Grilled Buffalo Breast Salad: Bar Food Made Healthy
Grilled Buffalo Breast Salad
Are you a huge fan of buffalo wings? You know, the ones you pig out on at the bar, where sauce, along with a big smile rests on your face. If so, then this grilled buffalo breast salad is for you! A couple of weeks ago, while I was hunting down some new gluten free marinade at the store, I randomly came upon something I hadn't seen before: Sweet Baby Ray's Buffalo Wing Sauce.
I admit it.
It was probably sitting on that shelf, on that aisle for months. Maybe even years, all the while I remained oblivious. However, I couldn't find anything else that looked even remotely interesting to me, so I grabbed it.
And I am so glad I did.
It's always exciting when you find something new and healthy you can eat a lot of. And this has become one of those things. First of all, when I finally marinated my chicken, I had run out of food. This meant that I could only marinate it for around five hours before it was time for dinner. I was thrilled to see that the chicken had not only sucked up the sauce really well, but also when I tasted it that it held that very strong wing sauce flavor. In fact, I enjoyed it so much, I was sad I didn't have any blue cheese dressing to dip it in.
That's okay! I went out and bought some.
And for the next week and a half, I enjoyed having it for lunch and dinner, dipping my pieces of chicken breast into some blue cheese dressing. So, when I went to make this again, for this grilled buffalo breast salad, I wanted to see if marinating it longer made a difference.
The truth is, it didn't.
The wing sauce gets sucked up so well that I tasted no difference between a five-hour marinade time and a 24 hour marinade time.
But now we've cooked our chicken, so let's move onto the salad, shall we?
I was totally going for the bar food idea. What do you get served in the bar when you order wings? Easy, you get your blue cheese dressing with a side of celery and carrots. So, of course, we've now got our first four ingredients. As for the rest? Well, lettuce, tomato, and onion seemed pretty simple to me. And the rest of this delicious salad is totally optional. I dressed it up some more with some shredded cheddar, diced bacon, and sliced avocado.
Of course, you can pick and choose what you want to add.
If you want to lower the fat content a bit, follow my notes in the recipe on how to alter the dressing. Additionally, you can drop the cheddar and bacon. Want to lower the carb content instead? I recommend cutting some of the tomato, onion, and carrots.
You see, here's the thing about this grilled buffalo breast salad.
It is all about the marinated chicken, paired with the blue cheese! The rest is just some fun extra ingredients that only adds to the deliciousness. Enjoy!
Prep Time: 0 minutes
Cook Time: 0 minutes
Additional Time: 0 minutes
Total Time: 0 minutes
Ingredients
1/2 lb Chicken Breast
4 Small Carrots, Approx 5 3/4 Inches, Diced
8 Small Stalks, Approx 5 Inches, Diced
4 TBSP Red Onion, Diced
1 TBSP + 1 tsp Cheddar, Grated/Shredded, Optional
2 Roma Tomato, Diced
1 TBSP + 1 tsp Avocado, Diced, Optional
8 Cups Romaine or Iceberg Lettuce, Chopped/Shredded
Black Pepper, to Taste, Optional
Instructions
Chicken
Marinate chicken in buffalo sauce for a minimum of 5-6 hours. One bottle can cover over 5lb of chicken. See notes.
Grill chicken on medium to high heat, turning as needed until thoroughly cooked.
Salad
Add all diced and chopped ingredients to a bowl, and mix.
Notes
For the chicken, I used an entire bottle of Sweet Baby Ray's Buffalo Wing Sauce with 5 1/4 lb of chicken. You can make as little or as much chicken as you would like. However, if you want to make this for meal prep, I recommend making in bulk.
For the bacon, I use a very lean cut. I have linked to that in the ingredients. Use the brand and amount at your discretion. Changes will alter the macros.
The dressing I use is very thick. I tend to water it down a bit, to lighten the calories and spread farther.
