Chicken Ranch Wedge Salad
Chicken Ranch Wedge Salad is a 5 minute Wedge Salad recipe you’ll make over and over!
Chicken tenders, tomatoes, croutons, feta, and ranch dressing = heaven!
It’s Wedge Salad Wednesday — and today’s is the Chicken Ranch Wedge Salad!
It’s all your favorite things, including Chick-Fil-A Chicken tenders! << ?
Yes, friend! This really does take only 5 minutes to lay out onto a platter, and serve to your people.
Something I love in the summertime is what I call a lazy salad.
It’s all the things, on a big platter, and people reach in and grab what they want.
Lazy salads are also a GREAT way to clean out your fridge, and use up any produce, cheese, deli meat, etc you have in there that you need to eat.
Mix and match any kind of lettuce + veggie + cheese + carb (or no-carb if you’re not a fan!) ratio you’d like.
Here are some things you could put on your Lazy Salad Board:
- Lettuce – romaine, iceberg, butter, a big pile of spinach or arugula would also be lovely!
- Tomatoes
- Cheese – feta, goat cheese, cheddar, smoked gouda, blue cheese, parmesan, any kind of cheese! Mix these up too!
- Vegetables – cucumbers, celery, broccoli, cauliflower, roasted zucchini or squash, roasted potatoes, green beans, etc.
- Protein – grilled anything would be delicious! Shrimp, chicken, salmon, steak, bacon, meatballs, etc.
- Carbs – croutons, potato chips, tortilla strips, etc
This Lazy (Wedge) Salad has simple Chick-Fil-A chicken tenders, vine-ripened tomatoes, feta cheese, homemade croutons, and romaine lettuce wedges.
I love love love using romaine lettuce for a wedge salad.
Pro-tip for cutting romaine lettuce into wedges:
Leave the stem attached! You can slice a smidge off the edge, so you get the oxidized end off, but make sure you don’t cut so far into it that the leave fall apart.
This is especially helpful if you want to GRILL your lettuce!
How to Grill Romaine Lettuce:
- Turn your grill on to medium heat.
- Slice your romaine in half if it’s a small head, or into quarters if it’s a bit bigger.
- Brush each side with olive oil, then sprinkle a little salt and pepper on top.
- Gently place each lettuce wedge onto the grill, and let it sit there for a minute.
- Only grill one side, otherwise it begins to wilt too quickly.
- Remove from the grill, and dress up your romaine into wedge salad, or chop up for a smokey-flavored regular salad!
Now, let’s chat homemade croutons!
I want to write an entire post on this because I’ve been making a ton of croutons during COVID!
Using up the ends of baguettes or boules that are hanging out, and seasoning in different flavors has become a bit of an obsession.
My favorite though?
Simple olive oil + salt + pepper, in a 375˚ oven for about 15 minutes.
Homemade croutons pair perfect with any salad, or just as an afternoon snack.
Now, you might be asking, how do you serve and eat this salad platter?!
If you’re making enough for a crowd, you can place the lettuce wedges on a big sheet pan, and then have folks dress their own.
This is such a fun “Wow!” when you get to the table.
This salad platter has:
- iceberg wedges
- blue cheese
- blue cheese dressing
- tomatoes
- bacon
- pickled shallots
If it’s just a couple of you, just take a fork and knife and cut the whole thing up on the platter, then scoop it out onto a dish.
Make sure each bite has a bit of everything on it! Ratios are everything, y’all.
This salad has homemade ranch dressing on the side, and when I say homemade, I mean this:
- 1 cup of Duke’s Mayo
- 1 cup of Milk
- 3.5 tablespoons Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing Powder
Shake it up in a mason jar, and drizzle it on everything!
If you didn’t go through the CFA drive-thru just for some of their chicken strips, then try this Ranch Grilled Meal Prep Chicken recipe!
Pin this to your favorite salad board on Pinterest!
Chicken Ranch Wedge Salad
- Prep Time: 5
- Total Time: 5 minutes
- Yield: 2
- Category: salad
- Method: no-cook
- Cuisine: american
Description
Chicken Ranch Wedge Salad is a 5 minute Wedge Salad recipe you’ll make over and over! Chicken tenders, tomatoes, croutons, feta, and ranch dressing = heaven!
Ingredients
- Romaine Lettuce Head, stems on, cut in half
- Chicken Tenders
- Tomatoes
- Feta Cheese
- Croutons
- Ranch Dressing
Instructions
- Gently slice your romaine head in half, and place on a platter.
- Arrange chicken, tomatoes, feta, and croutons alongside the lettuce wedges.
- Drizzle with ranch dressing when you’re ready to serve.
- Cut the whole thing up and toss together if it’s just a couple of you.
- Or, allow guests to take a wedge of lettuce and create their own salad with all the toppings.
there’s something magical about adding chicken tenders to a salad! this is such a great dish!
I think I could eat anything if it had chicken tenders on it!
Love the combination in this salad recipe. Fantastic. Must try!
Thank you!
My husband loves wedge salads so I made this one just for him! It was the first time we tried grilling lettuce and the flavor was perfect with the dressing (bleu cheese for him). This will be perfect to serve to guests when we’re serving steaks. Can’t wait for our next family get-together.
Doesn’t grilling the lettuce make such a difference?? Thanks for popping by, Linda!
This is my kind of salad. Love the fried chicken with the fresh lettuce. And of course, ranch on everything 😉
Oh, mine too, friend!