Grilled chicken salad anyone? The summer is over by now, but the weather is still pretty nice so why not fire up the grill once more? I already have a few BBQ recipes on the blog, such as my Grilled Chicken Gyros, Marinated Chicken Wings or Grilled Pork Tenderloin Steaks so let’s make something “lighter” for a change.

Today I’m making my wife’s favorite Grilled Chicken Breasts that I’m serving on a base of healthy vegetable salad. To give the salad an extra kick, I’m also making a simple Honey & Mustard dressing.

This grilled chicken salad recipe is very easy and comes together pretty quickly. There is just one thing to watch out for: chicken breasts become tough and dry when overcooked, so do not let them sit on the grill for too long. The rest is easy peasy, so let’s do it.

TIP: Try these chicken meat recipes too: Stuffed chicken breasts, Baked chicken thighs or Sheet pan chicken legs.

Grilled Chicken Salad Ingredients:

Meat & Marinade

4-5 chicken breasts
3-4 tablespoons olive oil
2 teaspoons red paprika
2-3 tablespoons soy sauce
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon dried rosemary
salt & pepper to taste

Salad:

1 head iceberg lettuce
1 large cucumber
2 bell peppers (red & yellow)
a bunch of tomatoes
1 red onion
250g (½ lb) Feta cheese
olive oil
salt & pepper to taste
lime juice

Salad dressing:

2 tablespoons mayonnaise
2 tablespoons honey
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 tablespoons whole grain mustard
lime juice
salt & pepper to taste

How to make grilled chicken salad

Watch the video or scroll down for step by step instructions:

To give our chicken breasts some time to absorb the spices, let’s start by making the marinade. Simply mix all the ingredients in a bigger bowl, that we will also use for the marinating process. We need 3-4 tablespoons olive oil, 2 teaspoons red paprika, 2-3 tablespoons soy sauce, 1 teaspoon dried thyme, oregano and rosemary. Generously season with salt and pepper and whisk everything properly.

This amount of marinade is good for about 4-5 chicken breasts. Before placing the breasts into it, I always like to give the marinade a taste test, to make sure it’s salty enough. It’s totally safe to do it at this point, there is no raw meat or anything unsafe inside of it, yet. We are not going to season the meat further so if the marinade is bland our grilled chicken salad will not taste good at all.

Place the chicken breasts into the marinade and use your hands to properly coat every part with it. Move the bowl to a cold place and let the breasts marinate for at least 30 minutes… the longer, the better.

TIP: If you’re using a charcoal fired girl as I do, it’s time to fire it up now. Once the coals are nice and hot, the meat will be marinated just about right.

The name of this dish is “grilled chicken salad” so let’s make the salad now. It’s very easy again, we just need to cut and slice all the vegetables. You can go for a fine cut or a larger one, depending on your personal preferences.

For a salad like this, I always try to use what I have in the fridge or what grows in my garden. Yes, I grow my own veggies and my youngest son loves to help me with it. It’s a fun activity and it’s never too early to learn your kids how to plant some greens and take care of them. Want to try it? Here are some children’s books about plants and gardens that you can start with 🙂

This time, I used a head of iceberg lettuce, 2 bell peppers (red & yellow), one large cucumber, bunch of cherry tomatoes and 1 red onion. I love the Greek feta cheese so I added some too (250g or 1/2lb).

The salad needs some seasonings too… in with a bit of olive oil (1-2 tbsp), lime juice, some salt and black pepper to taste. Mix everything together in a large bowl and put the salad into the fridge to chill.

Once the grill is fired up we can start to grill the chicken breasts finally. Place them on the rack over direct heat and make sure there is some space left between the pieces.

How to tell when the chicken breasts are done? This is a bit tricky and it takes some practice. On a properly fired up charcoal grill, it takes about 5 minutes per side, then an additional 2-3 minutes on the edges and final 2-3 minutes on the thicker end of the breast. Please check the video recipe that is above on this page, you will understand better how to go about this.

While the meat is grilling let’s prepare the last thing we need for this grilled chicken salad recipe… the dressing. Very easy again, just whisk 2 tablespoons of mayonnaise, 2 tablespoons of honey, 2 tablespoons of whole grain mustard, 1 tablespoon of olive oil and some lime juice. Season with salt and pepper to taste. That’s it, as simple as that.

Once the chicken breasts are ready, give them a few minutes to rest and we are ready to serve. Make a base from the salad, use as much as you like. Slice one chicken breast and place it atop the salad. Finish the plate with a solid amount of our honey & mustard dressing and there we have it, our Grilled Chicken Salad is ready to eat.

Thanks for reading or watching and don’t forget to come back for more simple home style cooking recipes.

Grilled Chicken Salad – Optional Tips

• In most cases, I’m using chicken breasts for this recipe, but chicken thighs work well too and those are easier to grill properly without drying them out.
• My wife is not a fan of spicy food, but you can definitely add a bit of chillies or some spicy sauce into the marinade.
• As mentioned in the steps above, you can use basically any vegetables you like for this grilled chicken salad. Just make sure you work with fresh produce. Some olives would be a really great addition, for example.
• If you are unsure about the doneness of your chicken breasts, use a thermometer to verify. The breasts are done when the internal temperature reaches about 73-75 Celsius or 160-165 Fahrenheit. Alternatively, you can simply take one of the breasts off the grill and cut through the thickest part… once it’s no longer pink, it’s done.