This Grilled Chicken Salad is full of fresh strawberries and avocado over butter lettuce with a delicious citrus dressing and toasted almonds.
Grilled Chicken Strawberry Avocado Salad
This healthy, low-carb Grilled Chicken Strawberry Avocado Salad is a big bowl (or plate) of sunshine! I love it because it has so many different textures and flavors. Also, it’s super filling with 30 grams of protein per serving and good fats from olive oil and avocado. I hope you love it as much as I did! Have this for lunch or a light dinner or make it ahead, to have lunch ready for a busy workday. If you like this chicken breast recipe, you might also enjoy California Grilled Chicken Avocado and Mango Salad, or this BBQ Chicken Salad.
This Grilled Chicken Salad is marinated in half of the citrus dressing, then it’s grilled and served over butter lettuce with strawberries and avocado.
Citrus Dressing Ingredients
This easy citrus salad dressing is also used as a marinade here. It uses two types of citrus: orange and lemon. Add salt, pepper, basil, and garlic to the juice and whisk everything with extra virgin olive oil.
How to Make Grilled Chicken Strawberry Avocado Salad
- Dressing: Whisk all the salad dressing ingredients and pour half of it over the chicken to marinate.
- Almonds: Sprinkle the almonds with fresh pepper and pinch of salt and toast in a skillet lightly sprayed with olive oil. Then remove them from the pan.
- Chicken: Remove the chicken from the marinade and cook in the skillet on medium-high heat for three minutes. Let rest and then thinly slice.
- Assemble: Divide the lettuce, avocado, strawberries, red onions, and chicken into two bowls. Drizzle the salad with the citrus vinaigrette and top with almonds.
How to Meal Prep
This grilled chicken salad with strawberries is perfect for meal prep. Put all the salad ingredients with exception of the avocado into two meal-prep containers, store the dressing and nuts separately in smaller containers. When you’re ready to eat the salad, slice the avocado, top it with the almonds and dressing.
Variations:
- Protein: Swap chicken breast for chicken thighs, shrimp, or salmon.
- Fruit: Switch out the strawberries for raspberries, apples, or dried cranberries.
- Lettuce: Sub romaine or mixed baby greens for butter lettuce.
- Onion: Use shallot instead of red onion.
- Nuts: Sub pecans or pistachios for almonds.
- Cheese: Add feta, goat, or blue cheese.
More Grilled Chicken Salad Recipes You’ll Love:
- California Grilled Chicken Avocado and Mango Salad
- Houston’s Grilled Chicken Salad with Peanut Vinaigrette
- Grilled Chicken Salad with Strawberries and Spinach
- BBQ Chicken Salad
- Grilled Romaine Salad with Chicken, Corn, and Salsa Dressing
Grilled Chicken Salad with Strawberries, Avocado and Citrus Dressing
Ingredients
For the dressing and marinade:
- Juice from 1 medium navel orange
- Juice from 2 medium lemons
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
- Freshly ground black pepper
- ¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil
For the salad:
- 1 8-ounce boneless skinless chicken breast, sliced lengthwise into 2 thin cutlets
- Olive oil spray
- 2 tablespoons raw slivered almonds
- Kosher salt
- Freshly ground black pepper
- 1 head butter lettuce, chopped (about 4 cups)
- 2 ounces Hass avocado, from ½ a small, sliced
- 1 cup sliced strawberries
- ¼ cup sliced red onion
Instructions
- In a small bowl or measuring cup, whisk together the dressing ingredients together.
- Place chicken in a shallow bowl or Ziploc bag, add ½ the dressing and marinate chicken for 30 minutes.
- Meanwhile, spray a medium skillet lightly with olive oil. Place skillet over medium low heat, add the almonds, a pinch of salt and a generous amount of fresh pepper. Toast almonds until they just start to brown and become fragrant, 4-5 minutes.
- Remove from heat, transfer almonds to a plate or your cutting board to cool.
- Spray the skillet with olive oil, remove chicken from marinade (discarding excess) and cook chicken over medium high heat for 3 minutes.
- Flip and cook an additional 2 minutes, or until chicken is browned and cooked through. Set aside on a cutting board to rest while you assemble the salad.
- In 2 bowls or meal prep containers, divide the lettuce then top each with ½ the avocado, strawberries, and red onion.
- Thinly slice the chicken breast and add to the salad.
To eat immediately:
- Drizzle each with ½ the reserved dressing and top with ½ the slivered almonds.
For meal prep:
- Store reserved dressing and almonds separately and top with both when ready to eat.
