Summer Grilled Chicken Power Salad with sweet blueberries, crumbled bacon and a lemon vinaigrette is the salad of summer!
I’ve been on a seasonal power salad kick for the past couple of years! and after binge eating this salad below, it’s official that it’s this seasons honorary power salad. Summer Grilled Chicken Power Salad here we come.
Where do we even start? Bacon. Duh. This salad is many things but most importantly it’s LOADED with flavor. That all starts with some crisped bacon. If you’re not feeling the bacon, just omit that step and use some olive oil to cook the chicken. However if you’re digging the bacon, you not only use the crispy bacon IN the salad, you use a little bit of the rendered fat to cook the herb crusted chicken. Talk about something being loaded with flavor.
Once those 2 proteins are taking care of, you can get into all the farmers market veggies. The bed of this salad is some gorgeous baby romaine lettuce I snagged from my farmers market, topped with raw corn (you guys know how I roll), plenty of blueberries, goat cheese and avocado. Done and done.
Everything gets tossed with a lemon champagne vinaigrette and you’ve pretty much sealed the deal.
Summer Grilled Chicken Power Salad
Ingredients
For the Salad
- 4 slices thick cut bacon
- 1 pint blueberries
- ¼ cup crumbled goat or feta cheese
- 1 handful small basil leaves
- 4 cups farmers market lettuce
- 2 corn on the cob kernels removed
- 1-2 avocados
For the Chicken
- 1/2 pound boneless skinless chicken breasts
- Kosher salt and freshly cracked black pepper
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary
- 1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme
- 1 tablespoons dried oregano
For the Lemon Champagne vinaigrette
- 2 garlic cloves finely chopped
- 1 tablespoon Dijon Mustard
- 1/4 cup champagne vinegar
- 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
Instructions
- Heat a large cast iron skillet over medium heat and add the bacon. Cook until crispy and the fat is rendered. Remove the bacon and transfer it on a paper towel lined plate. Drain off most of the bacon grease, leaving just about 2 teaspoons.
- Season the chicken with salt and pepper and coat with the fresh and dried herbs. In the same skillet, over medium-high heat, add the chicken to bacon grease and cook until golden and crisp on both sides, about 5 to 6 minutes per side. Remove the chicken and let rest. Slice into pieces when ready to serve.
- In a large bowl, assemble the salad. Start with the bed of lettuce, add the chicken, blueberries, cheese, basil leaves, torn up bacon, avocado and corn. Drizzle with the vinaigrette. Serve immediately.
For the vinaigrette
- Combine all the ingredients and whisk together. Taste and adjust salt and pepper as needed.
Notes
Nutrition Information
Photo by Matt Armendariz / Food Styling by Adam Pearson / Recipe by What’s Gaby Cooking
Its every awesome summer thing in one bowl- YUM!!!
Love power salads, easy fill up and super healthy!!
That vinaigrette sounds fantastic!
Bonjour Gaby!
What a beautiful salad! This definitely speaks to me! Easy, healthy, fresh and tasty! What more could you ask for?
Have been following you for quite sometime now… my first time with a comment. Always happy to look at the new recipe, idea in my in-box!
Hello from Canada! Merci Gaby!
Take care, Marie xx
Thanks Marie!! xoox
wait wait, did you just say to skip bacon if you aren’t feeling it?? Um, who does that? Kidding. But no really. GIMME da bacon and the salad IN ONE!
You had me at champagne vinaigrette and bacon! I need to try this!
Love all things salad. Perfect for these warm summer evenings.
How many does this serve? Looks delish! I’m going to serve it for guests this week.
4-6!
The recipe states 2 servings. Please tell me is it 2 or 4-6?
2!! does it say 4-6 somewhere that I’m missing?
YUM! This looks and appearance great!!I like this Chicken Salad, I can’t wait to try this recipe, thank you!
Made this twice this week and impressed company who really enjoyed it and asked for your website!
Thanks for sharing
How long does the vinigarette last if stored in the fridge?!?
5-6 days!!
I can’t find champagne vinegar at my local stores. Is there another vinegar you would recommend instead?
red wine vinegar!
When using corn in a salad , is it cooked and cooled or used fresh off the stock ?
fresh off the stock!
Ok. This was seriously unreal delicious. I added salted sunflower seeds for some nice crunch. My husband said this may be the best salad I’ve ever made! Thank you Gaby!
made my day!
I absolutely love this salad………
I love all your salads, entrees, desserts!!
I’m obsessed with your cookbook and have made many wonderful things from it!
Thanks Gaby!!
This was amazing. We ate it so fast I forgot to take a picture!!
Holy smokes! Made this last night for dinner! I forgot to get bacon but nonetheless, it was fantastic. I can’t wait to try it next time with the bacon! So so so good.
Dressing is so yummy!
Blueberries make everything perfect!!
This is, without doubt, my new favorite salad. My son made it for me while visiting him back East. His wife and I agreed we’d like it again very soon. He made it four days later. I just returned from Safeway, who, by the way, refuses to require facial coverings of its customers, and am making it for the THIRD time in ONE week! Absolutely LOVE!❤️
This is an absolutely wonderful salad! It’s a meal in itself. The ingredients mesh well and the dressing is tangy and fabulous.
This salad is so incredibly delicious!!
Thank you for all your wonderful recipes!!
My husband says this is the best salad I have ever made.
Tasty salad.
It was great except it. Even though the recipe says for 2, it made enough for 3 servings.
Made it twice this week and everyone loved it!
LOVE this salad….I’ve renamed it “Everything we love”
This was delicious! It was my second time making it and my husband said, you can make this anytime! We aren’t excited about fruit in our salad so didn’t add the blueberries. The dressing is so flavorful!
This looks so good. I absolutely love the idea of using bacon with feta on this. Thank you!
This is one of my all time favorite salads!!!! I’ve invited my girlfriends over this week and this salad is going to be the main course!!! Thank you for always coming up with such great recipes Gaby!!!
What a fabulous fusion of flavors!!
This one is a total winner! I avoid making the same recipe too often usually, but I’ve been making this every week lately. It’s filling but still light, and it is so delicious. The dressing is **chef’s kiss**.
Best salad I’ve ever made, hands down. Even my husband who isn’t a big salad lover was raving.
Absolutely delicious, 100% 10/10 perfect, I have a feeling I’ll be eating this a lot