Southwestern Chicken Salad Recipe

This creamy Southwestern Chicken Salad full of juicy chicken, black beans, and crunchy corn adds healthy and flavorful pizzazz to your salads, wraps, and sandwiches. 

It has finally been warming up in Colorado this week! (Well…it was when I wrote the post, at least. Then it snowed.) I don’t know about you, but I definitely needed a break from the cold and ice. It’s been amazing to be able to go outside without my heavy winter coat.

And, in honor of the warmer weather, I decided to make a more Spring-like recipe!

#1 – Because I wanted to give myself another reason to eat pretzel rolls.

#2 – Because I have this awesome friend, Mel (who runs a pretty amazing website!), who told me that I needed to come up with a southwestern twist on traditional chicken salad.

I never shy away from a food challenge!

How to Make Southwestern Chicken Salad

First, let’s talk about the sheer joy of cutting open, not one, but TWO perfectly ripe, thoroughly green, flawless avocados.

That does not happen often, but oh, how I love it when it does!

I always take the little stem off to see if the space underneath is green or brown. If it’s brown, I put the avocado back.

Note – the recipe as written serves 8, but I halved it because that’s a lot of chicken salad!

To start off, mash up those avocadoes with freshly squeezed lime juice. It adds great flavor and stops the avocado from oxidizing and turning brown (because brown is just not the most appetizing color…unless we’re talking chocolate. That’s a whole different story!).

All that’s left is to chop up the remaining ingredients and mix them all together!

Easy peasy lemon lime squeezy.

Then all that’s left to do is to pick your favorite way to serve it!

It would taste great as a salad topper on a bed of romaine lettuce.

It makes for an amazing wrap, rolled up in a tortilla.

You could serve it with crackers to add a salty crunch.

Or, my all-time favorite, is served with a little bit of crunchy lettuce on a toasted pretzel roll.

Holy guacamole, it’s good!

This would make a fabulous dish to take on a picnic, to a party, or a potluck.

And because of the mix of vegetables and protein, it makes for a healthy and delicious meal option.

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