One bite of this savory chicken chopped salad and you will be hooked! Grilled chicken, romaine lettuce, beets, tomatoes, pomegranate, feta, and sprouts combine with a pomegranate vinaigrette to make the best lunch salad.
Whether you need a salad for lunch, dinner, a cookout, or a picnic, this deliciously easy chopped salad recipe will be your new go-to salad recipe!
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(*This post was sponsored by Foster Farms. All delicious opinions are my own.)
If you have been following my blog for a while, you already know my love affair with Foster Farms chicken. Their chicken is fresh, never frozen and you can taste the difference every time you cook with it! This is the chicken I feed my family every week.
Foster Farms Fresh & Natural Chicken is raised locally in California and the Pacific Northwest. For me, I love that their chicken is always fresh and never frozen. You can taste this difference in every bite. Foster Farms chickens are raised cage-free, which is very important to me.
If you love quick and easy chicken recipes as much as we do, you will want to check out all of my mouthwatering Gluten Free Chicken recipes.
Why this recipe is great:
This salad is filled with all of the good stuff. I added pomegranate seeds for a little extra texture and flavor. This salad is so easy to make with chicken you grill, or leftover chicken you already have in the refrigerator.
This chopped vegetable salad makes the perfect healthy salad recipe. For this salad, we used fresh lettuce, beets, tomatoes, and pomegranate seeds. My chopped salad recipe is different from a classic chopped salad because I include both fruits and vegetables.
What you need to make this recipe:
- Feta - You can also use blue cheese or gorgonzola cheeses. They all add delicious flavor!
- Chicken - Breasts are leaner but you can use any cut.
- Lettuce - I used romaine, but you can use any lettuce like a spring mix or butter leaf.
- Beets - Any color of beets will taste delicious. Steam or roast them.
- A chopped salad tool helps cut your lettuce into the perfect chopped salad!
Recipe step by step directions:
The first thing you need to do is determine how you want to cook the chicken for a salad:
- Roast your chicken in your oven
- Pan fry your chicken
- Sous-vide
Open the packaging and place your chicken on a plate or in a dish. I love that Foster Farms uses no growth-promoting antibiotics or hormones in raising their chickens!!
Step 1: Season your Foster Farms Fresh & Natural Chicken with salt, pepper, and olive oil. I don't use any other seasonings because I want the true flavors of the chicken to shine through in this salad recipe.
Step 2: Preheat your grill, oven, sous-vide, or pan.
Step 3: Grill the chicken for 20 minutes, until it is fully cooked through and the thickest part of the chicken breast has an internal temperature of 165º F measured with a meat thermometer. The olive oil helps keep the chicken moist while grilling!
Step 4: Remove the chicken when it is cooked, cover with foil, and let it rest for 5 minutes.
Step 5: Place the chicken breasts on a cutting board and slice thinly.
Step 6: Wash and then thinly slice romaine lettuce and add it to a salad bowl. Add in the chopped Foster Farms Fresh & Natural Chicken.
Now you are ready to add in the rest of the ingredients!
Add in your cooked beets to the sald. Make sure to dice them into bite-sized pieces. I steamed my beets, but you can also roast them in the oven.
How to cook beets:
- Add a steamer basket to a pot and fill with water to the base of the steam basket. Add washed beets to the basket. Leave the peels on as they will come off easily after the beets are cooked. Cover the pot and cook on medium heat for 25 minutes (more time if your beets are large) or until the beets are soft. Use a knife to scrape off the peels.
- Wash the beets and bake in a 9x13 pan at 350 degrees for 45 minutes, or until your beets are soft. (Baking time will depend on the size of the beets you are cooking.
The next step to the salad is to make the homemade pomegranate vinaigrette dressing and pour it over the salad. Mix up this easy lunch salad and it is ready to serve.
Pomegranate vinaigrette
- 3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
- 3 tablespoons pomegranate juice
- 1 teaspoon lemon juice
- 1 clove minced garlic
- 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- dash salt/pepper to taste
Add all of the salad dressing ingredients to a bowl and whisk to blend. Pour over the salad and toss to mix. Top with sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, sprouts, or anything you like!
Mix-ins:
Add in tomatoes, pomegranate seeds, feta, or anything you want to put in your chopped chicken salad.
I love how colorful this salad is. You will love how easy this chopped chicken salad recipe is to make!!
Expert Tips and Recipe FAQ:
You can easily make this chopped salad recipe dairy-free by using dairy-free cheese, or omit the cheese altogether.
You can use any kind of cooked chicken to make this recipe. You can also use beef or seafood.
I would not recommend making this salad ahead. The moisture from the beets and chopped tomatoes will turn the salad brown if you make it too far ahead. If you want to make it ahead, store the chicken, beets, tomatoes, and cheese separately then assemble when you are ready..
Once the salad and dressing are assembled, it will not keep long without the salad turning brown.
More easy chicken recipes:
- Gluten Free Fried Chicken
- Grandma's Homemade Chicken Soup
- Air Fryer Chicken Drumsticks
- Instant Pot Gluten Free Chicken Stew
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📖 Recipe
Easy Lunch Time Chicken Chopped Salad
Ingredients
- 1 pound Chicken Breasts
- 2 beets roasted
- ¼ cup feta cheese
- 2 heads romaine lettuce
- ⅓ cup chopped tomatoes
- ¼ cup pomegranate seeds
- 3 tablespoons sunflower seeds
Instructions
- Preheat the grill on medium heat.
- Remove the chicken from the packaging and put on a plate.
- Sprinkle olive oil over the chicken, then season with salt and pepper.
- Cook on the grill for 20 minutes until cooked thoroughly.
- Remove the chicken from the grill and allow to rest for 5 minutes on a plate.
- Place the chicken on a cutting board and slice thinly.
- Add lettuce and all of the salad ingredients to a large salad bowl and mix.
- Top with the homemade vinaigrette dressing.
Notes
- Feel free to substitute any vegetables you have on-hand in this salad recipe.
- You can use chicken breast or another part of the chicken including leftover rotisserie.
- I do not recommend making this salad ahead unless you keep the prepped ingredients separate. Wet ingredients like the beets and tomatoes will turn the lettuce brown if it sits too long.
- 3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
- 3 tablespoons pomegranate juice
- 1 teaspoon lemon juice
- 1 clove minced garlic
- 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- dash salt/pepper to taste
Nutrition
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Beth
Love your version of the pomegranate dressing using apple cider vinegar. You know I'm a pomegranate fan!
Sandi Gaertner
Thank you so much Beth 🙂
Jade
I love pomegranate and sunflower seeds so this was perfect for me! Thanks for the easy lunch idea!
Sandi Gaertner
I am so glad you liked it 🙂
Lizet Flores de Bowen
I love salads like this one. Full of flavors and textures. Not boring at all! Delicious!
Sandi Gaertner
Thank you so much Lizet 🙂
Michelle
Loving all the textures in your salad Sandi, especially the pomegranates seeds and sunflower seeds, pinning!
Sandi Gaertner
Thank you so much Michelle :-).
jenni
Oh, Sandi, I love this flavor combination! The beets and pom and all that chicken...! Fabulous!
Sandi Gaertner
Wow, thank you so much Jenni. This salad definitely has all of our favorite flavors.