chicken for about 4 – 5 minute per side, or until the chicken reaches an internal temperature of 165°F. Rest the chicken on a clean plate while you prepare the salad.
- Fill a large serving bowl with chopped romaine lettuce. Arrange the cooked bacon pieces, cherry tomatoes, corn, cucumber slices, onion slices, and sliced avocado on top of the lettuce.
- Slice the chicken breasts into strips and arrange the meat evenly on top of the salad. When ready to serve, drizzle the prepared honey mustard dressing salad. Gently toss to evenly distribute the dressing and sprinkle with additional pepper if needed. Serve immediately.
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More Healthy Chicken Recipes
- Tuscan Style Chicken Soup
- Juicy Grilled Chicken Kabobs
- Best Baked Chicken
- Crockpot Salsa Verde Chicken Tacos
- Crockpot Whole Chicken
- Air Fryer Chicken Fajita Salad
- Crockpot Salsa Chicken
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