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…
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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. Or chickpeas, which I always add to my pizza 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!
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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.
