Tender chicken, plump grapes and berries, crisp lettuce, tangy feta cheese, crunchy almonds, and the real star – almond honey mustard dressing! Eat the rainbow and be glad, friends!
Rainbow Chicken Salad with Almond Honey Mustard Dressing
Featured comment
This is single-handedly the BEST salad recipe ever!! The dressing is the bomb…I’ve made this salad 3 times this week!! Addicted:) Thank you for this recipe!!
Molly Johnson
One thing I love: this honey mustard dressing, which I am still licking off my fingers as I type this. Rude. Sorry.
Quick question: how do we feel about fruit in salad?
Red grapes, blueberries, that kinda thing? I feel reeeeeal good about it. Like, a whole bunch of juicy fresh yum just landed right in the middle of my salad. Also noteworthy in this salad is the golden brown chicken. It was simple and delicious and you know I love a good meatless main, but this spice-loaded, juicy and golden brown chicken in little bite-sized salad pieces makes me happy (and full). Add in some crunchy almonds, creamy tangy feta, and the gang’s all there. Almost.
All Hail The Almond Honey Mustard Dressing
As if I need to even tell you, the crown jewel of this salad is the dressing. It’s like regular honey mustard but a little more rustic-feeling, if that can be a thing for honey mustard (lol), because of that almost-smooth texture that a quality almond butter adds to the whole thing. The thickness of the almond butter gives it an ultra creamy texture, plus it has the perfect sweetness of a homemade honey mustard. It was just superdelicious.
So, better question: how do we feel about lunches and it’s-still-light-out dinners that are easygoing and colorful and very delicious?
Enjoy The Rainbow
For my big bowl here, I used grapes and blueberries, but you just go ahead and make use of whatever remnants of fruit are hanging out in your fruit bowl or the back of your refrigerator. Oranges? Strawberries? Pomegranate? No one is going to be mad about any of that.
There is a little bit of lettuce in the bowl to make it, well, you know, A SALAD, but it’s not a sad salad lettuce situation. It’s more for a little bite of tender-crisp greenery and dare I say I even found myself enjoying those bites of delicate crispness as much as the rest of it. Look at me go, mom.
The color, the crunch, the texture, the wholesomeness of all of it together is a straight drive into warmer weather, lighter days, and all-around nicer feelings.
Eat the rainbow and be glad.
More Hearty Salad Recipes
- Quinoa Crunch Salad with Peanut Dressing (so colorful, so fresh!)
- Summer Chipotle Chicken Cobb Salad with Cilantro Vinaigrette (you know how we feel about fruit on salads – YES!)
- Chopped Thai-Inspired Chicken Salad (one big ol’ chopping session and done)
- Lemon Herb Pasta Salad with Marinated Chickpeas (a majorly delicious pasta salad reminding you that salad comes in all forms)
Watch How To Make This Recipe
Common Questions About Our Rainbow Chicken Salad
I have a nut allergy. What substitutions can I make?
First off, sad! We’re so sorry to hear this. But the good news is this salad is super delicious when substituting sunflower seeds for the almonds and using sunflower seed butter in place of the almond butter.
How can I make this vegetarian?
Some crispy pan-fried tofu would be great in this in place of the chicken.
Can I meal prep this salad for lunches?
Sure! We’d suggest just drizzling the dressing right before serving to keep things crisp and fresh. More meal-preppable faves can be found here.
Rainbow Chicken Salad with Almond Honey Mustard Dressing
- Total Time: 45 minutes
- Yield: 4 1x
Description
This Rainbow Chicken Salad is topped with tender chicken, plump grapes and berries, crisp lettuce, tangy feta cheese, crunchy almonds, and the real star – almond honey mustard dressing! Perfect for lunch or dinner!
Ingredients
Units
Scale
For the Salad
- 2 teaspoons olive oil
- 8 ounces boneless, skinless chicken breasts (mine were cut into smaller, thinner pieces which made the sautéing a bit easier)
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon pepper
- 1 teaspoon chili powder
- 2 cups grapes, halved
- 1 cup fresh blueberries
- 3 cups curly lettuce, chopped
- 1/2 cup feta cheese
- 1/2 cup almonds, chopped or crushed
For the Dressing
- 3 tablespoons almond butter
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed orange juice
- 3 tablespoons water
- 1 tablespoon stoneground mustard
- 1/2 tablespoon raw honey
- 1/4 teaspoon salt, more to taste
- 1 clove garlic
Instructions
- Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium high heat. Sprinkle the chicken with the salt, pepper, and chili powder. Saute in the oil for a few minutes, flipping the chicken now and then to cook through and get a nice golden color on both sides. When the chicken is cooked, remove from heat and set aside.
- Cut and prep all the vegetables and fruits. When the chicken is cool enough to handle, cut into bite sized pieces. Place the salad ingredients in a large bowl – you can either arrange the bowl by ingredient, like pictured, or toss everything together. Refrigerate to chill.
- For the dressing, puree all the dressing ingredients in a food processor until smooth. Taste and adjust to your preferences. Pour dressing over salad and serve.
Equipment
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Notes
After snapping these photos, I threw some crumbled crispy onions on top for a little extra crunch and flavor. Bjork just about died of happiness.
- Prep Time: 30 mins
- Cook Time: 15 mins
- Category: Dinner
- Method: Saute
- Cuisine: American
Keywords: rainbow chicken salad, chicken salad, almond honey mustard dressing, honey mustard dressing
One More Thing!
This recipe is part of our collection of sweet honey recipes. Check it out!
Filed Under: All Recipes Berry Gluten-Free Healthy Meat and Chicken Quick and Easy Recipes Salads Spring Sugar-Free
March 1, 2021
Nice to meet you!
I’m Lindsay and I ♡ FOOD. I used to be a teacher, and now making food and writing about it online is my full-time job. I love talking with people about food, and I'm so glad you're here.
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Perfect dinner for 97 degree day! I subbed paprika for the chili powder so the kids might eat it (they didn’t, though they did like the dressing) and it was delicious. Loved the fresh, seasonal flavors and the lightness of this meal while still being filling.
Made the dressing and my family loved it!
If I were to make extra and refrigerate the dressing, do you know how long it will last? Will it separate in the fridge?
So glad I found this recipe 10+ years later! I had to adjust the dressing to what I had on hand, that means subbing chunky peanut butter for almond butter and regular mustard for stone ground. Everything was the same. I could probably drink the dressing it’s so yummy! I would love to try it with almond butter, but it is amazing with my substitutions. Thank you so much for this recipe! Also, fruit ALWAYS goes on salad!!
I use a lot of your recipes, and they are always delicious. This, however, is one of my all time favorites! We are vegetarian, so I use chickpeas instead of chicken, seasoned up just the same but also add a little cayenne, and add shredded carrot to the salad. Amazing! I can’t get enough of the dressing!!!
Glad to hear it, Julie!
I frequently use your recipes. Always a hit! This one did not disappoint! Thank you for always winning me the BEST food compliments…our pastor and his driver said it was the best meal they have had all year.
Love this recipe very Much. Thanks for posting.
We looove this recipe. I made way too much dressing this time though! Any ideas of how else to use it? Do you think it would freeze okay?
I have made this dressing and frozen it many times. It thaws out perfectly!
I love this salad. Especially in the middle of winter when you need some lighter flavors. I made some minor subs in the dressing (sunflower butter, Cara Cara oranges, and Dijon mustard) and is still turned out great. Great combo of flavors!
You do realize after cooking honey it does lose all it’s nutritional value making it no different than white sugar. my grandmother uses Ethiopian Honey as specially made organic honey, so I must suggest you all to eat lalhoney, and its good for everyone to live healthy life….
True, like most things that are cooked, the nutrition in honey is compromised when cooked. In this recipe you don’t cook the honey. It is in the dressing.
This was delicious. I added strawberries and subbed tahini for almond butter because it’s what I had and it came out great. Thank you for the recipe!
The Rainbow Honey Mustard salad is INCREDIBLE! Made it tonight and it was a huge hit. That dressing is incredible and it was the perfect meal for our 100 plus degree day! Love everything I’ve tried, but this is my absolute new favorite! Thank you!
This is such an amazing salad. I feel like I’m eating a wonderful salad from a restaurant. Plus it is incredibly healthy! I also added strawberries which rounds out the flavors for me. Thanks for such a wonderful recipe!
This salad was super delicious. For the kids I served it deconstructed and everyone could put on what they wanted. My husband and I made it as written, WITH the crunchy onions, and it was so good. Served with a home made dinner roll.
This was delicious! My husband and I both loved it and it’s very nutritious. It’s definitely a keeper.
The dressing on this salad is delicious! I really love the combo of almond butter and honey mustard – just yum! I used shredded rotisserie chicken and subbed cheddar cheese for feta since that’s what I had on hand – very simple to put together, delicious and filling!
This salad is so delicious! I followed the recipe for the dressing exactly and it was amazing. I will definitely be making this salad often!!
Just made it tonight for husband and 2 teen boys. Added more chicken than 8oz but other than that kept it the same. They loved it!
Can you use peanut butter if you don’t have almond butter?
We haven’t tried, but we think it’d work out just fine!
This is seriously the best salad my 8 year old requested it as her back to school dinner. The child could pick anything and she picked this. We were all thrilled.
Looking forward to making this this week. Is there another alternative for a dressing? My husband can’t have too many nuts. Preferably something in a bottle lol
Hi Katie! Any vinaigrette (like balsamic vinaigrette) would be great with this salad!
Thanks for this wonderful recipe! We grilled instead of cooked chicken on stovetop (as I do not trust myself cooking chicken on stovetop – I either over/undercook). Also, I used 3T OJ, 1T water and 2T oil in the dressing to increase orange flavor. We only used grapes, as we did not have available blueberries. Still, a nice complement of flavors/textures.
Phenomenal salad. Filling and delicious!
So delicious! Definitely an improvement on my usual bland chicken on a bed of greens!!
This was delightful! Thank you for another beautiful and satisfying salad recipe that both my husband and I found really filling and delicious. I love the variety of textures and flavors and it’s very fresh-tasting.
We’re so glad you enjoyed it, Marie! Thanks for the comment!
I made this for lunch today and it was delicious! I love the nutty flavour, the sweetness from the fruits, the creaminess from the dressing and the crunch for the almonds. Mounds of flavour and textures, I didn’t want it to end! Can’t wait to have more tomorrow (might have it for dinner tonight too).
We love hearing this, Danielle! Thanks for the comment!
I’ve been looking forward to this recipe since you emailed it out and I finally made it today and prepped enough for lunches all week. It’s so good! I love the blend of textures. Thank you!!
You’re welcome, Abby! Glad you enjoyed it!