Cilantro lime chicken salad is made with a bed of romaine lettuce topped with a flavorful cilantro lime marinated chicken. Top this delicious salad with fresh ingredients like corn, tomatoes, red onion, black beans, avocado, cheese and a creamy cilantro lime dressing. This salad will remind you of summer all year long.
Summer just screams salad and fresh ingredients. This cilantro lime chicken salad is packed with fresh ingredients and the dressing is so refreshing. It has been a long time since I have made a salad for dinner.
I was a little hesitant to make a dinner salad since not all my kids eat salad. I did make a pot of rice to go with this salad so the non-salad eaters would have something a little more filling. They had rice topped with chicken and cheese for dinner while the rest of us ate this awesome salad.
Making Cilantro Lime Chicken Salad
This salad starts with making a marinade for the chicken with freshly squeezed lime juice and tons of cilantro. You can use a blender or food processor to mix this up. Alternatively you could chop the cilantro finely and whisk it together. Half of this goes in a zip top bag to marinate the chicken and the other half is mixed with sour cream for the dressing.
I am really loving roasted corn in salads right now. See my full instructions for roasting corn. It is super easy to make and adds tons of flavor to this salad.
Cook the chicken in a skillet until thoroughly cooked. Chop up the lettuce and salad toppings while the chicken is cooking. Assemble and enjoy this delicious salad.
There are a few options for assembling this salad
Set out all the ingredients and let everyone assemble their own salad.
Prepare a week worth of lunches at once.
Mix everything into a large serving bowl.
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Cilantro Lime Chicken Salad
Ingredients
- 4 chicken breasts, boneless and skinless
Marinade & Cilantro Lime Dressing
- ⅔ cup lime juice, about 4 limes
- 1 cup cilantro, packed
- salt and pepper
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1 teaspoon cumin
- 1 teaspoon chili powder
- 2 Tablespoons olive oil
- 1 cup sour cream
Salad
- 1 head romaine lettuce, chopped
- 10 ounces grape tomatoes, halved
- 1 15 ounce can corn, drained
- 1 15 ounce can black beans, rinsed and drained
- ½ cup colby jack cheese, shredded
- 2 avocados, sliced
- 1 small red onion, diced
Instructions
- Place chicken breasts in a zip top bag.
- Prepare the marinade by blending together lime juice, cilantro, salt and pepper, garlic, cumin, chili powder, and olive oil. Pour half of the marinade in the bag with the chicken. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes or up to 2 days.
- Add sour cream to the other half of the marinade still in the blender. Blend until smooth. Refrigerate to use later.
- Heat a skillet over medium high heat. Remove chicken from the marinade and cook 4-5 minutes on each side, or until done. Discard any remaining marinade. Let chicken rest for about 5 minutes before slicing.
- While the chicken is cooking, roast the corn. Evenly spread the corn onto a baking sheet and season with salt and pepper. Roast under the broiler until lightly browned.
- Prepare all salad ingredients. Chop the romaine lettuce, slice the tomatoes in half, slice the red onion, rinse the black beans, and slice the avocado.
- Assemble the salad with a base of lettuce topped with chicken, tomatoes, roasted corn, black beans, cheese, avocado, and red onion. Drizzle the cilantro lime dressing.
Notes
- This can be made ahead with everything in separate containers to be used for meal prep.
- Can all be set out and people can assemble their own salads how they like.
