Simple Summer Salad with Chicken and Blueberries

Everything in this hearty gluten free dinner salad is so fresh and summery; it’s a feast for the eyes as well! Try simple summer salad with chicken and blueberries on a hot summer’s night, when you can take advantage of fresh, seasonal berries.

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There’s nothing better than a big dinner salad to cap off a hot summer day — one that’s hearty enough to be filling, but light enough not to weigh you down. Today’s Simple Summer Salad with Chicken and Blueberries fits the bill nicely, incorporating plenty of protein from the chicken, good fat from the avocado, and sweet & salty contrast from the blueberries and feta.

And this marinade! Doing double duty as chicken marinade + salad dressing, it kept the chicken super juicy and infused flavor through every bite. The deliciously lemony & garlicky combination is definitely a keeper.

You can easily adjust the proportions or salad toppings here to your own taste, too — Make this easy weeknight dinner salad your own.

I really like avocado in salad, for instance (oh, who I am kidding: I like avocado in anything…), so ended up including half an avocado per person rather than the quarter avocado I originally had in mind. Mr. 11 decided he didn’t like feta today (let me emphasize the “today” part, since he has liked it in the past and may like it again tomorrow, because: kids), so I just left it off of his bowl.

Simple Summer Salad with Chicken and Blueberries

Ingredients

– for the dressing/marinade

1/2 cup olive oil
1/4 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice
1 Tbsp Dijon mustard
1 tsp honey
2 tsp oregano
2 cloves garlic, chopped (or 1 tsp minced)
Black pepper, to taste
Sea salt, to taste

– for the salad

1-1.25 lbs boneless skinless chicken breast, trimmed
8 cups spring mix salad
1 cup fresh blueberries
1 cup pepitas
2 avocados, sliced
1/2 cup crumbled feta
4 green onions, chopped

Directions

Whisk together all of the dressing/marinade ingredients until well combined. Slice chicken in half lengthwise to make two thinner pieces. Place the chicken in a shallow baking dish or bowl and pour half of the marinade over, turning to coat.

Let the chicken marinate for 20 minutes, then either grill it or cook it up in a cast iron skillet over medium-high heat on your stove top until cooked through (about 4-5 minutes a side, depending on thickness).

While the chicken is marinating, cut up the avocado and green onions.

Let the chicken cool, then slice it into strips.

Assemble four individual dinner salads, topping the spring mix with chicken strips, blueberries, pepitas, avocado, feta, & green onion. Drizzle with reserved dressing and serve.

Note: If you can’t find pepitas, just substitute something else small and crunchy — sunflower seeds would work well.

Doesn’t this chicken blueberry salad just scream summer?

OK, this salad does not literally scream summer, because that would be kind of creepy. But everything here is so fresh and summery; it’s a feast for the eyes as well! If you choose your salad components wisely, you don’t necessarily need a lot of ingredients or recipe steps to pack a flavor wallop. (Note that the cooking time here does include the time to throw together the dressing and marinate the chicken, which you can do ahead of time if you’d like to save yourself a step later.)

This simple summer salad with chicken and blueberries is naturally gluten free.

Simple Summer Salad with Chicken and Blueberries, printable recipe

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Simple Summer Salad with Chicken and Blueberries

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Everything in this hearty gluten free dinner salad is so fresh and summery; it’s a feast for the eyes as well!

Course dinner

Cuisine salad

Keyword blueberries, chicken, dinner salad, gluten free, salad

45 minutes minutes

Servings 4

Author Rachel Singer

Ingredients

– for the dressing/marinade

• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 1/4 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice
• 1 Tbsp Dijon mustard
• 1 tsp honey
• 2 tsp oregano
• 2 cloves garlic chopped (or 1 tsp minced)
• Black pepper to taste
• Sea salt to taste

– for the salad

• 1-1.25 lbs boneless skinless chicken breast trimmed
• 8 cups spring mix salad
• 1 cup fresh blueberries
• 1 cup pepitas
• 2 avocados sliced
• 1/2 cup crumbled feta
• 4 green onions chopped

Instructions

• Whisk together all of the dressing/marinade ingredients until well combined. 
• Slice chicken in half lengthwise to make two thinner pieces. Place the chicken in a shallow baking dish or bowl and pour half of the marinade over, turning to coat.
• Let the chicken marinate for 20 minutes, then either grill it or cook it up in a cast iron skillet over medium-high heat on your stove top until cooked through (about 4-5 minutes a side, depending on thickness).
• While the chicken is marinating, cut up the avocado and green onions.
• Let the chicken cool, then slice it into strips.
• Assemble four individual dinner salads, topping the spring mix with chicken strips, blueberries, pepitas, avocado, feta, & green onion. 
• Drizzle with reserved dressing and serve.

Notes

If you can’t find pepitas, just substitute something else small and crunchy — sunflower seeds would work well.

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