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Everyone loves this Bacon Avocado Chicken Salad with Lemon Vinaigrette! Loads of veggies, crispy bacon and creamy avocado are the perfect combination for this delicious salad.
Full of good for you vegetables, avocado and lean protein, and a splash of tangy lemon dressing, this Avocado Chicken Salad recipe is the perfect summer meal. It’s filling, refreshing and once you taste this dressing you’ll never go back to ranch!
Table of Contents
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- Healthier lunch or dinner – Salads are generally an easy way to eat healthier. But they can quickly get out of control when you start adding tons of unhealthy ingredients and creamy salad dressings. Restaurant meal salads can easily top out at well over 1200 calories. Here you’ll get about 4-6 servings which will equal 300-470 calories per serving, including the dressing. Not bad for a complete meal!
- Great for Meal Planning! This Bacon Avocado Chicken Chopped Salad recipe makes a ton, and it’s great for meal planning and lunching on all week. If you’re planning on enjoying for several days, I recommend mixing all of the ingredients except the lettuce, then tossing the lettuce in when you’re ready to eat.
- Fresh, Low-Carb Ingredients – Made with fresh ingredients, a delicious healthy salad dressing, tons of protein and low in carbs this is a refreshing salad that you won’t feel guilty about.
Ingredients for Chicken Avocado Salad
- Chicken breasts – cook your own using one of my 3 easy methods: Stove Top Chicken, Baked Chicken, Slow Cooker Shredded Chicken. Or use my favorite time-saver, rotisserie chicken!
- Avocados – Choose ones that are firm but have a little give to them when you give them a light squeeze in the palm of your hand.
- Corn – If you have fresh corn on the cob, I highly recommend using that. It’s crisp and tender and flavorful. However, you can also use frozen or canned corn just as easily.
- Bacon – Cook some bacon in the oven or on the stovetop. You want it nice and crispy, but not greasy, so make sure to drain it on paper towels.
- Fresh herbs – I love adding fresh parsley and chives to salads for an earthy punch of fresh flavor. In place of chives you can thinly slice the tops off of green onions.
- Romaine lettuce – What’s a salad without lettuce? This chopped salad has fresh romaine as the base, but you could also use spring mix, butter lettuce or little gems.
- Roma tomatoes – Fresh tomatoes round out the flavors and add some color to this healthy salad.
- Lemon Vinaigrette Dressing – Juice of a lemon and a lime, olive oil, garlic, honey and salt and pepper. The great thing about this dressing is that you can make a lot or a little, and it will last a couple of weeks in the fridge.
How to Make Bacon Avocado Chicken Salad
Chopped salads are simple and quick depending on how many ingredients you’re using. All of the ingredients for this salad are chopped into bite sized pieces and tossed together in a large bowl with my irresistible lemon vinaigrette.
You could go crazy and add even more veggies if you like; things like shredded carrots, cabbage, bell peppers, green onions and sunflower seeds would be great additions.
Lemon Vinaigrette Dressing:
Every salad needs a good dressing and this Avocado Chicken Salad is no different. my tangy, refreshing and slightly sweet Lemon Vinaigrette light and refreshing and made with no mayo.
Just whisk the ingredients together and toss with the salad. You could also use a sealed mason jar or salad dressing shaker. The recipe makes plenty for the salad. Store any leftover dressing in a sealed container in the fridge.
At less than 80 calories per serving you’ll want to keep this healthy salad dressing in your back pocket and pour it on everything!
Variations
Both the salad and the Lemon Vinaigrette Dressing are easily customizable. Try some of these simple variations:
- Upgrade the dressing: Add some fresh herbs like parsley, cilantro, chives or basil to the dressing for even more flavor.
- Veggies: Salads are an excellent way to use up a variety of fresh vegetables that you might have on hand, like bell peppers, mushrooms, red onion, celery, and cucumbers.
- Proteins – If you’re fresh out of chicken, this salad is great with Lemon Pepper Shrimp, Carne Asada or Herb-Rubbed Pork Tenderloin. For a meatless salad, try adding some hard-boiled eggs.
- Nuts and seeds – Sunflower seeds or pumpkin seeds would add some nice crunch, as would peanuts or pecans.
- Skip the Lettuce – Double the ingredients and skip the lettuce. Still delicious and will last a few extra days. Bonus – you can make sandwiches or wraps!
- Working with Citrus – When the lemon juice is what you’re after, roll the fruit firmly on the countertop for 10-15 seconds before cutting to get the most juice out of your lemons and limes.
- Double Duty Dressing – The salad dressing is also a delicious marinade for chicken or fish or even pork. Be sure to discard any used marinade and make a fresh batch for a salad dressing.
- Storing Leftovers – Leftovers should be kept in an airtight container in the fridge and will be fresh for another day. If you want to enjoy this salad for longer, leave out the lettuce and add it in just before serving so the lettuce won’t wilt.
More Delicious Chicken Salad Recipes to Try
- Ramen Chinese Chicken Salad
- BBQ Chicken Salad
- Lemon Kale Caesar Salad with Chicken
- Easy Chicken Salad Recipe
- Greek Chicken Salad
Chicken Bacon Avocado Chopped Salad with Lemon Vinaigrette
Ingredients
Salad:
- 2 chicken breasts cooked and shredded
- 2 avocados diced
- 1 cup of corn kernels 1 ear of corn
- 6 slices bacon cooked crisp and chopped
- 4 cups chopped lettuce
- 2 Roma tomatoes seeded and diced
- 2 tablespoons fresh minced parsley
- 2 tablespoons fresh chopped chives
Lemon Vinaigrette Dressing:
- 1 lemon juiced
- 1 lime juiced
- ¼ cup olive oil
- 2 cloves minced garlic
- 1 tablespoon honey
- salt & pepper to taste
Instructions
Lemon Vinaigrette
- Whisk dressing ingredients together in a small bowl, or place ingredients in a mason jar, seal and shake well.
- Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Salad:
- Toss salad ingredients together in a large bowl. Pieces should be as evenly sized as possible.
- Toss with half of the salad dressing. Add more dressing as desired.
- Enjoy immediately.
Notes
- Do not add salad dressing until you are ready to serve. If you do not plan on eating the whole salad, reserve without dressing.
- Storing Leftovers – Leftovers should be kept in an airtight container in the fridge and will be fresh for another day. If you want to enjoy this salad for longer, leave out the lettuce and add it in just before serving so the lettuce won’t wilt.
Nutrition
Nutrition information provided is an estimate and will vary based on cooking methods and brands of ingredients used.
What is a good substitute for the avocado? Two of the three of us are not fans. The rest of it sounds fabulous, and I look forward to trying it with the different meat variations!
You can simply omit the avocado or add another raw veggie you like.
This is one of our absolute favorite salads!! We’ve had numerous people tell us how amazing it was, followed by them asking for the recipe 🙂 Our girls even take it for school lunches if that tells you anything!
Nice! Thank you for passing on the love Sarah. Awesome comment, thanks for stopping by.
Love this salad & the dressing is delicious as is!
Thank you Julie! Love the feedback!
Absolutely delicious and super refreshing salad! I’m not a big salad person but I’d eat this every day!
Nice! Thanks for the awesome feedback Dana!
Outstanding
Thank you Abdullah!
This recipe makes a wonderful, healthy salad. The lemon vinaigrette is refreshing and just right for this salad. I will definitely make it again!
Nice! Thanks for the feedback G.