Description
Southwest Salad (Santa Fe Salad) – a delicious Santa Fe Salad recipe packed with flavor! Black beans, crushed corn chips, bell peppers and more!
Ingredients
Scale
Chicken:
- 1 boneless, skinless chicken breast
- 1 batch chipotle seasoning*
Salad:
- 4 cups romaine or mixed greens
- 1 cup black beans, drained and rinsed
- 1/4 cup green onion, sliced
- 1/2 cup corn (canned or grilled)
- 1 red bell pepper, diced
- 1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
- 1/2 cup cotija cheese, crumbled
- 1/4 cup black olives, sliced
- 1/2 cup corn chips, crushed
- (optional) 2-4 jalapeno sliced
- toppings: guacamole, pico de gallo/salsa and sour cream
- Dressing: creamy southwest dressing or southwest vinaigrette
Instructions
Chicken:
- Combine chipotle seasoning in small bowl; stir to combine (Note: if you don’t want to use chipotle seasoning feel free to use any seasoning you want or you can just use kosher salt and ground black pepper).
- Place chicken breasts on plate and pat dry.
- Sprinkle all over with chipotle seasoning and rub all over.
- Drizzle with olive oil and fully coat.
- Heat grill to medium heat (approximately 400 degrees).
- Place chicken on direct heat (direct flame) and cook at medium heat for 4-5 minutes per side.
- Move chicken away from the direct heat (direct flame) so that it is cooking on indirect heat (maintaining the same grill temp) and cook for an additional 7-10 minutes (you don’t need to flip during this point because the chicken will cook as if it is in an oven) or until the internal temperature of the thickest part of the chicken reads 160 on your meat thermometer.
- Remove from grill and let rest at least 5 minutes (the chicken will continue to cook during this time and the internal temp will continue to rise up to 10 additional degrees). Chicken is safe to eat when it reaches an internal temp of 165 degrees (at thickest part of the breast).
- Slice or cube the chicken.
Salad:
- Divided ingredients between two bowls.
- Use the toppings of your choice
- Top with your choice of Creamy Southwest Dressing or Southwest Vinaigrette.
Notes
- *Chipotle Seasoning: feel free to skip the chipotle seasoning and just use salt and pepper or any other seasoning you wish. You could also use our favorite chicken marinade instead too!
- Corn: for the corn you can easily use canned corn (drain) or you can grill some corn and cut it off the cob to be used!
- Dairy-Free: to make this dairy-free use the Southwest Vinaigrette and then skip the cotija cheese and use a dairy-free option!
- Cheese: you can also use a simple shredded colby here or whatever you want, really.
- Vegetarian: this makes an amazing vegetarian salad if you (of course) omit the chicken!