BBQ Chicken Salad
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Enjoy the famous CPK BBQ Chicken Salad at home with this easy 15 minute recipe! It’s loaded up with all of your favorite ingredients, including crunchy tortilla strips, creamy ranch dressing, and juicy, sweet bbq chicken. This salad is perfect for meal prep and guaranteed to become your new favorite salad recipe!
Why you’ll love this recipe
A few weeks back my husband and I took a visit to the mall, a rare occurrence these days with online shopping. By the time we finished shopping, we were tired and hungry, so my husband requested dinner at California Pizza Kitchen. It had been years since I ate at a CPK, so I obliged. Of course, we ordered their famous BBQ Chicken Salad, which they claim to be the original.
I was so disappointed with the size of the salad for $22!! I knew that I could do so much better at home for a fraction of the cost. Off to Costco I headed the very next day! I grabbed a rotisserie chicken and all the salad ingredients, then came home and made it myself.
It turned out so delicious, I made it again the next week, and the next, and now I’ve made it about 100 times since I posted this recipe in 2023. Here’s why I love it and you will too.
- It’s customizable. You can make it your own by swapping out the toppings, or salad dressing. I’ve even included copycat versions of four other chain restaurants versions of this salad.
- It’s affordable. No need to spend $22 on a salad for one at a restaurant, when you can make this salad for four at a fraction of the cost at home!
- It’s delicious. The combination of creamy ranch dressing, crisp lettuce, crunchy tortilla strips, sweet bbq chicken and tons of veggies, makes this salad one of my favorites. I love the variety of tastes and textures throughout the salad.
- It’s nostalgic. If you ever had a favorite bbq chicken salad at a chain restaurant, making this recipe at home will remind you of this salad and give you all the feels! I worked at Islands restaurants for 2 years in college and always loved their bbq chicken salad. Making this salad at home took me right back to those days!
Key ingredients
Above I show you all of the ingredients for this barbecue chicken salad recipe to give you a good visual for your shopping list. Below I’ll give you some notes on specific ingredients in the recipe. You can find the full list of ingredients with measurements in the recipe card.
- Cilantro – fresh cilantro leaves are tossed with the lettuce for an extra fresh flavor. If you’re not a fan of cilantro, you can simply leave it out.
- Jicama – this crunchy root vegetable is similar in texture to an apple, but not as sweet. It adds a great crunch to this salad. Since this is an ingredient I don’t usually have on hand, I leave it out most of the time when I make the salad. It’s good with or without it!
- Corn – drained and rinsed from a can, corn kernels add a sweet flavor to the salad. If you’d like to give the corn a smoky flavor and char on the outside, add 1 teaspoon olive oil to a cast iron skillet on the stove over high heat. Add the corn and cook for 4-5 minutes, stirring occasionally. You can also use grilled corn, removed from the cob.
- Ranch dressing – traditional ranch dressing is most commonly used in a bbq chicken salad, but if you’d like to spice things up, feel free to use a jalapeno ranch dressing. This is my favorite salad dressing to pair with this salad! It adds a kick of flavor, without making the salad spicy.
- Cooked chicken – the cooked chicken for this salad could be pulled from a rotisserie chicken, cooked in a pressure cooker or grilled. See more options below in the section, ways to cook the chicken.
Instructions
- Toss the lettuce in the dressing. In a large bowl, toss chopped romaine lettuce and fresh cilantro leaves with ranch dressing, until the lettuce is completely coated.
- Assemble the salads. Divide the dressed lettuce between four bowls. Top each bowl with jicama, red onion, black beans, corn, tomato, cheddar cheese, and avocado.
- Top the salads. In a separate bowl, toss cooked, diced or shredded, chicken with bbq sauce. Top each salad with the bbq chicken and tortilla strips. Serve immediately.
Ways to cook the chicken
One of my favorite ways to make this salad is with chicken breast meat, pulled from a rotisserie chicken. This makes this recipe easy to toss together in 10-15 minutes, with no cooking required! This salad is also a great way to use up leftover chicken.
If you want to cook the chicken yourself, I recommend either pressure cooking, slow cooking, or grilling the chicken.
To pressure cook the chicken, follow this recipe for Instant Pot Shredded Chicken.
If you want to slow cook the chicken, follow this recipe for Slow Cooker Shredded Chicken.
To grill the chicken, I recommend tossing 1 pound of boneless, skinless chicken breasts in 1 teaspoon olive oil and 1 tablespoon chicken seasoning or bbq seasoning. Heat a grill, or grill pan, to medium-high heat. Add the chicken breasts and cook for 6-7 minutes per side, or until the internal temperature reaches 165°F. Rest the chicken for 5 minutes, then dice, toss with the bbq sauce and add it to the salad.
You can prepare the chicken up to 5 days in advance and store it in the refrigerator until you’re ready to make the salad. The chicken on the salad can be served hot or cold. I usually serve it cold, but it’s totally up to your preference!
Make it like your favorite restaurant
California Pizza Kitchen claims to have invented the original BBQ Chicken Salad, but that doesn’t mean that a lot of chain restaurants haven’t made their own versions over the years.
While the recipe I made here is a copycat of the CPK BBQ Chicken Salad, with just a few minor additions or substitutions, you can make this recipe just like your favorite restaurant!
- Make it like Cheesecake Factory! Omit the jicama, add diced cucumber and replace the tortilla strips with crispy onions strings to make a Cheesecake Factory BBQ Chicken Salad.
- Make it like Panera Bread! Replace the tortilla strips with crispy onion strings, omit the jicama and use canned Mexicorn instead of canned sweet corn to make Panera’s BBQ chicken salad at home.
- Make it like The Habit! Omit the jicama, black beans and tortilla strips. Replace the raw red onions with pickled red onions, add crispy chopped, cooked bacon, replace the cheddar cheese with crumbled feta cheese, and use cilantro lime ranch dressing to make a Southwest BBQ Chicken Salad, just like The Habit.
- Make it like Yard House! Replace the black beans with pinto beans, replace the tortilla strips with crispy onion strings and use a Chipotle ranch dressing to make a Yard House BBQ Chicken Salad right in your own kitchen.
Other additions that I’ve added to this salad over the years include diced green onions, fresh sliced jalapenos and shredded carrots. Sometimes I also like to drizzle a little extra barbecue sauce over the salad before serving.
Meal prep and storage
This bbq chicken salad recipe is perfect for meal prep! Follow these simple steps to meal prep this salad for the week.
- Divide all of the ingredients between four large storage containers, except the tortilla strips, salad dressing and bbq chicken.
- Divide the salad dressing into four small containers and the bbq chicken into four small zipper bags. Add a salad dressing and bag of bbq chicken to each of the larger containers with the other ingredients.
- Place the containers in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.
- Store the tortilla strips in separate zipper bags, outside of the fridge.
- When you’re ready to enjoy the salad, remove the salad dressing and bbq chicken from the larger container.
- Pour the salad dressing into the large container and toss it with all of the ingredients.
- Add the bbq chicken and tortilla strips on top, then serve immediately.
BBQ Chicken Salad
Ingredients
- 8 cups chopped romaine lettuce, approximately 2 romaine hearts
- ½ cup fresh cilantro leaves
- ½ cup ranch dressing
- 1 cup jicama, julienned
- ½ cup red onion, finely diced
- ½ cup black beans, drained and rinsed from a can
- ½ cup corn, drained and rinsed from a can
- 1 roma tomato, diced
- 1 cup cheddar cheese, shredded
- 1 avocado, diced
- 1 cup tortilla strips, or crumbled tortilla chips
- 2 cups cooked chicken *see notes in the blog post above, diced or shredded
- ⅓ cup bbq sauce
Instructions
- In a large bowl, toss chopped romaine lettuce and fresh cilantro leaves with ranch dressing, until the lettuce is completely coated.
- Divide the dressed lettuce between four bowls.
- Top with the jicama, diced red onion, black beans, corn, diced tomato, shredded cheddar cheese, diced avocado and tortilla strips.
- In a separate bowl, toss the cooked chicken with bbq sauce, then place it on top of the salad. Sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste. Serve immediately.
Notes
- To make this salad vegetarian, omit the chicken and replace it with extra black beans, or cooked, diced tempeh, tossed in bbq sauce.
- To make this salad vegan, follow the instructions above to make it vegetarian. Also, omit the cheddar cheese and use this recipe for Vegan Avocado Ranch Dressing.
- To make this recipe keto, omit the black beans and corn. Use this recipe for Keto BBQ Sauce.
Nutrition Facts
More salad recipes
Try these other delicious, filling salads, perfect for a light and tasty meal!
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