Buffalo Chicken Salad (Sweetgreen Copycat)
This Buffalo Chicken Salad tastes just like the salad from Sweetgreen. It's easier and more affordable to make at home, plus you can customize it to your liking too! It's spicy and filled with so much flavor and prepared in just 30 minutes!
Ingredients
Serves 4 salads
- 1 lb boneless skinless chicken thighs
- 1 pack of kale
- Extra virgin olive oil
- Juice of 1/2 a lemon
- 1 pack of romaine
- Blue cheese crumbles
- Panko breadcrumbs
- Zaatar
- Cherry tomatoes
- Cilantro
- Wing sauce
- Homemade or store bought Caesar dressing of choice (I really like California olive ranch)
The pickled veggies:
- 3 carrots
- 3 pieces of celery
- Apple cider vinegar or another white vinegar
- 1 tbsp sugar
- Any pickling spices (optional)
Instructions
- Chop carrots and celery and add to a clean mason jar. Bring equal parts water and vinegar, sugar and spices to a boil. Make sure you do enough to fill up your mason jar. Pour over veggies to the top and then cover. You should do this the night before as you need several hours for the veggies to pickle. (I have done it morning of and it’s fine, but the longer the better)
- Preheat oven to 375. Wash and pat dry chicken thighs. Cover in buffalo sauce and season with salt and pepper. Lay out on a baking sheet and cook for about 8-10 min per side or until internal temperature is 165.
- Keep chicken and pickled veggies in the fridge for easy meal prep all week.
- Assemble salad by first adding kale to a bowl. Add olive oil and lemon juice and massage until tender. Add romaine, chopped chicken, blue cheese, pickled veggies, chopped cilantro, breadcrumbs, sprinkle of zaatar. Drizzle with Caesar and hot sauce. Mix and enjoy!
Video
Notes
Storage:
If you have leftovers, we recommend storing the ingredients in separate containers in the fridge for up to 4 days. Assemble the salad right before you are ready eat. You can reheat the chicken in the microwave or the oven for a couple of minutes until warmed through. We meal prep this salad all the time, it's great for a workday lunch or an easy dinner. We recommend making the pickled vegetables, chicken and dressing (if you are making a homemade dressing) at the beginning of the week. Then whenever you are ready to eat, all you need to do is mix it together in a bowl and enjoy! Pro tips:
If you have leftovers, we recommend storing the ingredients in separate containers in the fridge for up to 4 days. Assemble the salad right before you are ready eat. You can reheat the chicken in the microwave or the oven for a couple of minutes until warmed through. We meal prep this salad all the time, it's great for a workday lunch or an easy dinner. We recommend making the pickled vegetables, chicken and dressing (if you are making a homemade dressing) at the beginning of the week. Then whenever you are ready to eat, all you need to do is mix it together in a bowl and enjoy! Pro tips:
- If you don't enjoy chicken thighs, you can use chicken tenders. We also love buying and roasting the chicken breast tenders as well as the breaded frozen chicken breast tenders.
- Be sure to massage the kale so it's tender. You'll want to add the lemon and the olive oil and the massage these ingredients into the kale. This will break it down to make it much more pleasant to the bite.
- You'll want to pickle the veggies the day before. This makes it ideal for meal prep. We're technically making a quick pickle here, which is a combination of water, vinegar, a pinch of both salt and sugar. The hot liquid softens and flavors the veggies for the perfect bite.