This bright and flavorful Tuscan Chicken Salad with sun-dried tomatoes, kalamata olives, and fresh dressing will have you dreaming of Italian sunsets. It's bright and crisp and fresh and everything a salad should be. No excessive chopping, simple ingredients, and classic flavors will make this a fast favorite. It's also gluten-free, dairy-free, and paleo.
Let's just be honest here -- I'm not a huge fan of homemade salads. So much chopping for one simple plate. Then storing all the ingredients for later, hoping they don't wilt or go bad.
But let me introduce you to this Tuscan Chicken Salad. It's hearty enough for dinner, light enough for lunch, and bursting with all your favorite Tuscan Italian flavors. It's as if it were plucked specially from Tuscany and delivered to your plate.
The chicken, marinade, and salad ingredients are low maintenance. The dressing is where we spice it up. Feel free to swap out ingredients here and customize it to your liking.
WHY YOU’LL LOVE THIS Tuscan Chicken Salad RECIPE:
- it's bright, fresh and different
- ingredients are easy to prepare
- no excessive chopping
- it’s gluten-free, dairy-free, and paleo
- only 20 minutes of active cooking and preparation. Marinade as long as you like.
Tuscan Chicken Salad INGREDIENTS:
Chicken Breast or tenders
You'll need 4 servings of uncooked chicken cut into bite-sized pieces for maximum flavor. We'll be using a simple marinade.
If using cooked chicken, you can add the flavors to the cooked chicken or incorporate them in the dressing.
A bed of crisp lettuce and Spinach
I used crisp green leaf lettuce chopped into bite-sized pieces mixed with spinach.
Any bed of greens will do!
Sun Dried tomatoes
Choose the ones packed in oil for maximum flavor. I like Mezzetta julienned Sun-dried tomatoes packed in oil. Chop them into bite-sized pieces if whole.
Red Onion
Slice the red onion as thinly as possible for a light flavor and crunch that's not overwhelming.
Kalamata Olives
I used Mezzetta jarred Kalamata Olives.
Marinade
One downside of this recipe is that it can appear to use a lot of ingredients for the marinade and dressing combined -- but many of them are reused!
Plus, you can double or triple batch the dressing to use on salads for the rest of the week. Yum.
- Garlic
- Shallot
- Onion Powder
- Salt and Pepper
- Olive Oil
Dressing
We're only adding 6 new ingredients here. All of them are very common in most spice cabinets.
- Olive oil
- Mayonnaise
- Coconut Aminos or gluten-free soy sauce
- Apple Cider Vinegar
- Garlic Powder
- Salt and Pepper
- Nutritional Yeast
- Italian Seasoning: Rosemary, Thyme
- Dijon Style Mustard
Tuscan Chicken Salad Recipe
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Tuscan Chicken Salad
- Prep Time: 10
- Cook Time: 10
- Total Time: 20 minutes
- Yield: 4 1x
- Diet: Gluten Free
Description
A super simple and tasty salad with zesty dressing and Tuscan flavors. Gluten-free, Dairy-free, grain-free, and paleo.
Ingredients
Chicken and marinade
- 1 pound chicken breast or tenders, cut into bite-sized pieces
- 1 shallot, sliced thinly
- 3 rounded tablespoons chopped sun-dried tomatoes packed in oil, plus more if desired
- ¼ teaspoon garlic powder
- ¼ teaspoon onion powder
Salad
- 4 servings fresh lettuce and spinach mixture
- ¼ medium red onion, sliced thinly
- 20 pitted kalamata olives
- optional: fresh basil leaves for garnish
Dressing
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 tablespoon mayonnaise
- 1 ½ teaspoons apple cider vinegar
- ½ teaspoon coconut aminos or soy sauce
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- ½ teaspoon nutritional yeast
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon dried crushed rosemary
- ¼ teaspoons dried crushed thyme
- ¼ teaspoons Dijon style mustard
- 1 pinch ground black pepper (1 pinch = ⅛ teaspoon)
Instructions
1. Combine chicken and marinade. Mix together well and set aside. The longer you let it sit, the more flavorful the chicken is. Sometimes I set it up the night before cooking, and sometimes I make it right away.
2. After marinading, add the chicken mixture to a skillet on medium heat. Cook, stirring on occasion, for 7-10 minutes, until chicken pieces are cooked through.
3. Assemble the bed of greens. Add thinly sliced red onions and about 5 kalamata olives per plate. Distribute the cooked chicken and sun-dried tomatoes on top. Add extra sun-dried tomatoes if desired.
4. Add all dressing ingredients to a jar and shake. Alternatively, you can whisk them together in a bowl. Divide the dressing amongst the plates -- each plate receives ¼ of the total dressing. Enjoy!
Notes
This salad tastes wonderful when the chicken is warm after cooking, or cooled the second day.
- Category: Lunch, Dinner
- Method: Skillet
- Cuisine: Italian
Keywords: healthy chicken salad recipe, healthy chicken salad meal prep
Hungry for more?
Check out these similar recipes:
- Chinese Five Spice Chicken with Zucchini Spears
- Easy Roasted Chicken Fajita Bowl
- Creamy Sun-dried Tomato Pasta
- One Pot Lentil Pasta
Or explore our tasty gluten-free Recipe Index <3
I know you’ll love this one!
❤︎ Jamie
Kayla O.
Perfect for the warmer days ahead! I made a double batch of everything so we can enjoy it the next day as well!
★★★★★
Roberta
This is the perfect recipe! Totally captures the Italian flavors! Next time I'm going to use shrimp instead of chicken. 🙂
★★★★★
Amber L.
Super yummy! Will definitely make it again!
★★★★★
Jenna
So good! The Kalamata olives and sun-dried tomatoes really make this special!
★★★★★
Jamie
I'm so glad you enjoyed it Jenna!
Carrie
This is really good! I made a double batch of the chicken and dressing so I can enjoy it again tomorrow.
★★★★★
Jamie
I love that! A double batch is a great idea. Thank you so much for sharing Carrie!
Jenna
Love the combination of sun-dried tomatoes and Kalamata olives! Super tasty salad!!
★★★★★
Jamie
Me too! You can't go wrong with those two ingredients. Thank you for the review Jenna!