Taco Chicken Salad
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Taco Chicken Salad is quick and easy to make. Secretly healthy, it’s great to meal prep and enjoy for lunch all week long!
This easy taco chicken salad is the best weekday lunch that comes together so quickly!
Our Healthy Chicken Salad is one of our go to lunches, but we also love anything with healthy taco seasoning – so we combined the two into something delicious!
This taco chicken salad is filled with crunchy red peppers, salty taco seasoning, tart lime juice, and mild green chiles.
All you need is a base of shredded chicken, some plain greek yogurt, and a few simple pantry ingredients for a healthy taco chicken salad.
Tyler’s Tips for the Best Taco Chicken Salad
- Shredding chicken doesn’t have to be tedious: throw the cooked chicken into a stand mixer or use a hand mixer to quickly shred your chicken without using two forks or your hands.
- Great for meal prep: This dish is great for meal prep, it’s one of the few meals that actually taste even better the next day after the flavors have melded together!
Other recipes to try:
Ingredients:
substitutions
Olive Oil: You could use avocado oil, but we really recommend extra virgin olive oil.
Chicken Breasts: You can substitute with boneless chicken thighs or chicken tenders, but we like the texture of the chicken breasts the best. We have not tried this with cubed pork tenderloin or pork chop,s but that may also work.
Vegetables: The black beans, red peppers, and corn give this a nice crunch and some sweetness, but you can also try using diced red onion, spicy jalapeńos or diced tomatoes. Pinto beans can be a good substitute for black beans. The green chiles are mild and not too spicy. If you want more spice, then we recommend seeding and dicing one jalapeńo and incorporating this into the chicken salad.
Greek Yogurt: We use plain greek yogurt instead of mayonnaise, and it gives it more protein and the same texture. You could also use creme fraiche or cottage cheese as options if you need to substitute the greek yogurt.
Lime Juice: Fresh lime juice is ideal, but you can also use bottled lime juice. Lemon juice can be a good substitute if you can’t find limes.
Taco Seasoning: We have a delicious homemade taco seasoning recipe that is used in this recipe, but most store bought taco seasonings will work just fine!
Cilantro: We love the flavor and fragrance of cilantro, but some people say it tastes like soap. Feel free to omit this ingredient altogether or swap it with fresh parsley!
How to Make Taco Chicken Salad
- Add all ingredients to a large mixing bowl.
- Mix thoroughly using a spatula until combined.
What to Serve with Healthy Chicken Taco Salad
You can serve this chicken salad however you like! We like it:
- with tortilla chips as a ‘dip’ or with veggies like carrots or celery
- on homemade sourdough as a sandwich, or a strawberry goat cheese salad with a healthy salad dressing or some chips on the side
- in lettuce wraps with salsa, sour cream, and or avocado slices
- as a quesadilla – we warm it up in between 2 tortillas with some cheddar cheese and it’s delicious!
storage
Storing: This will last in the fridge for up to 4 days in an airtight container
Freezing: We do not recommend freezing this recipe as it will not have the right texture upon thawing.
Reheating: If you want to turn it into a taco chicken salad quesadilla, then heating this up in a pan would work great!
other healthy salad recipes:
Here are some of our favorite other salad recipes
Taco Chicken Salad
Ingredients
- 2 ½ cups cooked shredded chicken about 1 lb boneless skinless chicken breast, cooked
- 1 cup diced red bell peppers
- ½ cup cooked black beans rinsed and drained
- ½ cup corn
- 1 4oz can diced green chiles
- ½ cup plain nonfat Greek yogurt
- 2 tablespoons lime juice 1 large lime
- 1 tablespoon taco seasoning
- 1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh cilantro optional
Instructions
- Cook the chicken. Bring a pot of water to a boil and boil chicken for 10-14 minutes. You can also cook chicken in the instant pot, crockpot or buy a rotisserie chicken and shred it.
- Once the chicken is cooked, shred the chicken by pulling apart with 2 forks until evenly shredded. Add the cooked chicken to a large mixing bowl.
- Add red bell peppers, black beans, corn, diced greek chiles, yogurt, lime juice, taco seasoning and cilantro.
- Mix together using a spatula until all ingredients are thoroughly combined.
- Serve on a sandwich, over a salad, or enjoy as is!
Not many ingredients, easy to make, delicious. My husband is a “hot” meal type of guy, but he ate servings with tortilla chips and half an avocado. This is definitely going to be a repeat meal!! Can’t wait to eat leftovers.