This Buffalo Ranch Chicken Salad is creamy, flavorful, and easy to make thanks to a few simple ingredients. Perfect for lunches and dinners throughout the week!
Easy Buffalo Ranch Chicken Salad
This hard working recipe is the answer to what’s for lunch and dinner this week! Use butter lettuce to make it into a wrap for a light lunch or serve this creamy salad on a bun for a heartier dinner. No matter how you serve it, those classic ranch and buffalo flavors will have you coming back for seconds.
Looking for More Recipes Like This?
Then check out our easy buffalo chicken tacos or our buffalo chicken burgers. Both are full of flavor and are simple to whip together.
What You Will Need
- boneless, skinless chicken breasts – Learn how to shred chicken breast using your instant pot or we love using up leftover rotisserie chicken in this easy recipe.
- mayo & plain Greek yogurt – Adds the right amount of creaminess and tang.
- ranch dressing mix – We used Simply Organic ranch dressing mix, but feel free to use your favorite variety.
- Frank’s Buffalo Sauce – Feel free to sub with red hot sauce instead.
- yellow mustard – Just a bit to add a punch of flavor.
- celery, red onion & green onions – fresh veggies to give every bite a nice crunch.
- apple cider vinegar & lemon juice – Add just the right amount of acid.
- kosher salt & ground black pepper – Helps to bring out the best flavors in every ingredient.
- blue cheese crumbles or chopped carrots – These are optional add-ins and help amp up the crunch level and flavor.
- cucumber slices for dipping, butter lettuce, and/or bread – We love a hearty veggie for dipping, lettuce to make wraps, and bread to turn this into a sandwich.
How To Make Buffalo Ranch Chicken Salad
Start by cooking up your chicken. There are lot’s of ways to do this, but we brought a large pot of water to a boil and then added our chicken breasts and let them simmer for 15 minutes. Use an internal meat thermometer to check that they reach 165 degrees before removing them from the pot. While your chicken cooks, prep the rest of your ingredients. When the chicken breasts are done cooking, remove them from the pot and shred them using two forks.
How To Quickly Shred Chicken
You can go the trusty fork route, but we love using our stand mixer to quick shred our chicken without breaking a sweat. Simply place a few cooked chicken breasts into the bowl of your stand mixer and use the paddle attachment on low to break apart the chicken breasts. Do this in batches to ensure your chicken has space to break apart. You could also use a hand mixer if that’s more convenient.
Next, simply dump the shredded chicken, mayo, plain greek yogurt, ranch dressing mix, buffalo sauce, yellow mustard, celery, red onion, green onion, apple cider vinegar, lemon juice, kosher salt and ground black pepper to a large bowl and stir to combine.
Blue Cheese Please!
We know that blue cheese isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but if it is, the flavors in this recipe compliment it beautifully! Sprinkle some on top along with some freshly chopped carrots for added crunch and flavor.
How To Serve Chicken Salad
Get three different meals from this one simple recipe! For an easy appetizer, serve this chicken salad with some cucumber slices and celery for dipping. To turn it into a light lunch, make some lettuce wraps with butter lettuce. Lastly, serve this yummy chicken salad on a bun to make it into a buffalo ranch chicken salad sandwich.
Recipe FAQs and Tips
- chicken breasts: Cook up some cast iron chicken thighs for this recipe if you prefer dark meat. Or leftover rotisserie chicken would work well in place of cooking your own chicken.
- mayo: Don’t love mayo? Sub it with extra Greek yogurt and just adjust the salt as needed.
- storage: Store leftovers in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 3-4 days.
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Other Chicken Salad Recipes You Might Like
- Healthy Chicken Salad
- Greek Yogurt Chicken Salad Sandwich
- Smoked Chicken Salad
- Crispy Buffalo Chicken Salad
- Chopped Rotisserie Chicken Salad
Buffalo Ranch Chicken Salad
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 15 minutes
- Total Time: 25 minutes
- Yield: 12 servings 1x
- Category: Salad
- Method: Stove Top
- Cuisine: American
Description
A delicious and easy Buffalo Ranch Chicken Salad recipe that is perfect for meal prep, a lettuce wrap or on a sandwich!
Ingredients
- 36oz boneless, skinless chicken breasts (approx. 4 medium chicken breasts)*
- 1/2 cup mayo
- 1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt
- 2–4 tablespoons Simply Organic ranch dressing mix**
- 1/4 cup Frank’s Buffalo Sauce or Red Hot Sauce, more if desired
- 1 teaspoon yellow mustard
- 3 celery stalks, sliced
- 1/4 cup red onion, diced
- 2–4 green onions, sliced
- 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
- 2 teaspoons lemon juice
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
- (optional add-ins) blue cheese crumbles or chopped carrots
- for serving: cucumber slices for dipping, butter lettuce to make lettuce wraps or bread to serve as a sandwich
Instructions
- Cook Chicken: bring a large pot of water to boil, add chicken breasts and let simmer for approx. 15 minutes or until the internal temperature reaches 165 degrees F. in the center. (while the chicken cooks you can prep the rest of the ingredients). Remove from pot and shred with two forks.
- Combine Ingredients: Add shredded chicken, mayo, plain greek yogurt, ranch dressing mix, buffalo sauce, yellow mustard, celery, red onion, green onion, apple cider vinegar, lemon juice, kosher salt and ground black pepper to a large bowl. Stir to combine. Add in blue cheese crumbles, if desired, or save for topping when you serve.
- Taste and Adjust: Taste add more buffalo sauce, salt or pepper – as desired.
- Serve: serve as-is for an easy meal-prep lunch, in a lettuce wrap or even on a sandwich!
Notes
- *Chicken Breasts: feel free to use rotisserie chicken instead here if that is easier or if you happen to have leftover chicken in the fridge. You can also sub for chicken thighs, if that is what you prefer.
- **Ranch Mix: we tested this with Simply Organic ranch dressing mix, but feel free to mix it up and choose a different brand if you prefer.
- Mayo: you could probably swap the mayo for more plain greek yogurt if you want, but you will need to adjust the salt to account for it.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 4 oz
- Calories: 116
- Sugar: 1.2 g
- Sodium: 341.3 mg
- Fat: 9.7 g
- Carbohydrates: 2 g
- Protein: 5.1 g
- Cholesterol: 18.2 mg
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