Grilled Chilli Lime Chicken Fajita Salad with a dressing that doubles as a marinade! A genius way of keeping ALL of the incredible flavours in this salad
This salad has so much flavour happening, you don’t know where to start. Creamy avocado slices, grilled red and yellow capsicums/peppers, or the succulent chicken pieces. Fajita territory went down in this kitchen. Yeah, it did.
The challenge was on over here to make something Tex-Mex or with Mexican inspired flavours. But I’m over Tacos, (I know, don’t get me started on the sin this sentence is committing right now), and I’m over winter food.
Long story short, I wanted a salad. And if you’ve been following me for a while, you know by now that I don’t do rabbit salads, AKA starvation salads. I load them up with so much food there’s no chance of starving anything.
Which brings me to my next point. Chargrilled chicken. Even more…chicken thighs. You can use breast for this, but thighs are so juicy and tender and 100% suit this salad. Especially drowned in this marinade that doubles as a dressing. I didn’t want a dressing to come along and destroy the flavour the marinade had perfectly created in the chicken, so I made more of it. Then halved it.
Red chilli flakes…freshly squeezed lime juice…coriander (sub it out if you don’t like it, but man it’s good in this), garlic…cumin… so many flavours that dance together and create a steamy love affair on your tongue.
Basically, once you’ve made the marinade, divided it in half and reserve one half to use as a dressing. Use the remaining as a marinade! Marinade for however long you have. I’ve done this for two hours; I’ve tried this overnight; and when I didn’t have the time to soak anything, I mixed, dipped and grilled without marinading. It all works.
The fresh, untouched half is used as your dressing in this Grilled Chilli Lime Chicken Fajita Salad.
And in less than 20 minutes, you have a loaded up salad, fresh and full of flavour. Just like the Balsamic Chicken Salad With Lemon Quinoa, or the Skinny Chicken and Avocado Caesar Salad, this Grilled Chilli Lime Chicken Fajita Salad is a meal in itself and packed with flavour!
ORIGINAL RECIPE BY KARINA, CAFEDELITES ©[/b]
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 100ml (just over ⅓ cup) freshly squeezed lime juice
- 2 tablespoons fresh chopped cilantro
- 2 cloves garlic, crushed
- 1 teaspoon brown sugar
- ¾ teaspoon red chilli flakes (adjust to your preference of spice)
- ½ teaspoon ground Cumin
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 4 chicken thigh fillets, skin removed (no bone)
- ½ yellow bell pepper, deseeded and sliced
- ½ red bell pepper, deseeded and sliced
- ½ an onion, sliced
- 5 cups Romaine (or cos) lettuce leaves, washed and dried
- 2 avocados, sliced
- Extra cilantro leaves to garnish
- Sour cream (optional) to serve
- Whisk marinade ingredients together to combine. Pour half the marinade into a shallow dish to marinade the chicken fillets for two hours if time allows. Refrigerate the reserved untouched marinade to use as a dressing.
- Heat about one teaspoon of oil in a grill pan or skillet over medium-high heat and grill chicken fillets on each side until golden, crispy and cooked through. (Grill in batches to prevent excess water being released.) Once chicken is cooked, set aside and allow to rest.
- Wipe pan over with paper towel; drizzle with another teaspoon of oil and fry pepper and onion strips until cooked to your liking.
- Slice chicken into strips and prepare salad with leaves, avocado slices, peppers, onion strips and chicken. Drizzle with remaining marinade/dressing and serve with (optional) extra cilantro leaves and sour cream.
© 2015 – 2017, Karina. All rights reserved. CAFE DELITES. All images & content are copyright protected. Please do not use my images without prior permission. If you want to share this recipe, please provide a link back to this post for the original recipe.
I have made this salad twice now. LOVE IT!! It is pretty simple and not too time consuming. The marinade is great to use just on chicken alone. I am going to try marinating several pieces of chicken and then freezing them so they are ready to BBQ. I think it should work great. Will see. Thanks for the great recipe!
This is a fantastic recipe. We had unexpected guests and I had pretty much all the ingredients on hand so this was perfect. I served it “deconstructed” so everyone (four adults and six kids) could take what they wanted. I also served some Mexican rice and warmed black beans on the side. Everyone loved it!
How many calories do this meal have
I grilled up the chicken along with the onions and peppers. My husband and I agree that this is one of the best salads we have ever had! I’m making it again this week. The dressing is SO good.
Yum, yum, yum! My new favourite salad.
THIS SALAD IS AMAZING!!!!! I LOVE TO TRY DIFFERENT TYPES OF SALADS AND THIS SALAD IS NOW AN ALL TIME FAVORITE FOR ME. THE ONLY THING I DID DIFFERENT IS COOK THE CHICKEN AND VEGETABLES IN ALL THE MARINADE AND TURNED UP HEAT AT THE END TO GIVE IT THAT GRILLED/CHARRED APPEARANCE AND FLAVOR. SO SINCE I DID NOT HAVE AN EXTRA MARINADE ON RESERVE, I USED A RANCH BOLTHOUSE FARMS DRESSING (VERY HEALTHY) INSTEAD.. YUM!!!!!!
Just found your website/blog and this was the first recipe I tried. Both hubby & I proclaimed this “best salad ever tasted”! (and he is very limited on his culinary compliments! lol). I can’t wait to try more of your recipes. Thank you for sharing your gift!
Great recipe! Do you happen to know the nutritional information for this recipe? Calories, Fat, Carbs, etc?
Thanks!
OMG!! I am so excited to make this tonight.. i already have my chkn marinating 🙂 Thank you for sharing.. peoples comments crack me up .. BE you Girl … Thanks for sharing
Jennifer coriander is cilantro 🙂
You mentioned coriander but I dint see it in the recipe? Did you mean cumin?
Hi Denise. In Australia, we spell it CHILLI. Thank you for your message.
Please correct the spelling of “Chilli”. It should be “CHILI”. Thanks
will be going out in the rain/wind/snow to grill so it feels like summer inside with this tasty combo of seasonings and spices!
This salad is in my top 3. It has so much flavor, yet it’s not in your face. It tastes so wonderfully light and healthy. Everyone who has tried it loves it. Outstanding!!
Hi Danielle. You’re welcome! I’m so happy to hear that!
Hi Penny. Yes.
Can I use chicken breasts instead of chicken thigh fillets?
Made this tonight…it was delicious! Thank you!
Hi Mary Jane. Yes I like to serve this salad with the warmed chicken, BUT you can refrigerate it ahead of time! Still delicious either way. I hope you all enjoy it!
Is the chicken served over the salad while still warm or could it be made ahead of time and refrigerated. It looks wonderful and I am making it this weekend when I have friends over. One of them eats no carbs at all so I thought it would be great. I have made chicken breasts in a similar marinade so I know it will be wonderful.
Made this tonight and it was fantastic.i expected it to e good it it far exceeded my expectations. We had it for dinner but it would make a nice luncheon entree as well. Thank you!
This is so delicious … Thanks a ton
Karina,
I saw your recipe for the Mediterranean salad on facebook the other day, and it was FANTASTIC. I going to make this one ASAP!! I love your whole concept of making one sauce for the dressing and marinade. Just love it! Gonna make this one with my leftover lettuce!
Just made it and it was a hit 🙂 I only substituted honey for brown sugar and added a little garlic powder and taco seasoning for the marination …. so yummy..
Hey Karina!
Just tried ur recipe. I replaced the chicken with some tri tip steak and LOVED! Fam gave many compliments- a fam that wont look at anything that is salad related btw. Thank u so much
this has become my favorite chicken recipe…with or without the salad…..sometimes i marinate it overnight without oil and bake it the next day and other times I cook it over the stove…I absolutely love the flavor!!!!
Hi Karina,
This is exactly the salad recipe I was looking for !!!! A “not rabbit” one and full of flavour. This one looks simply perfect, I am gonna try it this week-end.
Thank you so much
Just cooked this and it taste great! I added a tablespoon of sour cream and the avocado to dress. Yum!
This recipe is fantastic! My husband loves it as well! It works great in my meal planning for the week, too! I took the extra chicken, veggies, and romaine and put it in a wrap for lunch the next day. If you let the dressing separate and spoon off some the cilantro and garlic off the top, it adds so much flavor to the wrap! So yummy!
Hey, i really like your marinade. I think it will go really well on some chicken wings cooked on a charocoal grill. (Im gonna give it a try later on this week) Thanks!
Karina, this was HANDS DOWN the best salad I ever made. So much flavour!!! I added some red onion with the peppers, just because. Though I’m sure it’d be as flavourful without.
I’ve just discovered your blog, it’s quickly becoming one of my faves. I’ll be trying a lot of your recipes in the upcoming weeks. Thank you !
This salad looks so delicious! And I’m not a fan of salads (plain skinny salads). So is it better to marinade chicken overnight or few hrs?
Thank you
This was so good! I couldn’t believe how delicious this salad was, I’m not a fan of salads either. I will be making this often, especially during the spring and summer.
OMG, the chicken with the marinade looks delicious !!!
I can’t wait to taste this recipe, thanks for sharing it 🙂
I forget how I came upon this recipe, but I will often bookmark things that look tasty for future meals. I have already made this twice because my husband just raved about this salad and marinade (and what else we could use the marinade on! 🙂 He’s the foodie/cook in the house so it made me happy he was impressed! I just printed off a bunch of your recipes and can’t wait to try!
*I doubled the marinade/dressing and peppers/onions
This looks amazing! I’m going to bake the chicken…suggestion for oven temp and how long?
Hi Thea. What do you normally substitute avocados with? Anything would work on this salad but I’m not sure what you like, what your tastes are, etc 😉
This looks absolutely amazing!! do you have any tips for subbing avocados? Im allergic, but I know they are pretty filling, so what else could I use instead that is just as healthy? .:-)
Yes! Mia I’ve been dying to try this with salmon. It would compliment it beautifully.
Looks AMAZING and will be making this for lunch tomorrow as am having friends over. I eat a vegan-ish diet (I eat seafood), do you know if I can do the dressing with salmon? One guest doesn’t eat seafood – so trying to cater to all dietary needs and hence will do some chicken and some salmon.
Courtney that sounds incredible! Y.U.M!
Thank you Samantha! I’m so glad you liked it. And thank you so much for linking!
Hi Anna. I’m not sure as I haven’t tried it in the slow cooker.
I made this last night and it was so good! I love the marinade so much that I mixed the leftover with a little bit of ranch dressing and made the most amazing salad dressing!
This recipe was awesome! I absolutely LOVED the homemade dressing and we have eaten these twice. We don’t eat avocado so we subbed a few additional veggies and it was PERFECT. Thank you so much for sharing. I created a weekly menu plan and this was one of my meals that week and I have used it since as well…www.thesekidsmom.com I linked you and your recipe!
wondering if you could use marinade to cook chicken breast in the slow cooker? thoughts?
Karina this looks absolutely yummy! I can’t wait to give it a try!
Cilantro is what we call Coriander (in Australia) so either is fine depending on where you are from!
I am really looking forward to making this I just wanted to know if you use both cilantro and coriander? Or do you use one or the other?
Natalie thank you so much for sharing this with me! It makes me so happy to read this. I’m SO happy to liked this salad! Here’s to more cooking!
I have been so bored of cooking. So lacking in inspiration. This came up a couple of days ago on my facebook feed. It is the BEST thing I have made and eaten in ages. Thank you! You’ve pulled me out of my slump! Can’t wait to try some more of your recipes! X
I”m so happy to hear that Kim! Thank you so much for coming back to let me know 🙂 And you’re very welcome!
Made this for the family. It was simply delicious!! Chicken marinade was fabulous! Thank you for sharing!😊
That’s awesome Rachel! I’m so glad you’re trying it! I hope you like it 🙂
That’s so wonderful Melanie! I’m so so happy to hear you tried it! You’re very welcome 🙂
I am on a restricted sodium diet due to some heart issues and was excited when I saw this recipe. I prepared it last night, and let the chicken and vegetables soak in the marinade overnight. Cooked it up for dinner tonight and it was delicious! Hubs enjoyed it too. Thank you!
This recipe looks AMAZING! I will be making this as soon as I collect the ingredients I don’t have. I’m also thrilled to discover the Big Oven app and that it’s available for Windows phone! 😀
Thank you for the idea Joyce 🙂
If you want to go vegetarian, try beyond chicken strip in place of the chicken. Makes a really nice vegetarian dish.
Hi Tracy! I’m so happy to hear that! You’re very welcome…Enjoy!
Mmmmm, can’t wait to make every one of these amazing salads. I’m following a keto diet so many of these will for perfectly. They look so good, thank you!
That’s wonderful to read thank you Nicole! I’m so happy you tried it!
This was delicious!! I sautéed the peppers and onions beforehand, Will definitely make this again.
You’re welcome Juju!
Hi Teresa. They are grilled or pan fried already 🙂
Has anyone tried grilling or sauting the peppers for the salad before serving?
Ohhhhhh. This is the best dressing of all time. I can’t stop eating it! Thank you!
Thank you so much Chels! And welcome to my blog. Yours is gorgeous btw!
I came across your blog and this recipe from Oh, Sweet Basil on fb and had to stop over, drool, and then pin away! I’m loving all the flavors in this! I just want to load a forkful into my mouth! Looks amazing. I’m subscribing to your blog now!
Wow Barry I’m truly honoured! Thank you so much for commenting! You’ve made my WEEK!
Hi Karina
I have been subscribing to cooking, reciept a d associated sites for over 25 years – your site offers the most imaginative, tastie a d easy to prepare receipts. Thank you
Barry
Age 77 years old
Thank you Brian!
Awesome recipe!
Was looking for the love button. The salad is great and is going to be a regular thing. Thank you so much.
Rae that’s AWESOME!! I’m so so happy you tried it! Thank you so much for taking the time to leave a comment! X
I made this for our Super Bowl meal and it was a Touchdown for sure! Super delicious. Thank you for sharing
Hi Cyndi. Cos lettuce is Romaine 🙂
Is it just me but what is cos leaves it looks like romaine lettuce?
Hi Amber! No unfortunately I don’t! But I will be updating it soon. I use MyFitnessPal to calculate them if you need to go ahead and work it out? I hope that helps! 🙂
Do you know the calorie count on this, by chance? I don’t see it posted, but maybe I missed it?
Thank you Kerik! I found 1/4 cup of dressing enough to marinade the chicken, saving around 1/4 cup to dress it afterwards. But, feel free to double the dressing if you like more! Nothing wrong with more dressing 😉
Hi there,
This recipe looks crazy amazing! It seems that the recipe amounts for the dressing wouldn’t make very much though. Is the recipe enough to soak/marinate the chicken and still have enough for dressing? I am a dressing lover, so I would definitely want enough to go around. 🙂
Thanks so much,
Keri
Hi Vanessa! I’m so happy to hear you tried it! You’re very welcome. Thank you for taking the time to write up your comment! I really appreciate it. X
OMG,just made this amazing salad it has so much favor yum,yum,yum!??
Thanks for the recipe ???
Haha thanks Daisy 😉
That’s so wonderful to hear Rebecca! Thank you for letting me know! That’s AWESOME!
Just made this and it was so easy to put together. Beautiful and delicious…we loved it! Going in the family recipe book. Wonderful salad!
Om so this is what heaven looks like …. well done miss, well done 🙂 ❤
Hey Qiqi! This is such a great comment! I’m loving your description! Thank you so much! And you’re welcome 🙂
Thanks Kevin!!
Have already cooked two times at home! Delicious!! My hubby even asks me to cook more so he can bring it as a lunch. 🙂 awesome recipe, and beautiful taste! Sour, spicy, smoky, sweet, the freshness, all of the flavor that I would love to have them in one dish! It’s just so yummy!!! Thank you for sharing!
Seriously tasty looking grub here. Fajita territory indeed! That is one beauty of a salad Karina. Pinned.