Simple and Healthy Southwest Chicken Salad

You need only 3 ingredients for this healthy southwest chicken salad recipe! It tastes good as-is, or you can try suggested additions to make it even better. Make it to suit your preferences; you can also offer toppings separately so each person can customize their own. Keep this recipe handy for the next time you need a quick meal at the last minute!

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This is a simple recipe. You barely need a recipe, in fact. It’s so simple that you can make it many different ways; I’ll give you lots of ideas!

Plus, you can pull this southwest chicken salad off last-minute if you have the ingredients. There are only 3 ingredients, so you might be able to do that fairly often. In moments of mealtime emergency, when plans change or events make getting a meal together challenging, this “recipe” is your friend.

This can be a simple chicken salad, or you can dress it up. You can easily make it work for different special diets. You can also make it so that each person customizes their own. Everybody leaves the table full and happy!

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Why You Need This Southwest Chicken Salad Recipe

Somewhere between a recipe and a technique, you will soon figure out how you like to make this. If you eat chicken, salsa, and something creamy, yo can adapt this easy chicken dish. Here are some reasons you will love it:

• use up leftover chicken– plain, boring chicken is interesting again!
• no leftovers? Canned chicken, a rotisserie chicken, or even a few chicken breasts poached on the stove will work just as well.
• leftover turkey works too!
• it takes only a few minutes to stir together for a quick lunch or emergency dinner
• easy to adapt to special diets
• use what you like– or let people add their favorites so everyone is happy
• packable for a lunch box or picnic
• use what you have– this is a flexible recipe!
• kids can help, or even make it themselves!
• cool but hearty summer meal

How to Use This Southwest Chicken Salad Recipe

The adaptations are endless, but here are a few. Think of the recipe as a template; make the basic salad first. (I will give suggestions for things to add in a bit.)

Chicken

Here is my falling-apart chicken cooling enough to use– not looking yummy yet!

I most often use plain chicken left over after making chicken stock, either in the slow cooker or instant pot or on the stove. (You may want to salt the chicken a bit so the flavors shine.) However, there are other possibilities:

• a rotisserie chicken, pulled apart
• an oven-roasted chicken— it can be efficient to roast 2 chickens just for the leftovers!
• use up turkey leftovers
• canned chicken
• if you stick containers of cooked, shredded chicken in the freezer, you have the beginning of a fast meal! Thaw quickly in warm water if you’re in a hurry.
• you can poach chicken quickly on the stove if you don’t have any cooked chicken handy– set chicken breasts in a bit of water in a pan and simmer until it is done and you can shred it. You can season it, but you don’t need to. Depending on the size of your chicken pieces, it will take 10-20 minutes. Take the chicken out of the water, pull the meat apart with 2 forks, and cool it before making the salad.

Now it is fairly cool and all pulled apart– about 6 cups.

Salsa

Any salsa you like will work! Use what you have. I usually use a jarred organic salsa from the store. Mild is fine, but I like medium in this recipe. It gets diluted quite a bit with the other ingredients, so factor that into your choice. Other ideas:

• fresh salsa– this is a good way to use up pico de gallo, or you can make it fresh. Ideal during the harvest season if you have a garden!
• fermented salsa— it might sound a little weird, but it doesn’t taste “off” and provides all the benefits of fermentation, IF you made some a few days (or more) ago.
• green salsa– it looks totally different, but works the same and is also delicious!
• any sort of less-standard salsa that sounds good– corn and bean, peach, pineapple, etc.

Sour Cream

I like the tang of home-cultured GAPS sour cream, not to mention the health benefits. However, the recipe works well with:

• purchased sour cream (check the label for gums and fillers!)
• non-dairy sour cream
• mayonnaise– mayo tastes really different from sour cream, but you can use it and it will taste good, just different. I like to make mayonnaise using this recipe— it takes just a couple of minutes and is free of unwanted ingredients!
• Greek yogurt (or other yogurt)

I scooped about 1/2 cup each sour cream and salsa out– you don’t really need to measure accurately!

Stir it all together– I’m not kidding when I say this is easy!

What can I add?

Anything you like! This can be a good recipe for using leftover bits of things, and it is also good served plain. You can stir goodies into the salad, or add them on top. (I like to let everyone add their own since we don’t all prefer the same things.) Here are some dress-ups I have added. You can think of others:

• shredded cheese– any type you want
• tortilla chips– served alongside or crumbled up on top (not for GAPS)
• sliced olives
• chopped celery or other veggie
• chopped avocado or gucamole
• chopped onion– green onion, regular onion, pickled onion, etc.
• fermented, fresh, or jarred chilies– fermented jalapeños are my favorite!
• black beans (or other beans)
• cooked corn
• chopped cilantro
• chopped tomatoes

How to Serve Southwest Chicken Salad

You can just scoop it out, put it on a plate or bowl, and have it that way, perhaps with some salad, fruit, or other sides. Or do something more interesting, like:

• serve over a bed of lettuce (OK, that’s not super interesting…), maybe with toppings and dressing. Ranch is good, and you can dollop more salsa or even taco sauce over it.
• offer tortilla chips to scoop up bites of the salad
• serve on bread, like a chicken salad sandwich
• scoop onto rice or cauliflower rice; maybe add extra salsa or dressing of some sort
• pack in a container for a meal on the go– make sure to provide a way to keep it cool!

This time, I served the chicken salad on plates with green salad and roasted potatoes! Everyone added their own toppings– here, cilantro, olives, pickled onions, and cheddar.