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When you’re craving wings, but need to eat more salad. This Grilled Buffalo Chicken Salad recipe satisfies all your wing cravings, without the guilt. This Grilled Buffalo Chicken Salad recipe is also Keto friendly, gluten free, sugar free, low carb, and can easily be adjusted for Paleo and Whole 30.
Buffalo Style Chicken Wings are our family’s #1 weakness. Even the kids are on board with the spicy goodness and deliciousness of perfectly cooked wings drowned in the dreamy flavors of Frank’s RedHot hot sauce. But sometimes, we just want the flavors in a salad format. This recipe is it.
Table of Contents
Ingredients + Substitutions
All portions are in the recipe card.
Chicken
- Chicken Breast – You can use any cut of chicken you like, but we like the chicken breast for the leaner flavor. But chicken thighs are just as delicious. Avoid chicken legs as they are more suited for shredded chicken.
- Seasoning – We use our chicken rub which is all savory with no sugar in it.
- Bacon – Bacon adds a great savory flavor to the salad.
- Corn – We love grilled corn for the natural sweetness.
- Wing Sauce – Our homemade Buffalo wing sauce uses Franks RedHot and butter.
Salad Ingredients
- Lettuce – We use romaine for the flavor and texture. You can also substitute Green Leaf or Butter lettuce. We avoid Kale or salads with a tougher texture.
- Tomatoes – Use cherry, grape, or smaller tomatoes you can cut in half and keep the texture and pop when you eat it.
- Onions – We prefer red onions for the more acidic flavor. You can sub with any onion you like. A nice option is a sweet onion.
- Avocado – Fresh avocado adds a nice creaminess.
- Carrots And Celery – You can’t have a Buffalo chicken salad without carrots and celery.
- Blue Cheese or Ranch – We use blue cheese as a garnish with the underlying dressing being homemade ranch. You can always use your own store-bought ranch.
- Salt and Pepper – Add kosher salt and pepper to your taste.
Preparation
- Season the chicken breasts with the dry rub.
- Prepare the corn by opening the husks, and removing any of the fiber and then closing the husks around it to keep it from scorching.
- Make the dressing in advance. And make the Buffalo sauce in advance.
- Rinse and dry your salad. Invest in a good salad spinner to dry salad after rinsing. If it’s still wet, the dressing won’t stick. You want dry salad.
Now you could serve this grilled chicken over some romaine lettuce. But come on. I said we were going full in on this salad adventure. We’re adding all the stops to make it the ultimate grilled buffalo chicken salad!
Grill Chicken
- Prepare grill for two-zone grilling so you have direct heat on one side and indirect heat on the other. Target 450 degrees Fahrenheit in the grill.
- Place chicken breasts over direct heat and sear each side for 5 – 6 minutes until you get good grill marks. Then move to indirect heat and finish until it hits an internal temperature of 160 – 165 degrees Fahrenheit.
- While chicken is cooking add the corn at the same time over direct heat. Rotate every few minutes until the kernels are soft. It can take up to 20 minutes for corn to soften over direct heat.
- You can bake your bacon in the oven at 375 degrees Fahrenheit until it’s crispy or grill it. If grilling, grill over direct heat to avoid flare ups.
Be sure to let chicken rest and account for carry-over cooking.
Sauce Chicken
In a small saucepan over medium heat, add the sauce and butter. Slowly stir to combine until the butter is melted. Don’t let it boil or it will separate.
In a large bowl add the Buffalo sauce and the whole chicken and coat it. Alternatively you can slice the chicken and toss in the sauce.
Combine Salad
In a large bowl combine all the ingredients together with the exception of the chicken and blue cheese crumbles. Plate or add salad to a bowl and then add the sliced chicken over the top. Finish with the blue cheese crumbles.
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Topping Ideas for Grilled Chicken Buffalo Salad
At restaurants, it’s traditional to serve your wings with celery and carrots, so we’ve gone ahead and added them to the salad so you don’t miss the nostalgia the restaurant provides.
Other optional salad toppings:
- Grilled crispy bacon
- Grilled corn (or warmed up frozen corn if you can’t find any seasonally)
- Cherry tomatoes, halved (for color and flavor, and well, more veggies!)
- Red onions, thinly sliced
- Avocado, sliced
- Crumbled blue cheese (or gorgonzola)
- Drizzle with ranch or blue cheese dressing
Frequently Asked Questions
For chicken breast we cook it to 160 to 165 degrees Fahrenheit. For thighs and legs we cook it to an internal temperature of 170 – 175 degrees for better texture. You can read more about proper chicken temperature in our article that walks through the details.
You can warm chicken for salad, but you don’t want it hot. It will wilt or semi-wilt the greens. So it’s best to serve it warm or you can chill down the chicken and serve cold.
Dressing
Well, if you live in a divided house, like I do, then you have both blue cheese and ranch on hand. I’m from the southwest, where ranch is king. Sean is from Rochester, NY, where there is only one answer – blue cheese. The way we compromise is by using homemade ranch dressing and topping with blue cheese. Marriage involves compromise, and I like to think we do that well when it comes to food 😉
This is truly my favorite salad of all time, because I get my veggies and my wings craving all in one delicious (guilt-free) dish!
Is This Salad Keto, Paleo, Whole 30
Yes! With some substitutions this is friendly to Keto, Paleo, and even Whole 30.
- If you’re Keto, go all in! This salad is very Keto friendly.
- With Paleo you will want to make sure to use a Paleo friendly ranch dressing and possibly ditch the blue cheese (if you’re not eating any cheeses).
- If Whole 30, similar to Paleo, go with a Whole 30 approved ranch dressing (there are SOO many good ones out there), and just leave out the blue cheese crumbles. I promise, it will still be great! With the Buffalo sauce, just sub your favorite butter substitute for the sauce.
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Grilled Buffalo Chicken Salad
Ingredients
- 1 chicken breast (medium to large in size)
- 1 tablespoons Ultimate Dry Rub , (link in notes below)
- 2 pieces bacon
- 1 corn on the cob , (optional)
- ½ cup Franks RedHot hot sauce, (or your favorite wing sauce)
- 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
For the Salad and Optional Toppings
- 1 head romaine lettuce chopped
- ½ cup cherry tomatoes
- ¼ red onion sliced thinly
- ½ avocado, sliced
- 1 carrot, grated
- 1 celery stalk, sliced
- ¼ cup blue cheese crumbles
- ranch dressing (pour to your preference)
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
For the Chicken and Grilled Bacon and Corn
- Prepare grill for two zone grilling and target 450 degrees Fahrenheit. While grill is warming up season the chicken liberally with the seasoning.
- Grill: Place chicken over direct heat, and grill, roughly 6 minutes each side or until an instant read thermometer reads 160 – 165 degrees F using a good instant read thermometer.
- Grill: At the same time, add bacon and corn to the direct heat of grill and grill bacon for 6 minutes per side or until crispy. Watch for flare ups due to grease, keep lid to grill closed or move bacon around outer edge of grill. Grill corn until soft.
For The Sauce
- Combine: In a small saucepan on low heat combine the hot sauce and butter and stir until butter is melted into sauce. About four minutes.
For The Salad
- Combine all ingredients in a bowl except chicken and stir to combine. Add sliced chicken to a large bowl and then toss with the wing sauce. Plate the salad and top with the chicken and some of the blue cheese.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
We had this for dinner tonight and it was amazing!! I concur with the recommendation of a little extra Buffalo sauce drizzled over the top. The Buffalo was subtle until we added that. I also used canned mini-corn as a shortcut. Highly recommend!!!
What a beautiful salad!! I love buffalo chicken and blue cheese crumbles mixed with the fresh lettuce and toppings 🙂
This looks SO flavorful and I love how many different things are going on!
Thank you! The texture and flavor are so much fun, I love the crunch of the celery and carrots.
YES please! I’ll take anything with buffalo chicken on it! And, I need all the healthy boosts I can get right now after the holidays for sure! This salad looks delicious Mary!
Thank you Erin!!!
I love recipes like this that redo dishes that are terrible for you and make them into something you could eat every week!
Thank you! And yes, we can eat these every week 🙂
OMG this looks so good! Buffalo sauce on anything is my weakness but it is hard sometimes to find it without being fried or just mixed with other naughty things like fries, tots, etc. I’m definitely going to try this! Thank you!
I Know right?? Our guilty pleasure is queso too!!