Quick Look at this
Buffalo Chicken Salad
- Ready In: 25 mintues
- Serves: 8
- Protein: 29 grams per serving
- Main Ingredients: Shredded chicken, mayo, plain Greek yogurt, buffalo sauce, Ranch dressing mix, and seasonings.
- Dietary Info: dairy-free friendly.
- Love 🔥 heat? You’ll Love This! If you’ve tried our chicken salad recipe but want to dial up the heat, this is the recipe for you! We love a quick and flavor packed recipe and this buffalo ranch chicken salad is exactly that! Serve it as-is, on a croissant, or in a lettuce wrap and you’ve got yourself a delicious and nutritious lunch or dinner.
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Why You’ll Always Want To Meal Prep
This Buffalo Ranch Chicken Salad
- Flavors: The bold buffalo and ranch flavors only get better with time! I love to make this one on Sunday and eat it for lunch throughout the week.
- Versatile: Keep things fresh by serving this easy chicken salad by itself, with some fresh veggies, as a buffalo ranch chicken salad sandwich, or in a lettuce wrap!
- Clean Out The Fridge: Have leftover chicken and veggies in the fridge that need to be used up? This recipe is the perfect way to combine all of those leftovers into the best chicken salad.
Key Ingredients & Substitutions
Be sure to see the recipe card below for a full listing of ingredients, instructions, and estimated nutritional information.
- Chicken: This is great recipe to use up chicken leftovers or to simply grab a rotisserie chicken. But if you’re working from scratch, we found that chicken breasts are the best in this recipe. Learn how to shred chicken breast using your instant pot!
- Ranch Dressing Seasoning: Yup, we’re talking about the classic stuff from the packet. The seasonings folds right into the creamy base and spreads those tangy flavors throughout.
- Greek Yogurt: This provides part of the creamy base and some tang, but swap with plain dairy-free yogurt to make this dairy-free.
- Buffalo Sauce: Our homemade buffalo sauce uses only 7 ingredients and yields the freshest tasting buffalo sauce. Store bought works great too – Primal Kitchen Buffalo sauce is our favorite.
How To Make Buffalo Ranch Chicken Salad
Step 1 – Add chicken breasts to boiling water and let cook for about 15 minutes or until internal temp reaches 165 degrees F.
Step 2 – Remove chicken from water and shred.
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.
Step 3 – Combine and mix all buffalo ranch chicken salad ingredients in a large bowl.
Step 4 – Combine until the chicken salad yields a consistent color and texture.
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 celery and green onion for added crunch and flavor.
Step 5 – Top with sliced green onions, optional blue cheese, and dig in!
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. For a light lunch throw some of this chicken salad into butter lettuce leaves and dive in! Lastly, serve this yummy chicken salad on a bun to make it into a buffalo ranch chicken salad sandwich.
What We Learned Testing this Recipe
- Flexible for Meal Prep: After making this Buffalo ranch chicken salad recipe a couple of times, we realized how amazing it was to meal prep for the week! That amazing bold flavor plus the fact that it can be served a variety of ways helps to keep meals feeling fresh.
- Sauce: It’s true that the secret to a great recipe is a great sauce. Which is why we highly recommend using our homemade buffalo sauce. Making your own allows you to experiment with your preferred heat levels!
Buffalo Ranch Chicken Salad FAQs & Tips
The “dressing” is really the creamy base that’s made of plain Greek yogurt, mayonnaise, ranch seasoning, buffalo sauce, and other seasonings.
Use the buffalo ranch chicken salad that you just made and serve it between two sliced of bread or a croissant and add butter lettuce, another drizzle of buffalo sauce, and cheese of your choice.
Did you make this recipe and love it?! We would love it if you would take a minute and leave a star rating and review – it is also helpful if you made any substitutions or changes to the recipe to share that as well. THANK YOU!
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Ingredients
- 36 oz 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 36 oz boneless, skinless 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, 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, 1 teaspoon yellow mustard, celery, red onion, green onion, 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar, 2 teaspoons lemon juice, 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt and 1/4 teaspoon 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.
- Storage: Store in an air-tight container in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.
Liz Sipley says
Made this for my heat loving husband and he’s obsessed. THANK YOU!