Grilled Chicken Salad with Pesto Ranch Dressing Recipe makes a delicious salad with cucumbers, tomatoes, onion, mozzarella topped with grilled chicken and a pesto ranch dressing!
Fresh salads for lunch or dinner are always a favorite! I also love Balsamic Steak Salad, Mediterranean Salad, and simply adding shredded chicken to my favorite House Salad for a quick lunch or dinner.
This Grilled Chicken Salad is piled high with fresh vegetables from our garden, mozzarella, and a bit of homemade pesto. Then it is topped with a quick homemade Pesto Ranch Dressing for even more flavor.
Table of Contents
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- Delicious meal. This salad recipe makes for a delicious meal for lunch or dinner. You can adjust the amount of chicken for a lighter lunch meal or add a little more for a heartier dinner.
- Meal prep friendly. Follow my meal prep tips below for a quick and easy meal you will love!
- Easily customizable. Swap out ingredients to make this salad recipe to use what you have on hand or with ingredients you love.
Easy Grilled Chicken Salad with Pesto Ranch Dressing Recipe
Ingredients
Be sure to see the recipe card below for the full listing of ingredients, instructions, notes, and estimated nutritional information.
- Chicken – I use boneless, skinless chicken breasts. You can also substitute with chicken thighs or shredded chicken or use another favorite protein such as grilled salmon, tuna, shrimp, or turkey. You can even omit the meat and have a meatless meal if you’d like.
- Salad greens – I love using spring salad greens or chopped Romaine lettuce.
- Vegetables – I’ve used cucumbers, tomatoes, and diced red onion in this salad, but add your favorite vegetables to this salad. Some other favorites are diced green or red peppers, diced carrots, green onions instead of red onions for a milder flavor, and even diced yellow squash and zucchini are delicious.
- Cheese – I’ve used mozzarella, but I also love to use burrata. Parmesan is also delicious!
- Pesto – You can use homemade pesto or your favorite storebought. I use it both on the salad as well as in the dressing.
- Dressing – The base of my dressing for this salad is my homemade buttermilk ranch dressing that I then pesto to for the pesto ranch dressing. You can again use a homemade dressing or your favorite storebought if you prefer.
Step-by-Step Instructions
- Drizzle or brush olive oil onto the grill or grill pan set over medium heat. Grill chicken on both sides until browned and completely cooked through. The time will depend on the thickness of the chicken breasts but should register 165º F when tested with an instant-read thermometer. Allow the chicken to rest for about 5 minutes.
- Meanwhile, add the salad greens to a large salad bowl or platter. Add cucumbers, tomatoes, red onion, and mozzarella (or burrata) to the salad.
- Once the chicken is ready, cut it into slices and add it to the top of the salad. Top with a spoonful of pesto and serve with pesto ranch dressing on the side.
Meal Prep Tips!
This grilled chicken salad is super make-ahead and meal prep friendly! You can easily prep all of your salad vegetables as soon as you get home from the grocery store and store them in individual containers ready for grab-and-go salad assembly.
During the summer, we also love to take care not to heat up the kitchen or even the back porch more often than we absolutely have to. So, when we cook the chicken, we generally plan for all of the chicken that we’ll use that week and cook it all at once. I then store half in a large container in the refrigerator to be used within a few days and the rest in the freezer to be thawed and used at the end of the week.
I also like to make all of my salad dressings ahead of time and store them in the refrigerator.
While these make-ahead steps may take a little time when you do them, they certainly speed up lunches and suppers throughout the rest of the week.
Here’s my Grilled Chicken Salad with Pesto Ranch Dressing Recipe. I hope you make it soon!
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Grilled Chicken Salad with Pesto Ranch Dressing Recipe
Equipment
- Grill Pan or Grill
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
- 8 – 10 ounces spring salad greens
- 2 cucumber, halved lengthwise and sliced
- 1 cup grape tomatoes, halved
- 1/4 red onion, diced
- 2 (4-ounce) mozzarella balls, course, cuisine, keywords, nutrition
- 4 teaspoons pesto, divided
- salt and pepper, to taste
Pesto Ranch Dressing
- 1/2 cup Buttermilk Ranch Dressing Recipe
- 3 tablespoons pesto
Instructions
- Drizzle or brush olive oil onto grill or grill pan set over medium heat. Grill chicken on both sides until browned and completely cooked through. The time will depend on the thickness of the chicken breasts, but should register 165º F when tested with an instant read thermometer. Allow the chicken to rest about 5 minutes.
- Meanwhile, add the salad greens to a large salad bowl or platter. Add cucumbers, tomatoes, red onion, and mozzarella (or burrata) to the salad.
- Once the chicken is ready, cut into slices and add to the top of the salad. Top with a spoonful of pesto and serve with dressing on the side.
Pesto Ranch Dressing:
- Stir together the ingredients for the ranch dressing as directed in the recipe. Add the pesto to the ranch dressing and stir until well combined.
Notes
- Chicken: Cook the chicken and store it in the refrigerator and/ or freezer.
- Salad greens and vegetables: Prep and store them in airtight containers in the refrigerator.
- Pesto: Make the pesto and store it in an airtight container or portion into an ice cube tray and freeze it and then store it in a freezer-safe container. Remove as needed to thaw in the refrigerator to use.
- Dressing: Prepare the buttermilk ranch dressing and stir the pesto into it to make the pesto ranch dressing. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Enjoy!
Robyn xo
Thanks for sharing this delicious recipe. This Grilled Chicken Salad with pesto ranch dressing seems to be very flavorful.