Chicken Salad with Avocado Dressing

This Chicken Salad with Avocado Dressing is made with a seasoned, juicy chicken with a colourful salad, and tossed with an awesome creamy avocado dressing that tastes just like guacamole. Avocados are cholesterol free and full of nutrition – we need to get MORE in our diet!

Gasp, shock horror, I’m finally posting a salad! Long overdue….so much for my New Years’ resolution to post more green things here on RecipeTin Eats. ?

Can I be honest? I’ve actually made and photographed a handful of salads….salads with oomph, not wimpy ones. I mean salads that are healthy but still truly satisfying to have as meals.

I write up the recipe and even schedule it to publish….then I get distracted by something I’m even more excited about. Like that Baked Chinese Sesame Chicken I shared a couple of weeks ago. I actually had the slot reserved for a Buffalo Chicken Salad, but it got bumped at the last minute because I made the Sesame Chicken the day before and I got overly excited about it.

Oops. So much for a professional editorial calendar. I could never run a proper magazine. Can you imagine?? Changing my mind at the last minute like that!

But today I’m sticking to my guns because Chicken Salad with Avocado Dressing is seriously worthy of having as meal. And it all comes down to this – the creamy avocado dressing.?

Beautiful ripe avocado and a handful of other ingredients to make a luscious avocado dressing that actually tastes like avocado.

I used to make avocado dressing with buttermilk, using that to thin it out to a dressing consistency. But then one day my sister was around, and in her usual form, she opened the fridge and started poking around for things to eat. Spied a tub of avocado dressing, stuck her finger in for taste, scrunched up her nose and said “This doesn’t taste like avocado.”

In response to which, I instantly stuck my finger in for a taste, ready to argue….and realised….it didn’t. At least, not enough like avocado.

Buttermilk was the problem. The flavour was too intense, it overpowered the avocado. So I fixed my recipe. 🙂

I make this salad with a tasty chicken which is seasoned for extra flavour. I really think it is worth making a basic spice rub to flavour chicken for salads. Makes salads extra interesting!

And it’s carb free. And cheese free. Miracle of miracles! 🙂

I promise to share more healthy, lower calorie meals in 2016. My recipes aren’t typically cream / butter heavy unless it’s for a special treat. But I have a whole repertoire of lower calorie, more nutrition dense recipes.

I am seriously thinking about increasing my weekly recipe posts from 3 to 4, and making the extra recipe a healthy one.

What do you think? Do you want to see more healthy recipes here on RecipeTin Eats?

– Nagi x

PS That’s healthy…..without compromise! I can’t compromise flavour for calories…I just can’t. It’s not in my DNA!!!

4.81 from 21 votes

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Chicken Salad with Avocado Dressing

Prep Time

15 mins

Cook Time

5 mins

Total Time

20 mins

 

A scrumptious, healthy salad that's satisfying enough to have as a meal. The star of this is the creamy avocado dressing - full of nutrients, flavour and so delicious! This makes more dressing than you will need. It's hard to make less. The leftovers are fantastic to use as a sauce for other proteins, use as a dip or to spread on toast! It thickens when you refrigerate it.

Course: Salad

Servings: 2

Calories: 505 kcal

Author: Nagi | RecipeTin Eats

Ingredients

Avocado Dressing

• 1/2 large or 1 small ripe avocado
• 1 garlic , minced
• 2 tbsp diced red onion
• 1/4 cup cilantro , stems and leaves, not packed in
• 1/2 tbsp olive oil (optional)
• 1 tbsp plain low fat yoghurt (I use Greek)
• 3 tbsp lime juice
• 3 - 5 tbsp low fat milk
• 1/4 tsp onion or garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• Black pepper

Chicken

• 5 - 7 oz / 250 - 300g chicken breast , skinless boneless (I had 1 large one)
• 1 tbsp olive oil

Spice Rub

• 1 tsp smoked paprika
• 1/4 tsp each onion powder , garlic powder, cayenne pepper, salt
• 2 tbsp plain flour
• Black pepper

Salad

• 1/2 cup diced red onion
• 1 corn , steamed, kernels cut off (or 3/4 cup cooked kernels)
• 3/4 cup cherry tomatoes , halved or quartered
• 5 cups chopped lettuce

Instructions

1. Avocado Dressing: Place the ingredients in a small food processor and whizz until smooth. Use MILK to adjust consistency, and adjust salt to taste. (Note 1)
2. Spice Rub: Combine ingredients and scatter on a plate.
3. Chicken: Slice into 4 - 5 thin steaks on the diagonal, then coat both sides with Spice Rub.
4. Cook Chicken: Heat oil in a large skillet over high heat. Add chicken and cook both sides until dark brown. Remove onto a plate and cover loosely with foil. Rest for 5 minutes then slice thickly.
5. Pile the Salad ingredients onto a serving platter then place the chicken on the side.
6. Serve with Avocado Dressing.

Recipe Notes

1. I like to puree it a lot so the cilantro/coriander becomes pureed into the dressing because it adds to the green colour of the dressing. But you could puree it less so you have more specks of green in the dressing. It doesn't affect the flavour, it's just aesthetics!

2. Nutrition per serving. Approximately 150 calories of this is attributable to the avocado dressing - and it assumes you use all of it, which you probably will not. So the chicken and salad is around 350 calories. Avocados are fairly high in calories BUT it is good fat. Remember that!!! 🙂

PS I have included Chicken Salad with Avocado Dressing in the RecipeTin LITE category (which is only for recipes <500 calories) on the basis that I doubt you will use all the avocado dressing. 🙂