This Healthy Buffalo Chicken Salad is an easy veggie-packed lunch – it's topped with a homemade ranch dressing that's low in calories!
Ingredients and substitutions
- Olive oil – or another neutral cooking oil like canola oil or avocado oil.
- Boneless skinless chicken breasts – you can also use boneless skinless chicken thighs but it will increase the calorie count.
- Buffalo wing sauce – use your favourite store-bought brand or make your own using hot sauce, butter, honey, garlic powder and paprika.
- Romaine lettuce – substitute for another leafy green like bibb lettuce.
- Red onion – white or yellow onion would also work here but will have a milder flavor.
- Cucumber – substitute for another veggie of your choice.
- Celery – swap out for any other veggie of your choice.
- Carrot matchsticks – grated carrot would also work or you can swap this out for another vegetable.
- Frozen corn – fresh corn or canned corn can also be used or you can leave this out entirely.
- Feta cheese – use blue cheese crumbles or any other kind of cheese you like.
- Avocado – leave this out altogether if you don’t like avocado.
Lighter ranch dressing
- Sour cream – try using a bit of non-fat Greek yogurt instead. Mayo would also work but will taste different.
- Lemon juice – freshly squeezed lemon juice is best but the bottled variety will work in a pinch.
- Dill – tarragon has a similar flavour to dill but you won’t get that authentic ranch flavour.
- Garlic – use freshly minced garlic or jarred minced garlic.
- Salt & pepper – to taste.
How to make buffalo chicken salad
Step 1: Make the dressing.
Mix together the sour cream, water, lemon juice, dill and garlic to make the dressing.
Step 2: Season the chicken.
Cut the chicken breasts in half lengthwise then season generously on both sides with salt and pepper.
Step 3: Sauté until fully cooked.
Sauté the chicken in a skillet over medium-high heat until fully cooked through.
Step 4: Slice up the chicken.
Remove the chicken from the heat and let it rest before slicing it up.
Step 5: Toss in the sauce.
Toss the chicken in the buffalo sauce. Prep any veggies and toppings.
Step 6: Assemble your salad and serve.
Top the salad with chicken and drizzle with dressing. Serve and enjoy or store for later!
Variations of this buffalo chicken salad
You can customize this buffalo chicken salad to your liking! Here are some different variation options:
- Vegetables: Add on different veggies like tomatoes, bell peppers, green onions, celery and more.
- Greens: Instead of romaine lettuce, you can use baby spinach, spring greens or iceberg lettuce.
- Cheese: If you're not a fan of blue cheese, use feta, cheddar or any other cheese of your choice.
- Dressing: I like making a homemade ranch dressing, but blue cheese dressing would also be good.
- Leftover chicken: Slice up leftover cooked chicken or rotisserie chicken and toss it in the sauce for easy prep.
- Lettuce wraps: Instead of making it into a salad, add all the ingredients to romaine or Boston leaf lettuce cups.
You could also use the buffalo chicken to make loaded buffalo chicken fries, buffalo chicken wraps or buffalo chicken burrito bowls.
Frequently Asked Questions
When you make this healthy buffalo chicken salad, the chicken will be hot. However, if you're meal prepping it for later, it can be eaten cold. If you prefer to eat it hot, store it separately and warm it up in the microwave for 1-2 minutes.
I like using Frank's Red Hot buffalo sauce to make the buffalo chicken, but you can use any buffalo sauce of your choice.
Buffalo chicken definitely has a bit of kick to it, but the spice level can vary based on the type of wing sauce you use. If you don’t like too much spice, try and pick a milder flavoured buffalo sauce or use some melted butter to cut the spice (although it will increase the calorie count of this buffalo chicken salad recipe).
Yes! If you want to cut down on prep time, you can use leftover cooked chicken or rotisserie chicken. Just toss it in the sauce then add it to your salad.
Storing this salad
This buffalo chicken salad recipe will stay good in the fridge for 3 to 4 days, with the dressing stored separately. If you prefer to have your chicken warmed up, store it on its own. Sprinkle some water over top so it doesn’t dry out then microwave for 1-2 minutes. Add to the rest of your salad ingredients, drizzle on some of the ranch dressing and voila.
Meal prepping this recipe
One of my favourite ways to meal prep salads is using mason jars. All you have to do is layer your ingredients into the mason jars and stick them in the fridge until you’re ready to eat!
When it comes to mason jar salads, layering is critical to making sure all the ingredients stay fresh. If you want to meal prep this buffalo chicken salad recipe, here’s the order to layer the ingredients in the mason jars:
- Lighter ranch dressing
- Buffalo chicken
- Cheese
- Veggies including carrots, cucumber, celery, red onion, avocado and corn
- Lettuce
You can also store the dressing separately. When you’re ready to enjoy, just shake up the mason jar, dump everything onto a plate and dig in!
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More buffalo chicken recipes
Meal Prep Tools
- Get a meat thermometer to make sure your chicken is cooked through.
- Pack these salads in larger 32oz mason jars for meal prep!
- I like this salad dressing shaker to make homemade dressings easier.
- These colourful mason jar lids are so fun and perfect if you lose your lids.
- **Get my full list of tools here**
Healthy Buffalo Chicken Salad
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 lb chicken breasts
- 1/2 cup buffalo wing sauce such as Frank's buffalo sauce
- 1 head romaine lettuce washed, dried and chopped
- 1 red onion thinly sliced
- 1/2 cucumber chopped
- 2 stalks celery chopped
- 1 cup carrot matchsticks or 1 grated carrot
- 1 cup frozen corn defrosted
- 1 cup feta or blue cheese crumbled
- 1 avocado sliced
Lighter ranch dressing
- 1/3 cup sour cream
- 1 tbsp water
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 1 tsp dried or fresh dill
- 1 clove minced garlic
- 1 pinch each salt & pepper
Instructions
- Make the ranch dressing by mixing the sour cream, water, lemon juice, dill, minced garlic and salt and pepper together in a small bowl and set aside.
- Cut chicken breasts in half lengthwise then season generously on both sides with salt and pepper. Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat and then saute chicken for 3-4 minutes each side until fully cooked through. Remove from heat and let rest for 5 minutes before slicing up and tossing in buffalo sauce.
- While chicken cooks, prep the veggies. Add chopped romaine lettuce to large salad bowls, topping with sliced red onion, chopped cucumber, chopped celery, carrot matchsticks, defrosted corn, crumbled feta or blue cheese and sliced avocado.
- Top salads with chicken and drizzle with dressing when ready to serve. Alternatively, add chicken to (1L) mason jars followed by cheese and remaining veggies to meal prep these salads.
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