Chicken Fajita Salad

With perfectly seasoned chicken, peppers and onions, this Fajita Salad makes the perfect hearty and healthy dinner (or lunch)! Serve it with your favorite fajita fixin’s, and dress it up with the spiced citrus dressing to make for the best Chicken Fajita Salad ever. It’s also easily made Paleo and Whole30 friendly, too.

Chicken Fajita Salads

Give me all the hearty salads, because they make the best healthy dinners! Even without tortillas or rice, this Fajita Salad just may rival the real thing. It has bold flavor, thanks to marinated and seared chicken breasts. And when it’s combined with all the salad fixin’s, it’s out-of-this-world.

I also love how customizable this salad is. You have the freedom to add in what you love to serve with your fajitas! Feel free to get creative with it! And this is easily made Paleo, Keto, and Whole30 friendly for whatever your dietary needs are!

Fajita Salad Ingredients

• Skinless + Boneless Chicken Breasts (feel free to swap in chicken thighs, if you want)
• Bell Peppers
• Onions + Garlic
• Orange + Lime Juice
• Olive Oil
• Spices
• Lettuce (we like to use a crunch blend here!)
• Avocado
• Cherry Tomatoes
• Cilantro
• Black Beans

Substitutions

Chicken: Want to omit this all together? Go for it! You can add in more veggies if you want, and marinate those in place of the chicken. You can interchangeably use chicken breasts or chicken thighs.

Black Beans: Omit these all together to make compliant for Paleo and Whol30 diets.

Additional Options: Feel free to get creative with this salad! You can sub in extra veggies or other another protein, based on what you have on hand!

Cilantro: We know some have strong feelings on cilantro. Feel free to omit it all together if that’s you!

Steps to Make a Chicken Fajita Salad

There are three main steps to making this fajita salad:

1. Make the dressing and divide it up. Half of it is to be used as a quick marinade for the chicken. The other half is to be used for the dressing. Obviously, just make sure to never touch the raw chicken to the part that is to be used for the dressing to avoid contamination.
2. Cook the chicken breasts and fajita veggies! This can be done on a grill pan, or simply on a saute pan.
3. Assemble the salad

Make it for Meal Prep

This salad is great to make for meal prep, with a few modifications. While the chicken fajita mix can be eaten cold if you want, this salad is best served with warm chicken and veggies. So the best way to meal prep this salad is to have a separate container for the salad components and another for the veggies and meat, that way the meat can be heated up on its own. And of course, with most salads, you’ll want to keep dressing separate and add right before serving. Just be careful about what salad components you choose. Obviously, something like sliced avocado will not keep well, so omit that if intending to make this for meal prep.

Keeping all of this in mind, this salad will keep well for 3-5 in the refrigerator.

Watch the video here:

If you like this salad recipe, check out these others:

• Cheeseburger Salad with Mustard Dressing
• Southwest Tuna Salad
• Greek Lentil Salad
• Spicy Shrimp and Citrus Salad
• Chopped Antipasto Salad with Chicken

Chicken Fajita Salads

5 from 2 votes

With perfectly seasoned chicken, peppers and onions, this Fajita Salad makes the perfect hearty and healthy dinner (or lunch)! Serve it with your favorite fajita fixin's, and dress it up with the spiced citrus dressing to make for the best Chicken Fajita Salad ever. It's also easily made Paleo and Whole30 friendly, too.

Prep Time 15 minutes minutes

Cook Time 15 minutes minutes

Total Time 45 minutes minutes

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Ingredients

  

• 1 ⁄4 cup orange juice
• ¼ cup lime juice
• ¼ cup olive oil
• 2 garlic cloves minced
• 1 teaspoon fine sea salt
• 1/2 teaspoon chili powder
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
• ½ teaspoon paprika
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
• ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
• Pinch cayenne pepper
• 1 lb. boneless skinless chicken breasts or thighs pounded to an even thickness
• 2 bell peppers cored and sliced
• 1 large yellow onion slice
• 4 cups lettuce of choice we recommend a lettuce blend!
• 2 ripe avocado sliced
• 1 pint cherry tomatoes halved
• 1 cup cooked or rinsed canned black beans (optional)
• ½ cup picked cilantro leaves optional

Instructions

• Whisk together orange juice, lime juice, olive oil, garlic, salt, chili powder, cumin, paprika, oregano, black pepper and cayenne pepper in a large bowl. Taste and adjust seasoning. Pour half of the dressing into a small container, and set aside for serving with the salad dressing.
• Add chicken to the large bowl of dressing and set aside to marinate, for at least 15 minutes or up to overnight.
• Heat a grill pan or large skillet over medium-high heat. Once hot, add chicken. Cook until chicken has reached an internal temperature of 165ºF, about 5-7 minutes per side. Remove chicken and loosely cover with foil to keep warm.
• Add peppers and onion to the skillet and cook, stirring occasionally, until beginning to soften, about 5-7 minutes. Shut off heat, and let cool slightly.
• Slice up chicken.
• Assemble the salads: Divide lettuce, avocado, tomatoes, black beans (if using), cilantro leaves (if using) in a bowl. Divide the chicken and pepper mixture on top, then drizzle over 1-2 tablespoons of the reserved dressing. Serve immediately.

Notes

To make for meal prep: Store salad components in a separate container from the veggies and meat, that way the meat can be heated up on its own. And of course keep dressing separate and add right before serving.

Salad will keep well for 3-5 in the refrigerator, depend on what you top it with. Omit sliced avocado for meal prep salad.

This recipe was originally published in 2014, but updated with a new recipe in 2020.

Nutrition

Serving: 1/4 recipeCalories: 321kcalCarbohydrates: 19gProtein: 31gFat: 15gSaturated Fat: 2gCholesterol: 65mgSodium: 600mgFiber: 8gSugar: 7g

Keyword: Chicken Fajita Salad

Course: Dinner

Author: Lexi's Clean Kitchen

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