Chicken & Fruit Salad with Raspberry Dressing is one of my fave salads. The whole combo of fruit with salad greens smacks of the 90s and I think I’ve been making this version since around then, originally culled from Cooking Light. On a hot day, there’s nothing better and there’s a little something to please almost anyone!

Chicken & Fruit Salad with Raspberry Dressing

Think of this salad all summer long. It’s gorgeous, it’s delish and it’s got to be the perfect summer salad. Have it on the deck, maybe by the pool, but don’t forget about it if asked to bring something to a party, shower, or another function. While it’s not fussy, laid out on a platter it always impresses.

About the Chicken:

So let’s talk about the ingredients. First and foremost, of course, there’s the chicken, and here breast meat just shines. Make this with almost any already cooked chicken, grilled, poached, roasted, rotisserie, leftover – it really doesn’t matter.

If you’re using leftover chicken:

• The creamy Raspberry Dressing plays beautifully with almost any flavor your leftover chicken has picked up from marinating or cooking.
• If your leftover chicken is a little dry, poach it in chicken broth to heat through. It will pick up a little moisture. A heavy boil or too long in the hot liquid will cook it more and defeat the whole purpose, making it dryer, so go easy.

Another note: if you’d like this as a side salad, of course, feel free to omit the chicken altogether. It’s still delish with the fruits and the and almonds.

About the Fruit & Dressing:

Feel free to vary the fruit to your taste or with what looks good at the store as the season progresses.

• I love the particular combo in the recipe; blueberries, strawberries, bananas, and kiwis are a great blend during the spring.
• You can see in my photos that I used strawberries, blueberries, apple, and honeydew this time around.
• Tropical fruits are super great with the dressing, too, although it might not immediately come to mind to blend the flavors of the tropics with the raspberry dressing.

You just can’t go wrong! Just choose a mix of textures and colors for the most appealing salad. That creaminess in the dressing lets it play nicely with so many flavors.

About the Rest:

The dressing is a little sweet/tart so it shines with a mix of lettuce that has maybe a little radicchio or arugula or anything a little peppery. The salad is beautiful, too, with spinach or a spring type of mix.

If you wish, you could add a little creamy cheese. I usually do. Goat cheese is perfect and Feta is really nice, too. Either plays well against the Raspberry Dressing. Add in a few nuts to finish (pine nuts or maybe almonds, either slivered or blanched) and you’re gonna have a stellar salad.

Chicken & Fruit Salad with Raspberry Dressing

Making Chicken & Fruit Salad with Raspberry Dressing:

The dressing is super simple, just whisk the ingredients together. Taste and adjust, add a bit more of this or that if you’d like. You can use any yogurt, from full fat to fat-free you like.

This salad is really, after the dressing is made, all about the assembly. Add bananas, of course, just before serving. You can quickly dip banana slices in lemon or orange (or even lime) to keep them from browning, but there is a danger of them becoming wet and/or a little slimy. I think it’s always best to hold off on the bananas until last minute.

If you don’t have chicken already cooked, it’s really a simple matter to poach a breast or two.

• Just add your chicken to cold water with a little salt (add a few peppercorns if you have on hand) and bring up to a bare simmer.
• Simmer gently for about 10 to 12 minutes or until done all the way through.
• When poaching if time allows, cool in the broth; your chicken will always hold more moisture that way.

Saving Money on Chicken & Fruit Salad with Raspberry Dressing:

There’s no need to ever pay full price for chicken – it goes on sale too often. It pays to know the difference between a good sales price and a rock bottom sales price (usually about once a quarter) in your area and stock up at the low.

Often the best prices are larger family packs so portion out in sizes suitable for meals for your family and freeze. I prefer breasts which are usually more expensive than budget chicken thighs, although many people prefer thighs for being moister. You do you.

Fruit in a salad like this can be easily varied by what’s in season and what is at a great price. A great budget strategy is to choose one fruit that’s the star of the show (like the strawberries) and fill in the rest of the salad with less expensive fruits.

Salad greens are always less expensive by the bunch rather than the bag, although since bagged salads have become so popular, it’s getting harder to find stores that carry bunches of fresh lettuce greens. The mark up on the bagged salads is 4 to 10 times the amount of a bunch. It saddens me! If more people would be willing to do the math and “vote” with their dollar I’m thinking those bagged salads would have gone by the wayside long ago.

I’m always so bummed when I pick a bag of lettuce up and open it only to have my nose greeted by a stench. Or when I realize that after a day or two, the bottom of the bag or box is sitting in a pool of moisture from decay.

• If you add a clean paper towel to the bottom of either a bag or box, it will absorb some of the excess moisture and the greens will keep a little longer.
• It’s easily done by opening up either, placing the paper towel on the top, then turning the bag or box upside down. The paper towel is now at the bottom. There’s no need to remove the greens.

Chicken & Fruit Salad with Raspberry Dressing

Chicken & Fruit Salad with Raspberry Dressing

Print Recipe

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• Author: adapted from Cooking Light
• Total Time: 15 minutes
• Yield: 4 servings 1x
• Category: Salads
• Cuisine: American

Ingredients

Scale 1x2x3x

Chicken & Fruit Salad:

• about 6 cups of mixed salad greens of your choice
• 2 cups of cooked shredded chicken (about 2 small breast halves)
• 1 cup blueberries
• 1 cup quartered strawberries
• 1 large sliced banana
• 1 cup sliced peeled kiwifruit (about 3 kiwifruit)
• 2 tablespoons pine nuts, toasted (substitute slivered almonds)
• 2 tablespoons herbed goat cheese (substitute feta)
• Raspberry Dressing, below

Raspberry Dressing:

• 1/3 cup honey
• 1/4 cup raspberry or red wine vinegar
• 1/4 cup yogurt
• 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
• 2 teaspoons olive oil
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper

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Instructions

Chicken & Fruit Salad:

Arrange 1 1/2 cups salad greens on each of 4 plates. Divide the remaining ingredients except Raspberry Dressing equally among 4 plates. Drizzle each serving with 3 tablespoons Raspberry Dressing.

Raspberry Dressing:

Combine all the ingredients; stir with a whisk.

Nutritional Information:

For salad with dressing, as written with no variations, amount per serving: Calories 120, Calories from fat 20 %, Fat 2.6 g, Sat fat 0.3 g, Monofat 1.8 g, Polyfat 0.3 g, Protein 1.2 g, Carbohydrate 25.1 g, Fiber 0.1 g, Cholesterol 0.0 mg, Iron 0.4 mg, Sodium 257 mg, Calcium 39 mg

Keywords: Almonds, Blueberries, Chicken, Chicken Breast, Chicken Salad, Fruit, Honey, honeydew, Kiwi, Main dish salad, Nuts and Seeds, Romaine, Salad, Salad Dressings, Strawberries, Vinegar, Yogurt

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I’ll be sharing this to Fiesta Friday number 70; I’m excited to be co-hosting the event this week, with Dina of Giramuk’s Kitchen.