Juicy Buffalo Chicken Avocado Salad

The most amazing buffalo chicken avocado salad recipe. Loaded with carrots, celery, tomatoes and red onion. Spicy from the buffalo chicken but cool from the crispy lettuce and vegetables. You will be hooked on this salad!

Today, we are talking buffalo chicken.  Specifically we are talking about this insanely delicious juicy buffalo chicken avocado salad, loaded with cool and crunchy vegetables.  

Spicy and cool all in one bite.

My dear friends, sometimes you just have a craving for buffalo chicken wings.  I am pretty much a connoisseur of wings. 

Sweet, spicy, hot, even hotter, dragon breathing hot!  I will eat them all.

This salad makes for a great dinner option, it's filling enough that you don't need anything else with it. Just like this steak and vegetable salad with creamy lemon vinaigrette.

It couldn't be easier to make. And if there's an ingredient you aren't crazy about, just leave it out.

One time we ordered wings at this new place and we were warned they'd be hot (aka hotter than fire kill your taste buds type of business).  We declined all warnings, dug in, and sweat like none other eating these things. 

I mean, they were like bundles of pure fire.  I was crying. 

At the time I was still working as a dental hygienist, so I brought back the extra in a takeout box, labeled it "mild wings" and left them in the break room. 

I seriously can't stop laughing when I think of that.  Good prank.

If you couldn't tell, I love me some wings. 

What's In This Buffalo Chicken Avocado Salad?

It's a pretty basic list, here's what in this salad.

• chicken - you can use chicken breast or chicken thighs, but chicken breast is what I like to use for this one
• seasonings - salt, pepper and garlic powder
• romaine lettuce - feel free to swap it out with your favorite, but the romaine gives it crunch and also holds up really well to the heavy buffalo chicken and all the vegetables
• avocado - a large avocado, you could even use 2 if you like
• vine ripened tomatoes - if you can't get these, any tomatoes will work
• red onion
• carrots - whole carrots, sliced, but you could save time by buying a package of pre-sliced
• celery - sliced up, you can't have buffalo chicken without celery it's a classic staple
• franks red hot sauce - this is for the buffalo sauce
• butter - another ingredient for the buffalo sauce

Not only is it good fresh, but it's good leftover after it's been chilled in the fridge.  Lunch the next day! You could even put it on a bun and make a buffalo chicken salad sandwich.

This Italian chopped salad with crispy chickpeas is another really good leftover salad.

How To Make Buffalo Chicken Avocado Salad

Start by preheating your oven, to cook the chicken.

Season the chicken with salt, pepper and some (not all) of the garlic powder. You'll then sear each side in a pan and then transfer that to the oven to finish cooking.

Once there is no pink in the middle, it's done, takes about 25 minutes.

Meanwhile prep all of your vegetables.

After the chicken comes out of the oven you will want to let it rest 10 minutes, otherwise if you cut into it right away all the juice will leak out and your chicken will be dry.

You can prep your sauce while you wait.

To make the buffalo sauce get out a small sauce pan and heat together the franks red hot sauce, butter and the rest of the garlic powder. Cook it just until it's warmed through.

Cut up the chicken into bite size pieces and toss it into the sauce.

Then all you have to do is put your vegetables and romaine in a bowl, top it with the buffalo chicken and drizzle on some ranch dressing.

Kid Friendly Dinner

If your kids aren't adventurous eaters, this dinner still works. Eating salad for dinner allows you to put things on their plate separately.

There are a lot of kid favorite vegetables in this recipe. Carrots, celery, tomatoes and avocado. You can serve these with a side of ranch instead of on top like a salad.

For my kids I section off some of the chicken before I put the buffalo sauce on, it's just a bit too spicy for them.

It's basically a deconstructed salad for the kids.

I have this really fun mandolin and it has a special blade that does crinkle cut, my kids love the fun shape it makes and it makes eating dinner even more fun.

If you are looking for more kid friendly recipe I have an entire post on 10 kid friendly recipes. But off the top of my head a few of my kids favorites are this easy stovetop gnocchi lasagna, olive garden zuppa toscana soup and sheet pan steak totchos.

More Salad Recipes

• Steak and Vegetable Salad With Creamy Lemon Vinaigrette
• Caesar Salad Pizza
• Thai Peanut Chicken Noodle Salad
• Chimichurri Steak and Veggie Salad
• Easy and Healthy Asian Chicken Salad
• Italian Chopped Salad With Crispy Chickpeas

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This recipe was originally published on August 21, 2017. The recipe has not changed.