Santa Fe Salad
Santa Fe Salad is loaded with flavor and so easy to make! It has shredded chicken, crisp lettuce, black beans, corn, creamy avocado, cheese, and super simple Southwestern-style ranch dressing. It’s zesty and bursting with freshness – the perfect main course salad when you’re craving something light.
Table of contents
It’s salad time, and this recipe for a zesty, fresh Santa Fe salad is my current go-to favorite. It’s filling yet light and so easy to make you can toss it together in about 15 minutes.
I love the Southwest-y flavors and the super easy prep. We’re using rotisserie chicken along with one of my favorite ranch dressing hacks, so there’s not much work beyond a little chopping, tossing, mixing, and drizzling. You know, just enough prep to make us feel like we’re “cooking,” but not so much that we wished we’d just ordered takeout.
If you’ve been following along for a while, you already know I love filling salad recipes with lots of flavors, textures, and colors. This Santa Fe salad recipe checks all the boxes – I think you’re going to love it.
Ingredients
- Chopped romaine lettuce – or other leafy greens like spinach, green lettuce, or iceberg.
- Chopped or shredded rotisserie chicken
- Sliced green onions – or swap them for diced red onion.
- Diced avocado
- Corn kernels
- Black beans
- Pico de gallo
- Shredded pepper jack cheese – or cheddar cheese if you like it better.
- Chopped cilantro
- Southwest ranch dressing
- Tortilla strips or crushed tortilla chips
Chicken tip: This is also a great way to use up leftover chicken. Or you can cook up some chicken breasts seasoned with taco seasoning if you want to skip the rotisserie chicken.
Southwest ranch dressing: You can use storebought Southwest-style ranch or, and this is what I do, mix regular ranch dressing with fajita seasoning or taco seasoning.
How to Make the Salad
Once you have all of your ingredients prepped and ready to go, just toss them in a large bowl.
Make Ahead Tips
If you want to assemble it ahead of time, you can! Layer the salad ingredients in this order in a large bowl: Salad dressing, pico, chicken, beans, corn, onions, avocado, cheese, lettuce, and cilantro.
Keep the salad in the refrigerator until you’re ready to serve it. It should keep well for several hours. When you’re ready to serve, use tongs or large spoons to toss the salad so the dressing evenly coats everything.
Add the tortilla strips for the garnish!
I hope you give this Santa Fe Salad recipe a try soon! It’s so easy and delicious.
Happy tossing,
More Salad Recipes
📣 Do you love this recipe? I would love to know! Leave a comment below the recipe, along with your recipe star rating.
PrintSanta Fe Salad
This easy salad is loaded with flavor and so easy to make! If you love Southwest flavors like avocado, black beans, and pico de gallo with chicken and a zesty dressing, you will love this recipe.
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Total Time: 15 minutes
- Yield: 2 large salads 1x
- Category: Salads
- Method: Toss
- Cuisine: American
Ingredients
- 12 ounces romaine lettuce, chopped
- 2 cups chopped rotisserie chicken
- 2 green onions, sliced
- 1 medium avocado, diced
- ½ cup frozen corn kernels, thawed
- ½ cup canned black beans drained
- ½ cup pico de gallo
- ½ cup shredded pepper jack cheese
- ¼ cup chopped cilantro
- 1/4 cup Southwest ranch dressing (see note)
- ½ cup tortilla strips
Instructions
- Place the lettuce in a large bowl. Add the chicken, onions, avocado, corn, black beans, pico, cheese, and cilantro.
- Drizzle the dressing over the top and toss the salad to combine.
- Garnish with the tortilla strips for serving.
Notes
Dressing tips: You can use prepared southwest dressing (look for options in the refrigerated section), or you can mix 1/4 cup of regular ranch dressing with a few teaspoons (or more to taste) of fajita seasoning.
Make-ahead tip: Put the dressing in the bottom of the serving bowl and top it with the other ingredients in this order: pico, chicken, beans, corn, onions, avocado, cheese, lettuce, and cilantro. When you’re ready to serve it, just toss it together and garnish with the tortilla strips.
Nutrition
- Calories: 793
- Sugar: 7.3g
- Sodium: 828.6mg
- Fat: 49.8g
- Saturated Fat: 11.6g
- Unsaturated Fat: 31.7g
- Trans Fat: 0.3g
- Carbohydrates: 40.8g
- Fiber: 13.5g
- Protein: 50.3g
- Cholesterol: 140.8mg
The nutrition is an estimate only. It was calculated using Nutrifox, an online nutrition calculator.