Chili Chicken Chopped Salad has a taco salad profile, with its generous garnish of tortilla chips, cubes of avocado, and a homemade, chili-laced ranch dressing. But it has a lighter, brighter flavor, with mild white-meat chicken in place of spicy seasoned beef, plus juicy cucumber and tomato, and just a hint of shredded Monterey Jack cheese that virtually dissolves into the dressing, lending its tangy richness without overpowering.
In a chopped salad, all the ingredients are cut into pieces of approximately the same size, and everything is tossed together in casual disarray. Chopped salads may not be as pretty as composed salads, but they’re easy to eat – no knife necessary – and I like the way every single bit is lightly and evenly coated with dressing. Honestly, whenever I sit down in front of a composed salad, the second thing I do – after admiring its beauty – is to hack everything up into bite-sized pieces and toss it, basically turning it into a chopped salad.
Delicate ingredients, such as cubes of soft avocado, get scattered on top of the salad after it’s been dressed and tossed, so they don’t fall apart.
Avocados are delicious but I completely agree with all those memes and jokes about how frustrating it is waiting for them to ripen (like the one about the seven stages of ripening, where six of the stages are “not ripe” and the seventh is “rotten”). I usually buy two, in different stages of ripeness if I can find them, and hope that one of them will be OK when it comes time to use it. I caught this one just in time for this salad.
I know they sell little strips of tortilla chips as a salad topper on the crouton shelf in the produce aisle, and you can use those if you like. I prefer the heftier crunch of real tortilla chips, which are also less expensive and more versatile – crumble up a few for the salad, and then you have the rest of the bag to snack on or use for other meals. Put them on top so they stay crisp, or stir them in so they absorb some of the dressing.
For the dressing, see if you can find the Better Than Bouillon Chili Base. It’s a little bit elusive but it makes the best dressing. If you can’t find it, substitute Heinz Chili Sauce, and eliminate the buttermilk to compensate. You may need to add a little bit more salt and Tabasco, too – taste and adjust to your liking. And by the way, don’t overlook the other possibilities for using this dressing. It’s great on any salad with a Tex-Mex flavor profile, and also as a dressing for pasta salad, mixed half and half with mayonnaise.
This is the third in my occasional series of Main Dish Salads. Here are the others:
- #1: Baby Greens with Chicken and Goat Cheese
- #2: Not Quite Nicoise
- #4: Spinach Salad with Bacon, Egg, and Maple Vinaigrette
- For more salad-building ideas, see my Salad Matrix.
Making this ahead and what to do with leftovers:
- The dressing will keep for 2 weeks in the fridge; it may separate a bit if you let it sit for more than a few days in which case just give it a stir.
- Don’t make the salad ahead or keep leftovers; it should be assembled and dressed just before serving.
Chili Chicken Chopped Salad
Ingredients
- 1½ cups chopped hearts of romaine lettuce
- 3 ounces chopped cooked chicken breast
- 1 ounce shredded Monterey Jack cheese
- ½ cup cubed seeded hothouse cucumber
- ½ cup chopped seeded tomato or halved grape tomatoes
- ½ an avocado, cubed
- 2 tablespoons Chili Ranch Dressing (recipe below), or to taste
- Tortilla chips or tortilla-strip salad toppers, for garnish
Directions
- Step 1 Combine the lettuce, chicken, cheese, cucumber and tomato in a large bowl. Add the dressing and toss the salad until the dressing is evenly distributed over all the ingredients.
- Step 2 Transfer the salad to a wide shallow salad bowl or a plate. Scatter the avocado cubes over the salad.
- Step 3 Break the tortilla chips into large pieces and scatter them over the salad.
Chili Ranch Dressing
Ingredients
- ½ cup mayonnaise
- ¼ cup sour cream
- 1 teaspoon Better Than Bouillon chili base or 3 tablespoons Heinz Chili Sauce
- 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
- ¼ teaspoon Diamond Crystal kosher salt (or a large pinch of Morton’s), or to taste
- ¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- ¼ teaspoon garlic powder
- Hot sauce (such as Tabasco), to taste
- 2 tablespoons buttermilk, optional
Directions
- Step 1 Combine the mayonnaise, sour cream and chili base or chili sauce in a medium bowl and stir until smooth. Add the vinegar, salt, pepper, garlic powder, and a couple of shakes of Tabasco, and stir until everything is well combined. Add 2 tablespoons of buttermilk if you used the bouillon base, but omit it if you used the chili sauce.
- Step 2 Taste the dressing and adjust the salt and/or Tabasco as needed.
