Avocado Pomegranate Chicken Salad

This avocado pomegranate chicken salad is a hearty, healthy summer salad recipe. Loaded with big pieces of avocado, fresh pomegranate arils, jalapeños, radishes, corn, black beans, cilantro and cotija cheese. Plus an easy homemade creamy and cool, avocado lime dressing.

This recipe was first published April 19, 2021.

This salad is the perfect dinner when you want a fancy restaurant salad at home. It has all the toppings of a fine southwest restaurant. And tastes like it, too!

The toppings are piled high on top of crispy romaine lettuce. You want a crispy, sturdy lettuce when you have this many toppings. And when you have a thicker dressing.

The avocado lime dressing is a mix of avocado, greek yogurt, sunflower oil, cilantro, lime juice and salt. You could always thin it out with a bit of water but I like the thicker consistency to it because it sticks to all the salad toppings.

You'll really love this one! And it's so beautiful to look at. It's a hearty salad that will fill you up. Just like this steak and vegetable salad, or this summer chicken taco salad.

How To Get Pomegranate Arils Out of A Pomegranate

You got the pomegranate, now you're wondering, "how do I get the seeds out?". It's actually so easy but can be a little messy!

Cut the pomegranate in half.

Grab a large bowl and a wooden spoon. Hold half of the pomegranate in one hand with the seeds (arils) face toward the palm of your hand. Hold this over the bowl.

Take the wooden spoon and hit the back of the pomegranate, hard. The arils will start to pop out! Just let them all fall into the bowl and repeat with the other pomegranate.

Now you can rinse them and pick out any of the pomegranate white membrane that got stuck to the seeds. Drain out the water and they are ready to use!

How To Make The Avocado Lime Dressing

The easiest way to make the avocado lime dressing is by putting everything in to a mini food processor.

It whirls up and will give you a really smooth creamy consistency.

If you don't have a food processor you can use a fork to mash up the avocados, add all the ingredients and then switch to a whisk to try and get the dressing smooth.

What's In This Avocado Pomegranate Chicken Salad

Here's everything that's in this salad plus some substitutions if you don't have any of these ingredients.

• chicken breast - you could use chicken thighs too but you'll want either to be boneless and skinless
• salt, pepper, ancho chili powder - this will be your seasonings for the chicken, ancho chili powder is a bit more mild than regular chili powder with more chili flavor
• romaine - if you can't get romaine you'll want to opt for another crispy crunchy lettuce that can hold up to so many toppings
• radishes - best if you have a mandoline so you can slice them thinly
• ears of corn - frozen corn would work too if you can't get ears of corn
• jalapeño - for a little heat
• black beans - the recipe calls for half a can, only 8 oz, but you can use the other half to make this chicken taco salad or just freeze the extra
• avocados - you'll need a total of 3 avocados, two for the salad and one for the dressing
• pomegranate - one whole pomegranate, make sure to read above on how to get the seeds out, if you can't find a pomegranate then most stores will sell the prepackaged seeds near the salad section
• cilantro - for topping the salad and in the dressing
• cotija cheese - this is a mexican cheese, it's kind of like a parmesan, it has a salty taste to it
• limes - for both the salad and the dressing
• sunflower oil - you'll need a flavorless oil for the dress so whether you want to use sunflower oil or another is up to you, you just don't want something strong (like olive oil) changing the flavors
• greek yogurt - another base of the dressing, greek yogurt gives it a nice tang but you could sub this out for sour cream

More Salad Recipes

• Juicy Buffalo Chicken Avocado Salad
• Chimichurri Steak and Vegetable Salad
• Italian Chopped Salad With Crispy Chickpeas
• Asian Chicken Salad
• Caesar Salad Pizza
• Cucumber Avocado Salad With Fresh Herbs