crispy hot honey chicken salad with yogurt dressing
Sweet honey with spicy cayenne pepper, let me introduce you to my crispy hot honey chicken salad. It’s my favorite, favorite, favorite salad inspired by my love of sweet and spicy flavors, crispy chicken, and super easy and nourishing high-protein meals.
Servings: 4
Calories: 446kcal
Equipment
- 1 large bowl
Ingredients
Chicken
- 8 breaded chicken tenders I like Applegate or grilled chicken
- ¼ cup honey
- ¼ cup olive oil or avocado oil
- ¼ teaspoon ground ginger
- ¼ teaspoon garlic powder
- ¼ teaspoon cayenne powder
- 2 teaspoon chili powder
- ½ teaspoon salt and pepper to taste
Vegetables
- 2 stocks romaine lettuce chopped
- ½ red onion diced
- 1 avocado diced
- 2 stocks green onions diced
- 1 handful cilantro chopped, about ¼th cup chopped
- ½ cup shredded carrots about 6 baby carrots
- ¼ jalapeno finely chopped and deseeded
- juice from ½ a lime
Yogurt Dressing (optional - can use any creamy dressing you like cilantro lime or ranch)
- ½ cup Greek yogurt plain
- ¼ teaspoon salt and pepper
- 1 ½ tablespoon mayonaise
- juice from ½ a lime
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
Instructions
- Cook the 8 breaded chicken tenders in the oven or air fryer. While it cooks, dice and chop the 2 stocks romaine lettuce, ½ red onion, 1 avocado, 2 stocks green onions, 1 handful cilantro, ½ cup shredded carrots, and ¼ jalapeno. Put these into a large bowl.
- Make the hot honey sauce by mixing ¼ cup honey, ¼ cup olive oil, ¼ teaspoon ground ginger, ¼ teaspoon garlic powder, ¼ teaspoon cayenne powder, 2 teaspoon chili powder, and½ teaspoon salt in a medium bowl. Dice the crispy chicken and add it to the sauce. Toss to completely coat.
- Make the yogurt sauce by mixing the ½ cup Greek yogurt, ¼ teaspoon salt and pepper, 1 ½ tablespoon mayonaise , juice from ½ a lime, and ½ teaspoon garlic powder in a small bowl or jar.
- Combine the salad with the chicken and yogurt dressing. Finish with a squeeze from the juice from ½ a lime. If making this salad as meal prep, see notes below, and don't put the dressing on!
Video
Notes
Helpful Tips
- Don’t complicate it: Use whatever lettuce or crispy chicken you already have. Have dino nuggets - use those. Have a bag of half lettuce and some spinach - use that.
- Fully coat the chicken: This is where this recipe stands out. We don’t drizzle it over the salad, we fully coat the chicken so every bite of chicken is bursting with flavor.
- Dice everything really small: even smaller than you think is small. This is the key to a really great salad - every bite has a little bit of everything.
- Use all of the herbs and spices: Each and every one adds so much flavor so please use them all!
- Using sriracha: My first round of testing used sriracha and while it was ok, it was flat but also in your face. The chili powder and cayenne is the perfect mild heat to deliver spicy flavor.
- Roasted versus not roasted corn: I tested this recipe both with roasting the corn and not. The taste difference was not enough to justify the additional step of sauteing corn.
- This salad has too much dressing: If this is your opinion you are entitled to it and while I obviously think it’s perfect, you can fix this. Simply mix in 1-2 more chicken tenders and ½ a stock of romaine lettuce.
- Make the chicken and toss it in the hot honey sauce. Store this in an airtight container.
- Dice all the salad ingredients and store in an airtight container.
- Make the Greek yogurt dressing and store in an airtight container.
- When ready to eat, combine the serving size you want of all the ingredients.
Nutrition
Calories: 446kcal | Carbohydrates: 26g | Protein: 25g | Fat: 28g | Saturated Fat: 4g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 5g | Monounsaturated Fat: 16g | Trans Fat: 0.03g | Cholesterol: 67mg | Sodium: 629mg | Potassium: 757mg | Fiber: 5g | Sugar: 20g | Vitamin A: 2736IU | Vitamin C: 9mg | Calcium: 54mg | Iron: 1mg