Honey Mustard Chicken Salad With Bacon, Avocado and a crazy good 5 ingredient dressing that doubles as a marinade! With a hint of garlic, crispy bacon, creamy avocado slices, juicy tomatoes and red onion slices, this is THE ultimate in chicken salad!
Refreshing, sweet and savoury all at the same time! A popular reader favourite, this Honey Mustard Chicken Salad has been remade all over the world time and time again! You all know me by now that when I create a salad recipe, it ends up being a giant salad that’s a meal in itself.
Chicken Salad
THIS was the number 1 chicken salad recipe on Pinterest and Facebook for all of 2016 and 2017! THE best honey mustard chicken salad tried and remade again and again by readers everywhere.
Being a fan of honey mustard everything, I gave up enjoying honey mustard dressing on salads because of all of the mayo and calories normally sneaking their way into them. Then, this salad happened. Waking up with the strongest honey mustard craving, I created this salad with FLAVOUR in mind!
Honey Mustard Dressing / Marinade
The best honey mustard dressing is right here! Not only does it double as the dressing AND marinade, it creates the most deliciously crispy, golden edges on the chicken, giving us even more flavour! Halving the dressing to use as a marinade, THEN using the remaining UNTOUCHED dressing to drizzle over the salad once it’s all done and ready to eat has got to be the best way to keep the incredible honey mustard flavours going. May the mustard gods help me! So creamy and sweet and tangy… the perfect balance all in one!
You won’t believe something so simple can lead to something tasting so sinful.
Grilled or Seared Honey Mustard Chicken
In less than 15 minutes you have caramelised and tender honey mustard chicken thighs. If you don’t have time to marinade them for the suggested couple of hours, it’s absolutely fine to cook them right away. You use grill or sear them in a skillet. The choice is yours!
Wash and prep your salad vegetables while your chicken is sizzling away on the pan, smelling those incredible smells flooding your kitchen. Watching the sauce bubbling and thickening around each thigh while coating them in a beautiful syrup is my absolute favourite part.
Salad Vegetables
To make up the veg part in this recipe, I used the following:
- Romaine lettuce (or Cos if in Australia)
- Avocado slices
- Grape or cherry tomatoes
- Red onion slices
- Corn kernels (fresh, frozen and thawed or tinned)
Optional Salad Additions
-
- Crispy bacon
- Boiled egg slices
- Croutons
- Arugula
- Asparagus spears
WATCH HOW WE MAKE THIS HONEY MUSTARD CHICKEN SALAD RIGHT HERE!
Looking for more Chicken Salad recipes? Try these!
Grilled Lemon Herb Mediterranean Chicken Salad
Chili Lime Chicken Fajita Salad
Honey Mustard Chicken Salad With Bacon & Avocado
Ingredients
Dressing / Marinade:
- ⅓ cup honey
- 3 tablespoons whole grain mustard
- 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard smooth and mild
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1-2 tablespoons Apple cider vinegar or white vinegar, optional - to cut through the sweetness
- 1 teaspoon garlic minced
- 1 pinch salt to season
- 4 skinless boneless chicken thighs or chicken breasts
For Salad:
- ¼ cup diced bacon trimmed of rind and fat
- 4 cups Romaine lettuce leaves washed
- 1 cup grape tomatoes cherry tomatoes, sliced
- 1 avocado large, pitted and sliced
- ¼ cup corn kernels
- ¼ red onion sliced
Instructions
- Whisk marinade / dressing 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 a nonstick pan (or grill pan or skillet) over medium heat with about a teaspoon of oil and sear / 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 the bacon until crispy.
- Slice chicken into strips and prepare salad with leaves, tomatoes, avocado slices, corn, onion strips and chicken.
- Whisk 2 tablespoons of water into the remaining untouched marinade / dressing and drizzle over the salad. Sprinkle the bacon over the top and season with a little extra salt and cracked pepper (optional).
Tom says
I love this recipe, it tastes absolutely amazing. Sadly searing the chicken always makes a huge mess in my kitchen and i can’t figure out how to avoid it. Does anyone have some tips?
Francesca Patterson says
Try roasting it on high heat, like 450 degrees or even broil. Just check it after 8 mins, especially for a breast.
Tax says
Kiddo picked this for dinner tonight. We marinated chicken breast. We stabbed the breasts all over with a fork, then before putting marinade in it in a bag, I used a meat tenderizer, flat side, and made all the meat the same thickness. Then poured about half the sauce over it and “rubbed” it in through the bag.
We marinated about 6 hours.
The meat was tender and flavorful. This salad was delicious. Kiddo scarfed it, then went back for more meat. So yummy!!
Hannah says
10/10 SO good. I didn’t have the wholegrain mustard, so I subbed extra Dijon, and it was still super tasty. I added some nuts, a tiny bit of goat cheese and dried cranberries and MAN was it the best salad ever.
You’ve gotta try it for the chicken alone, the dressing as the marinade makes it so tasty.