This Tex-Mex hen salad is a wholesome salad recipe you’ll make this night! It’s made with juicy margarita-marinated grilled hen on a mattress of crisp lettuce, ripe tomatoes, and crunchy pink onions with avocado, candy corn, and black beans. Don’t put out of your mind the creamy avocado dressing!

Wholesome Tex Mex Hen Salad

This tackle a Tex Mex Hen Salad is a little like a Santa Fe salad or Southwest hen salad. It’s critically love in the beginning chew! The hen is marinated for hours in a easy however flavor-packed margarita marinade earlier than you grill it. The result’s the juiciest, maximum flavorful hen strips ever. It’s laborious to withstand gobbling them down earlier than you even compile the salad!

We’ll serve it over a mattress of crispy iceberg lettuce with ripe tomatoes, crunchy pink onions, and buttery avocado rounded out with corn, black beans, and avocado dressing. You’re going to head nuts for the zesty, highly spiced, creamy Tex Mex taste combos on this simple salad recipe. Each minute that hen spends marinating within the refrigerator is completely price it!

Why You’ll Love This Tex Mex Hen Salad Recipe

• Recent and simple components. You don’t want any fancy or sophisticated components to make this tasty and wholesome Tex Mex salad. Only a few contemporary veggies right here, a slice or two of ultra-tender hen breast there. Simple peasy.
• Margarita marinade. This isn’t simply any grilled hen, it’s margarita grilled hen, and it’s DELICIOUS. So soft, so juicy. It’s impressed via a variation that I had at Chili’s as soon as. My do-it-yourself margarita marinade is simple to make with a package deal of margarita combine and contemporary lime juice.
• Meal-in-one. This Tex Mex hen salad has all of it. A lot of veggies, juicy marinated hen, and plenty of zesty Southwestern taste wrapped up in a single wholesome bowlful. It’s gratifying to function is for lunch or a mild dinner, or you’ll spherical out a meal along with your favourite facets.

Make a Tex Mex Hen Salad

We’ll stroll thru methods to make the BEST grilled hen salad loaded with Tex Mex taste, beginning with some notes at the components you’ll want. You should definitely scroll to the recipe card under the publish for the entire component quantities and recipe directions.

Salad Components

• Hen: Skinless, boneless hen breasts, lower in part. You’ll additionally use hen thighs, they’ll simply take a little longer to prepare dinner.
• Marinade: You’ll make a snappy Tex Mex hen marinade from margarita combine, lime juice (freshly squeezed is a will have to), olive oil, salt, pepper, and garlic powder.
• Lettuce: I make this salad with crisp iceberg lettuce, however you’ll use any leafy inexperienced that you’ve readily available. Romaine, arugula, butter lettuce, spinach, or perhaps a spring combine are all just right choices.
• Candy Corn and Black Beans: You’ll use canned corn and beans for added comfort, simply be sure you rinse and drain them neatly previously. I additionally like to make this salad when I’ve leftover grilled corn at the cob.
• Tomatoes and Onion: Diced onion and tomatoes praise the Tex Mex flavors and upload some contemporary veggies to the combination. You’ll use pink onion or yellow onion. Inexperienced onions would additionally paintings.
• Avocado: Creamy avocado is filled with wholesome fat and tastes nice in this Mexican-style hen salad.
• Garnishes: Garnish this salad with tortilla chips, shredded cheese, chopped cilantro, or every other toppings you’d like. See additional within the publish for extra add-ons and variation concepts.
• Dressing: I toss the entirety along with my creamy avocado lime dressing. It’s mild and contemporary and tremendous simple to make.

Instructions

• Marinate the hen. Mix the margarita combine and marinade components in a big Ziploc bag. Upload the hen and toss to coat. Later on, let the hen marinate within the refrigerator for a couple of hours.
• Grill the hen. Grill your hen the usage of your means of selection. I take advantage of a grill pan at the stovetop to prepare dinner the hen for approximately 6 mins in keeping with aspect till cooked thru. This hen could also be nice at the outside grill all the way through {the summertime} (practice the grilling instructions for my grilled blackened hen). 
• Bring together the salad. Start via including your chopped lettuce to a big salad bowl. Subsequent, layer at the corn kernels, rinsed and tired black beans, tomatoes, pink onion, and avocado. 
• Upload the hen and dressing. After all, slice up the grilled hen and upload this to the salad. Best the entire thing with a beneficiant drizzle of avocado dressing, or your dressing of selection.

Pointers for Luck

A do-it-yourself Tex Mex hen salad is on the subject of foolproof. That being mentioned, I spotted the next whilst checking out this recipe:

• Let the hen marinate. This takes a little of making plans forward, however it makes the entire distinction! The hen wishes about 2-8 hours to marinate within the margarita combination and actually absorb all the ones flavors. Now not simplest that, marinating is essential for ultra-tender hen.
• Use what you will have. There’s no mistaken technique to make a salad. When you’re lacking an component, change it out for no matter you will have readily available to customise this Tex Mex hen salad alternatively you’d like. See under for some concepts.
• Cooking instances will range. Relying at the thickeness of your hen items, the precise grilling instances is also other from the days which can be given. Use my instructions as a tenet, however be sure to test your hen for doneness (see under).

Can I Bake the Hen As a substitute?

Sure! When you’d like to bake your Tex Mex hen for this salad, bake the marinated hen for approximately 20-Half-hour at 400ºF till cooked thru. Actual baking instances is determined by the scale and thickness of your hen breasts. Consult with the instructions in my oven-baked hen breasts recipe for main points.

How Can I Inform When Hen Is Achieved? 

One of the simplest ways to inform if the hen breasts are finished cooking is to take the temperature the usage of an instant-read thermometer. In step with USDA pointers, hen is cooked when the inner temperature reaches 165ºF.

Salad Diversifications and Upload-Ons

It’s your salad, and you’ll get dressed this Tex Mex hen salad up or down alternatively you’d like.

• Other protein. Instead of marinaded hen, best this salad with steak, or every other protein like salmon or grilled shrimp.
• Vegetarian. To make a vegetarian Tex Mex salad, skip the hen, or take a look at marinating tofu as a substitute. You’ll additionally best this salad with meaty fried mushrooms, tempeh, lentils, or chopped up chickpea patties.
• Other marinade. When you’d choose every other grilled hen marinade, take a look at my beer marinade or make juicy cilantro lime hen. You’ll even skip the marinade and best your salad with crispy fried hen as a substitute. 
• Grains. Instead of or along with lettuce, compile this salad on a mattress of quinoa or bulgur wheat, or take a look at coconut lime cauliflower rice for a low-carb model.
• Cheese. Fall apart over contemporary Mexican cotija cheese or feta, or upload shredded Asiago, gentle Monterey Jack, Pepper Jack cheese, or a shredded Mexican cheese mix.
• Other dressing. Different just right dressing choices are Catalina dressing or Ranch dressing. Or, you’ll check out my favourite do-it-yourself salad dressings for extra concepts. 
• Extra veggies. Bulk up the greens with no matter’s in season. Upload on sliced cucumber, shredded carrot, or shredded cabbage. You’ll additionally upload sauteed or roasted bell peppers, grilled zucchini, or grilled eggplant to the combination. 
• Extra add-ons. Fall apart on cooked crispy bacon, or take a look at diced mango for some contrasting sweetness. You’ll additionally take a look at including pomegranate seeds, craisins, croutons, pumpkin seeds, or pepitas. The rest is going!

What to Serve with a Tex Mex Hen Salad

We like making this salad for a very simple mild meal or wholesome lunch all the way through the week. You’ll’t beat the ones zesty flavors! After all, there are many techniques to show this hen salad right into a extra hearty meal. Check out those serving ideas:

Make Forward and Retailer

• Refrigerator. It’s perfect to revel in this salad quickly after it’s made. Do your perfect to retailer leftover components become independent from the dressing. Stay leftover salad lined within the refrigerator for 1-2 days. The refrigerated avocado dressing will keep contemporary for as much as 1 week.
• Make forward. To get a headstart in this salad, you’ll meal prep the hen forward of time. Marinate and grill the hen as directed, and retailer it hermetic within the refrigerator for as much as 3-4 days. Slice it and upload it in your salad on every occasion you’re able. You’ll additionally make the dressing upfront and retailer it hermetic within the refrigerator.
• Freeze. Whilst I don’t counsel freezing the salad components, you’ll completely freeze any leftover margarita hen breast. Retailer the cooked and cooled hen hermetic and freeze it for as much as 3 months. Thaw the hen within the refrigerator in a single day earlier than including it in your subsequent Tex Mex salad.

ENJOY!

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