Southwest Salad with Cilantro Lime Dressing

This Southwest Salad is loaded with seasoned chicken, black beans, corn, guacamole, sour cream, and more; then it's drizzled with homemade Cilantro Lime Dressing!

Prep Time10

Cook Time10

Total Time20

Course: Main Course, Salad

Cuisine: American, Mexican

Servings:

Calories: 929kcal

Author: Stephanie

Ingredients

½ of a small chicken breast *See Notes
2 Tablespoons taco seasoning
1 Tablespoon avocado oil can sub vegetable, canola, or olive
1 ½ cups chopped romaine lettuce
4 cherry tomatoes
¼ cup black beans drained and rinsed
¼ cup corn
1/8 cup black olives
4 slices bell peppers any color
1 jalapeno pepper seeded & diced
2 Tablespoons guacamole
2 Tablespoons sour cream
2 sprigs fresh cilantro
¼ cup tortilla strips
½ cup Mexican cheese shredded
2 Tablespoons Cilantro Lime Dressing

To Garnish:

2 lime wedges, optional

Instructions

Heat the oil in a cast iron skillet over medium-high heat. Season the chicken generously on each side with taco seasoning.
Add the chicken to the heated skillet and let it sear on the first side, untouched, for five minutes. It will begin to release from the skillet once it’s ready to flip.
Use kitchen tongs to carefully flip the chicken once it’s reached a deep golden brown color, and sear the other side for 4-5 more minutes, decreasing the heat slightly if needed.
Remove from the heat and let it sit for at least 5 minutes prior to slicing it to allow the juices to absorb.
Fill a large bowl (or even a pie diswith the romaine lettuce. Top it with all additional ingredients and serve immediately!

Notes

*Typically, the chicken breasts that you get at the store are very large. I like to butterfly my chicken breasts to create two thinner slices of equal size. They cook more evenly this way and this creates more surface area to sear. I usually only use one half per salad.

Nutrition

Recipe Source: TheCozyCook.com - For pro tips, step-by-step photos, storage information, and to save it to your account, visit https://framework-keystone.live/southwest-salad/%3C/strong%3E%3C/p%3E%3C/div%3E%3C/div%3E%3Cscript%3Ewindow.wprm_recipes = {"recipe-27713":{"type":"food","name":"Southwest Salad with Cilantro Lime Dressing","slug":"wprm-southwest-salad-with-cilantro-lime-dressing","image_url":"https:\/\/thecozycook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/Southwest-Salad-with-Chicken3.jpg","rating":{"count":4,"total":20,"average":5,"type":{"comment":4,"no_comment":0,"user":0},"user":0},"ingredients":[{"amount":"\u00bd","unit":"","name":"of a small chicken breast","notes":"*See Notes","id":9877,"conversion_item_snapshot":{"amount":"\u00bd","unit":"","timestamp":1778514462000},"type":"ingredient","uid":0,"unit_systems":{"unit-system-1":{"amount":"\u00bd","unit":"","unitParsed":""}}},{"amount":"2","unit":"Tablespoons","name":"taco 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