If you’re looking for a healthy and delicious salad that’s far from boring, then you’ll love this Chicken Avocado Salad! It’s perfect as a light but filling lunch or as a side dish to share. It’s packed with protein from the chicken and the creamy avocados are the perfect source of healthy fat!
Whether you’re making this for a picnic or lunch, this easy chicken avocado salad is the perfect recipe. It is such a filling and hearty salad that doesn’t require a ton of work and is made in less than 30 minutes. It’s refreshing, simple, and full of so much flavor!
Want more easy delicious salads? You should try my Brussels Sprouts Salad or my Mediterranean Quinoa Salad. They make great side dishes or as a light lunch.
Why You’ll Love This Avocado Salad
- It’s healthy. Packed with healthy and delicious ingredients, this salad is so good for you! But not to worry, it tastes so good that your kids won’t even realize it’s a healthy recipe.
- It’s easy to make. You can make this salad in next to no time. You can make it even faster by following my tips down below.
- Simple ingredients. You might be able to find most of these ingredients in your fridge already! They’re simple everyday ingredients that I always have on hand.
What You’ll Need
- Avocados: There are a ton of varieties of avocados. I love using Hass avocados but you can use whatever that is in season.
- Grape tomatoes: If you don’t have grape tomatoes, you can use cherry tomatoes or Roma tomatoes.
- Red onion: Red onions add a pop color to the salad just like the grape tomatoes. They are also milder than yellow or white so it’s a great option when using it raw in salads.
- Red bell pepper: Another pop of color, I love the crunch of the bell peppers. You can also use different colored bell peppers but the red ones are the sweetest.
- Jalapeño pepper: For a bit of heat, I add some jalapeño.
- Lemon juice: Freshly squeezed lemon juice adds brightness to the salad.
- Olive oil: You can also swap with an oil of your choice.
- Seasoning: Salt, pepper, chili seasoning, paprika, and cumin are used in this recipe.
- Chicken tenderloins: Tenderloins are the most tender part of the chicken breasts. You can also use just chicken breasts instead.
- Garlic: I prefer freshly minced garlic for the best flavoring.
How To Make this Chicken Avocado Salad
- Prep the vegetables: Dice the veggies and set them aside in a bowl.
- Marinate: Marinate the chicken with the chicken ingredients.
- Cook the chicken: In a large skillet, add 1 tbsp. of olive oil and bring over medium heat. Pan sear the chicken until fully cooked, about 4-5 minutes on each side. Transfer the chicken tenders to a bowl and allow them to rest for 5 minutes and then cube them.
- Combine everything: To the bowl with the veggies in it, add the salt, lemon juice and olive oil. Mix together combine well. Then add in the cubed chicken and avocado. Toss together with the veggies.
Tips and Notes
- You can make this easy avocado chicken salad even faster by preparing the chicken ahead of time. You can also use rotisserie chicken to skip making the chicken altogether.
- If you don’t have lemon, you can use lime instead.
- I do not recommend using bottled lemon juice as it tastes less bright than fresh and can have a slightly bitter aftertaste to it.
- If you’d like to make this recipe ahead of time, I recommend putting everything together but the avocado. Add the avocado when you’re ready to eat it.
- Make sure everything is diced into small similar sized pieces so you can have a bit of everything in every bite.
FAQs
This chicken avocado salad recipe can last for up to 2 to 3 days, any longer and the avocado will brown. The lemon juice should keep the avocados from browning until then. Be sure to store the salad in an airtight container and in the fridge. If there’s slight browning of the avocado, not to worry, it’s just a change in color from oxidation.
Feel free to add other vegetables such as cucumbers, corn, radishes, carrots, spinach, lettuce, and more! Change things up and use whatever you have in your fridge! You can also add some fresh herbs as garnish. Turkey bacon adds a nice crunch to the salad as well.
Some varieties of avocados turn dark green when they’re ripe. Others don’t. The best way to tell is by gently squeezing the avocados and if they yield to pressure, then they are ripe.
More Salad Recipes You’ll Love
I hope you enjoy all the recipes I share with you, including this delicious Chicken Avocado Salad recipe. I hope you try it, enjoy it, rate it, and share it with your friends and family!
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Chicken Avocado Salad
Ingredients
- 2 large avocados peeled and cubed
- 1 cup grape tomatoes halved
- ¼ cup red onion petite diced
- ½ cup red bell pepper petite diced
- ½ small jalapeño pepper petite diced
- 2 tbsps. lemon juice
- 2 tbsps. olive oil
- ½ tsp. salt or more to taste
Chicken
- 1 lb. chicken tenderloins
- 3 tbsps. lemon juice
- ½ tsp. salt
- 1 tsp. black pepper fresh ground
- 2 cloves garlic mined
- 1 tbsp. chili seasoning
- 1 tsp. paprika
- ½ tsp. cumin powder
- 1 tbsp. olive oil for frying
Instructions
- Dice the veggies and set aside in a bowl.
- Marinate the chicken with the chicken ingredients.
- In a large skillet, add 1 tbsp. of olive oil and bring over medium heat. Pan sear the chicken until fully cooked, about 4-5 minutes on each side.
- Transfer the chicken tenders to a bowl and allow to rest for 5 minutes and then cube them.
- To the bowl with the veggies in it, add the salt, lemon juice and olive oil. Mix together combine well. Then add in the cubed chicken and avocado. Toss together with the veggies.
- Serve and enjoy.
Notes
- You can make this easy avocado chicken salad even faster by preparing the chicken ahead of time. You can also use rotisserie chicken to skip making the chicken altogether.
- If you don’t have lemon, you can use lime instead.
- I do not recommend using bottled lemon juice as it tastes less bright than fresh and can have a slightly bitter aftertaste to it.
- If you’d like to make this recipe ahead of time, I recommend putting everything together but the avocado. Add the avocado when you’re ready to eat it.
- Make sure everything is diced into small similar sized pieces so you can have a bit of everything in every bite.
I needed a salad that was not basic and this was it! Sooo good thank you!
Glad to hear you enjoyed the recipe! Thanks for the review.
Amazing healthy and simple to make! My whole family loved it!
Hi Dalila
Thanks for leaving a review. Happy to hear you and your family enjoyed the recipe.
Very nice salad
Hi Renuka,
Glad you enjoyed it. Thanks for the review.