Juicy chicken thighs coated in a caramelized honey mustard sauce, over a salad made of crispy bacon, blue cheese crumbles, and delicious veggies–this honey mustard chicken salad is absolutely addicting. And it makes for the perfect meal prep lunch! Here’s how…
Want to Save This Recipe?
Enter your email below and we’ll send it straight to your inbox. Plus you’ll get great new recipes from us every week!
Ingredients in Honey Mustard Chicken Salad
Best news: our honey mustard salad dressing doubles as a sauce for our chicken! Add a few other ingredients and you’re ready to go. Here’s what to collect for this honey mustard chicken salad, plus a few tips to keep in mind:
- The chicken: I prefer chicken thighs, as they’re higher in fat, juiciness, and flavor. You can substitute chicken breast, however, I suggest baking the breast at 400 F instead of broiling, as they’re thicker and will need more time to cook.
- The sauce + dressing: Honey, dijon, olive oil, garlic, salt, and pepper. After we coat our cooked chicken in this sauce, we’ll add just enough apple cider vinegar to thin it into our salad dressing.
- The salad: Crisped bacon, crumbled blue cheese, Romaine lettuce, cherry tomatoes, and red onions. You can leave any of these out or substitute them, see my notes below.
Swaps + Subtitutes
We absolutely love the combination of ingredients for this honey mustard chicken salad, but you can swap ingredients based on your preferences. Some ways to do this include:
- Lower the carbs by reducing the amount of honey added. Honey is the main contributor of carbs in this salad; by reducing or swapping it with a keto sweetener, this dish would make a great low carb salad.
- Add more veggies, such as bell peppers or corn. You could also sub the greens and make this a kale salad or arugula salad.
- Swap the chicken with another protein, this dish would make an amazing salmon salad or shrimp and avocado salad.
- Try a different dressing. Although not using honey mustard salad dressing would change this dish entirely, these ingredients would be incredible with a ranch dressing or the lightened up Caesar I use to make this kale Caesar.
How to Make Honey Mustard Chicken Salad
Although this honey mustard chicken salad takes a bit of prep to throw together, it’s well worth it! Psst–this is why I typically make a double batch; same amount of work, double the reward!
- Broil chicken on both sides until cooked through.
- Whisk together sauce/dressing (wait on the apple cider vinegar).
- Brush the chicken and return to the broiler, until just caramelized.
- Chop the chicken.
- Whisk apple cider vinegar into dressing.
- Toss all salad ingredients together in a bowl. Enjoy!
Make Ahead + Meal Prep Tips
Making this delicious honey mustard salad for meal prep? That’s a fantastic idea. Here are my top tips to keep things fresh, crisp, and as delicious as possible:
- Store dressing, chicken, and tomatoes, seperately from all other ingredients, so they don’t make the lettuce soggy.
- Don’t slice your avocado until just before serving.
- Make a double batch, as mentioned, a lot of chopping goes into chicken salad, so do it once and eat it for lunch for a few days!
More Chicken Salad Recipes
- Chicken Caprese Salad
- Buffalo Chicken Salad
- Pesto Chicken Salad
- Avocado Chicken Salad
- Curry Chicken Salad
Honey Mustard Chicken Salad
Print Recipe Pin RecipeIngredients
Dressing + Chicken:
- ⅓ cup honey
- ¼ cup dijon mustard
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
- 1 teaspoon pepper
- 4 boneless skinless chicken thighs
- 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
Salad:
- 1/2 cup red onion sliced
- 4 sliced bacon cooked + crumbled
- 1/2 cup blue cheese crumbled
- 4 cups romaine lettuce chopped
- 1 cup cherry tomatoes halved
- 1 avocado pitted and sliced
Instructions
- Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil, and prep the top rack of your oven so it’s 8″ from the bottom of your heating element. Preheat the oven broiler to 400 F.
- Place chicken thighs on baking sheet, and broil on each side for 7 minutes, until the internal temp of your chicken reaches 165 F.
- Meanwhile whisk together the honey, dijon, olive oil, garlic, salt, and pepper. Set aside half of this to use as the dressing later. Use a brush to brush the other half over 1 side of your chicken thighs. Return to the oven and continue to broil for about 1 minute. Flip, brush the other side, and broil for an additional about 1 minute. Once cool enough to handle, slice into thin strips.
- To the set aside dressing, whisk in apple cider vinegar.
- Add the lettuce, tomatoes, avocado, bacon, crumbled cheese, onions, and chicken to a large bowl. Drizzle with dressing and toss to combine. Enjoy!
Fans Also Made These Healthy Recipes:
Lindsey’s Tips
- If raw red onion is too strong in flavor: place sliced red onion in a medium bowl of water with ice and allow it to chill for 15 minutes. Drain, then add to the salad.
