Southwest Salad
Create a scrumptious salad, packed with flavorful ingredients, using this Southwest Salad recipe! It's filled with creamy avocado, juicy tomatoes, and crunchy tortilla strips, all tossed in a creamy chipotle salad dressing! The best part is, this salad is easy to mix up in just 10 minutes! It's delicious as a vegetarian salad, or with southwest grilled chicken on top.
Ingredients
Southwest Salad Dressing
- ½ cup sour cream
- 2 tablespoons lime juice, fresh-squeezed
- 1 tablespoon water
- 2 tablespoons fresh cilantro, chopped
- 1 tablespoon southwest seasoning, click link for the recipe
Southwest Salad
- 8 cups chopped romaine lettuce, approximately 2 romaine hearts
- ½ cup red onion, finely diced
- 1 cup red bell pepper, diced
- 1 cup black beans, drained and rinsed from a can
- 1 cup corn, drained and rinsed from a can
- 1 cup cherry tomatoes, quartered
- 1 avocado, diced
- 1 cup tortilla strips
- 1 cup pepper jack cheese, shredded (or Monterey jack cheese)
Instructions
- Prepare the salad dressing by combining all of the ingredients in a small bowl or mason jar.
- In a large bowl, toss the chopped romaine lettuce with ½ cup southwest salad dressing, until the lettuce is completely coated.
- Divide the dressed lettuce between four bowls.
- Top with the diced red onion, diced bell peppers, black beans, corn, diced tomato, diced avocado, tortilla strips and shredded pepper jack cheese.
- To add grilled chicken to the salad, follow the instructions in the notes below.
Notes
- To add grilled chicken to the salad, follow these steps before you start preparing the salad.
- Try to find a chicken breast that’s around ½ pound in weight. Place it on a cutting board and cover with plastic wrap. Pound the chicken breast with a meat tenderizer or rolling pin until it’s about ½ inch thick. This will both tenderize the chicken and help it cook quicker.
- Rub the piece of chicken with ½ tablespoon southwest seasoning on both sides.
- Preheat an indoor grill, like the OptiGrill I used here, or an outdoor grill. Grill the chicken for 4-5 minutes per side on an outdoor grill, grill pan, or heavy skillet on the stove, or grill for 5-6 minutes using a two-sided electric grill.
- Once cooked to an internal temperature of 165°F, remove the chicken from the grill. Place the cooked chicken on a cutting board and dice it into small pieces. Place on top of the salad before serving.
- To add shredded chicken on top of the salad, either pull 1 ½ cups of cooked chicken off of a rotisserie chicken and toss it with ¼ cup southwest salad dressing, then add it on top of the salad. Or use this Instant Pot Shredded Chicken recipe to pressure cook chicken breasts, then shred them, toss them with the dressing and add them on top of the salad.
- The dressing recipe above makes ¾ cup of salad dressing. You'll only need ½ cup to toss with the romaine lettuce. The other ¼ cup can be tossed with the chicken to top the salad, drizzled on top of the other salad ingredients, or saved for another recipe.
- 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.
- To make this salad vegetarian, omit the chicken.
- To make this salad vegan, follow the instructions above to make it vegetarian. Also, omit the pepper jack cheese and use this recipe for Creamy Vegan Chipotle Dressing.
- This salad is naturally gluten free. If using bottled salad dressing, instead of homemade, always make sure to check the label to make sure it’s gluten-free.
Nutrition Facts
Calories 410kcal (21%)Carbohydrates 38g (13%)Protein 16g (32%)Fat 24g (37%)Saturated Fat 10g (50%)Polyunsaturated Fat 2gMonounsaturated Fat 9gCholesterol 42mg (14%)Sodium 273mg (11%)Potassium 970mg (28%)Fiber 12g (48%)Sugar 8g (9%)Vitamin A 10186mg (204%)Vitamin C 71mg (86%)Calcium 302mg (30%)Iron 3mg (17%)
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