Barbecue Ranch Grilled Chicken Salad
Updated Aug 21, 2024
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Barbecue ranch grilled chicken salad is the most flavorful salad you’ll ever eat, complete with a smoky and sweet dressing, grilled chicken, avocado, tomato, corn, romaine, and a whole lot of other vibrant veggies.
This Barbecue Ranch Chicken Salad recipe is wonderful. My kids eat it so well, which is great because feeding kids is hard! See here for some tips on feeding picky kids! I attribute my family’s love of this salad to the divine dressing, and no one complained about it as a main dish because the beans, corn, and chicken really make it a satisfying meal. I hope you try it because it is delicious and could very well change your mind about salad for dinner, too! You may also wan to add some Instant Pot Brown Rice and make it more of a Mexican rice bowl if you really wanted to!
Table of Contents:
Table of Contents
Why You’ll Love This Recipe:
- Easy to put together
- Simple ingredients you may already have, or are easy to find at the store
- Can be made to how you want to eat it! It’s a flexible recipe
- The dressing can go on practically anything or become a dip
Ingredients:
For the Dressing:
- Sour Cream– or Greek Yogurt
- Mayonaise
- Buttermilk
- Barbecue Sauce
- Garlic Powder
- Onion Powder
- Dried Dill
- Salt and Pepper– to taste
For the Salad:
- Romaine Lettuce
- Cucumber
- Corn– Canned or Frozen. Even fresh if you have it!
- Tomatoes
- Avocado
- Black Beans
- Green Onions
- Grilled Chicken
See recipe card below for full information on ingredients and quantities
Frequently Asked Questions:
Dressed salad really doesn’t keep very well because it often gets soggy sitting in the dressing overnight. If you have leftovers that are without dressing, I recommend placing the veggies in a container lined with a paper towel to absorb liquid. They’ll keep for up to 2 days. Store the chicken and dressing separately, in their own containers. Each will keep for 5 to 7 days in the fridge.
This dressing is just divine and goes well on literally everything. I love it as a dip for fries, a topping for Easy Chicken Skillet Nachos , on top of eggs, and even roasted potatoes! I might even be tempted to eat it plain; it’s that good!
Yes! These ingredients are typical of a Southwestern salad, but take out any ingredients that don’t suit your palate. You can also add in other components that you like including radishes, bell peppers, or even jalapenos.
More Salad Recipes to Consider:
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Barbecue Ranch Chicken Salad
Ingredients
For the barbecue ranch dressing:
- 1/2 cup sour cream
- 1/2 cup mayonnaise
- 1/4 cup buttermilk
- 1/3 cup barbecue sauce
- 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/4 teaspoon onion powder
- 1/4 teaspoon dried dill
- Salt and pepper to taste
For the salad:
- 2-3 hearts romaine lettuce, chopped
- 1 cucumber, diced
- 1 cup frozen or canned corn, thawed or drained
- 1 cup fresh tomatoes, diced
- 1 avocado, diced
- 1 14.5- ounce can black beans, drained and rinsed
- 2 green onions, diced
- 1-2 cups grilled chicken, sliced thin
- Additional barbecue sauce for serving
Instructions
- For the dressing, simply add all of the ingredients to a medium bowl, and whisk until smooth.
- For the salad, just add all of the veggies and beans to a large bowl, and toss to combine. Add the chicken on top. Lightly dress and toss right before serving.
- Serve with additional dressing and barbecue sauce to fit individual tastes.
Notes
- To quickly thaw frozen corn, just rinse it in a sieve under warm water until it is thawed, about 30 seconds.
- I used original-style Sweet Baby Ray’s BBQ Sauce and loved the level of sweet it had. Plus, it was on sale.
- The leftover dressing is amazing as fry sauce and on about anything else you can think to put it on.
This looks incredible! I am grilling your honey lime chicken tonight, and planning on this salad tomorrow. I never have buttermilk on hand, however. What would be a good substitute?
Thank you so much for sharing all your wonderful recipes. Planning dinner every night is such a chore for me, and I have vowed to do a better job for my family. Your recipes are helping me do just that. The fact that these recipes are “clean eating” recipes makes me feel even better! Thank you again for your kindness and generosity!
Hurray for nice comments. You totally made my day.
This is so good! My four kids ages 2,5,7, and 8 all loved it. Thank you for sharing the recipe, the dressing is so much better then simply putting bbq in ranch, and it really didn’t take much time to make. Officially a family fave 🙂
Such a nice comment! Thank you! My kids loooove it too 🙂
The first time I ate this salad was at Red Robin restaurant, about 15 years ago…I loved it and ordered it every time we went…they discontinued it after a while. I found the recipe online a few months ago. It is perfect for dinner in the hot desert. We eat cold salads a lot here in AZ…you do your hot cooking during the cool mornings…that way you don’t have a hot kitchen in the evenings. This recipe will go into my Mastercook. Thank You…sometimes I serve it with a cheese bread or Texas Toast.
Do you suppose using greek yogurt in place of the mayo and sour cream would work fine? I’ve convinced my crew plain greek yogurt tastes as good as sour cream on tacos and baked potatoes.
I have done it before with plain greek yogurt. Not quiet as good but still tasty. I’d make the switch if it meant trying the rest of the salad or not!