Grilled Lemon Herb Mediterranean Chicken Salad with a dressing that doubles as a marinade!
This Grilled Lemon Herb Mediterranean Chicken Salad recipe is as close to perfect as you can get! Full of Mediterranean flavours: olives, tomatoes, cucumber, avocados, and chicken for a complete meal in a salad bowl!
Chicken Salad Recipe
With all of the salads I post on here, I thought some might be getting sick of these meal in salads recipes. BUT. It turns out, you guys are wanting MORE of these GIANT salads. Wracking my brains for another awesome recipe, what’s better than a fresh, mediterranean salad with so much flavour, you won’t be able to put your forks down? Yes, I sound like an infomercial. No, I don’t care.
Salad dressing
As usual, I always try to create salad recipes that you only need ONE dressing / marinade. A salad that uses one thing for two uses. This comes from years of making salads that require completely different marinades for chicken or the meat of choice, then drowning it in a completely different tasting dressing, only confusing my brain and taste buds even more. Why do that when you can create one delicious marinade and use it as a dressing? That kinds makes more sense.
Optional additions
You can ALSO top it with some crumbled feta or goats cheese, which I didn’t have at the time, BUT it’s included in the recipe as an option for you to enjoy!
More Salad Recipes!
Pesto Grilled Chicken Avocado Salad
Honey Mustard Chicken, Avocado + Bacon Salad
Greek Lemon Garlic Chicken Salad
WATCH US MAKE IT RIGHT HERE!
Lemon Herb Mediterranean Chicken Salad
Ingredients
Marinade/Dressing:
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- juice of 1 lemon (1/4 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice)
- 2 tablespoons water
- 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
- 2 tablespoons fresh chopped parsley
- 2 teaspoons dried basil
- 2 teaspoons garlic , minced
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1 teaspoon salt
- cracked pepper , to taste
- 1 pound (500 g) skinless, boneless chicken thigh fillets (or chicken breasts)
Salad:
- 4 cups Romaine (or Cos) lettuce leaves, washed and dried
- 1 large cucumber diced
- 2 Roma tomatoes diced
- 1 red onion sliced
- 1 avocado sliced
- 1/3 cup pitted Kalamata olives (or black olives), sliced (optional)
- Lemon wedges to serve
Instructions
- Whisk together all of the marinade/dressing ingredients in a large jug. Pour out half of the marinade into a large, shallow dish. Refrigerate the remaining marinade to use as the dressing later.
- Add the chicken to the marinade in the bowl; marinade chicken for 15-30 minutes (or up to two hours in the refrigerator if time allows). While waiting for the chicken, prepare all of the salad ingredients and mix in a large salad bowl.
- Once chicken is ready, heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a grill pan or a grill plate over medium-high heat. Grill chicken on both sides until browned and completely cooked through.
- Allow chicken to rest for 5 minutes; slice and arrange over salad. Drizzle salad with the remaining UNTOUCHED dressing. Serve with lemon wedges.
Anais says
I made this salad for my husband, who does have a discerning palette, and about halfway through eating it he said, “This is a really good salad.” Another halfway through he said, “This is a really good salad. This is menu worthy.” It looked so pretty and was really tasty and just a great meal salad when you’re trying to be healthy. Thanks for sharing it. I’ve used some of your other recipes too and I really enjoy them!
Sally says
This salad was amazing – so fresh and full of flavor (even for lunch the next day)! I also look for recipes that are either low sodium or ones that I can tailor to meet my low sodium needs and this one was perfect! I only added a dash of low sodium garlic salt (instead of 1 tsp of salt) to the marinade and I omitted the olives from the salad and it still didn’t lose any flavor. I also recently purchased a Ninja Foodi 5-in-1 indoor grill and the marinade was a perfect match with the boneless skinless chicken thighs and it grilled up perfectly – I’ll probably start cooking my thighs with this marinade for other meals!!
Emily D'Emidio says
This was a super tasty, very filling dinner salad!
Richard L says
Look no further for the perfect chicken salad recipe. This was simply delicious!
Lisa T. says
I just made this delicious, easy, and flavorful mediterranean chicken salad for dinner tonight! I followed the recipe exactly and it came out perfect. We live in California and this salad is perfect for hot summer nights. The whole family loved it and requested that I make it again in the near future. Thank you for sharing this recipe!
Macy says
Absolutely amazing! This is seriously the best salad I ever had. Love that it is completely soy, dairy, and gluten free with no processed oils. This salad is super healthy and full of so much flavor. Will deffinatly be making it again!
Graham says
Would fresh basil and oregano work or is it better with the dried versions? Thank you!
Becky Currier says
Fab-U-LOUS!!! I made this earlier this week and am making it again- except doubling it! My 4 year old LOVED the chicken and ate two whole chicken thighs! The hubs and I really enjoyed the salad. There weren’t any leftovers- hence doubling it today. Such great flavor and all things I had on hand. Simply delicious!
Brooke K. says
Absolutely LOVED this! What a nice fresh healthy dinner! Flavors were great and it was so quick and easy!
Marie says
Super tasty fresh salad. This is def going into my recipe book!
One thing I did change was add 1tablespoon of both sundried tomato oil and the brine from my Kalamata olives instead of the 2 tablespoons of water. Boosts flavour and binds together easier too.