Santa Fe Chicken Salad

YEAH BABY! This is awesome!! The combination of the tortilla crispies, the marinated grilled chicken and the funky dressing makes this salad a huge hit with my entire family!! A filling meal all by itself and I think is one of the best green salads I have come across on this site yet! Thanks Judy! I'd recommend this to anyone!

Awesome! I'm a huge fan of the Applebee's version, and this is just as satisfying. For the dressing (which I did not double--was enough for me), I also added about a tablespoon of taco seasoning to kick it up a bit. I also burned the crispies, so I just crumbled up a few tortilla chips for topping. Like Applebee's, I also served it with a dallop of sour cream, a dallop of salsa and a dallop of homemade guacamole. Thanks Judy!

I confess I did not make the salad. I only used the chicken suggestion. I marinated the chicken in the mayo/dressing mixture overnight and broiled it the next day. Wow. Who would have thought mayo and Italian dressing would be so delicious together. I'll definitely make the chicken again and even try the salad.

Very Tasty, Really close to the Applebees Version which is what I was looking for. Thanks

The marinade for the chicken and the dressing came out great. My husband and I really enjoyed this recipe.

best salad I've ever made. the dressing was awesome. we ended up marinating the chicken for about 2 days... is was very, very yummy. nice presentation too.

This salad was excellent and so easy to make. I marinated my chicken for 2 days (I used fat free sour cream instead of mayo) and it was so moist and flavorful. Yummy, both my husband and I really enjoyed it.

I thought this was a great recipe! I love salads but my fiance is not such a fan so it's great to find something that I enjoyed and he wanted more of! The only problem, if that was any, I found was the prep time. Although, the result was definitely worth it!!!

Really enjoyed this salad. My husband loved it! The whole crispie thing didn't work out, so used broken up "Tostitos" chips instead. Chicken was very tasty & really moist! Will use the chicken marinade in the future, for just plain old grilled chicken. The dressing adds the final touch. The chicken & dressing really do make this salad! We topped off with some sliced avocado. Makes ALOT of salad!

Great salad, Judy! This was on the buffet table at our family reunion. I added kidney beans for color and offered two choices of dressing: the suggested ranch dressing with salsa, and one of my favorites, caesar dressing with 1T cumin and 2T taco seasoning added.Everyone loved it! Thanks for sharing.

Great-tasting salad and very easy to make. To save even more time, I skipped the first 3 ingredients and just bought at the grocery store the ready-cooked, packaged "southwestern" chicken strips (by Louis Rich). I also added shredded cheese, can of corn, and avocados.

I really enjoy this recipe and look forward to making it in the summer.

Very good. My husband loved it. The chicken turned out very tender.I will make this again.

GREAT salad! My whole family enjoyed it. In fact, my very picky 6 year old said, "Mommy, I think we should have this every night!" I made the recipe without any modifications, except I ended up making twice the amount of dressing. The recipe (directions for making 4 servings) fed our whole family of 8 which includes 2 adults and 3 teens. And we had some salad to spare! We loved the crispies! For those that have had problems, keep a very good watch on them as they're cooking. Turn them once in awhile. When they turn golden, take them out. They will crisp up as they cool. Thanks, Judy! This recipe will definitely be added to my 'family favorite' file! I felt like I was dining in a restaurant tonight!

I highly recommend this recipe. I was not able to marinate the chicken so I cooked it in the Mayonnaise/Italian dressing mix. The chicken was the best part of the whole salad (usually my least favorite). Everyone that has tried this salad has loved it

Really, really yummy. I keep burning the tortilla sticks, but it's still a winner! Even my kids love it.

To TRULY make this an authentic salad here is the changes that I made that I LOVE. Cut up chicken-your desired amount. Add olive oil to your fry pan and add taco seasoning. Then add your chicken pieces and more taco seasoning on top. Cook until done. Let cool and then refrigerate. Open a can of black beans and rinse and drain. Send to fridge to chill. Assemble lettuce, frozen corn, black beans, tomatoes, chicken, and santa fe corn strips (found in dressing aisle) then top with your mixture of ranch and salsa that has been blended together. It is a bit spicy but so good.

This was absolutely the most delicous salad ever. I recommend it to everyone.

I thought it was easy, and tasty. I added black beans and corn, and used fat-free dressing and it was delicious.

This was excellent! Just like Applebee's. I did make several modifications to make this a healthier recipe. First, I used light mayo in the dressing but you could even get away with fat free as the flavors in the salsa fill in for the lack of flavor in the lighter mayos. Second, I reduced the amount of cheese to just a sprinkle. Finally, marinated the chicken breast in fat free italian dressing. I usually HATE fat free anything but with all the flavors going on in this recipe, you can make the substitutions without sacrificing the taste. Oh- I also heated a can of black beans on the stove top with a little mexican seasoning and salsa and served them on the salad to give the recipe more bulk since this was our primary meal. My picky dh said not to change a thing and make it again next week. A winner. Thanks!

My husband and I enjoyed this very much. I added diced avocados to the top, which was a good addition.

This was a very good salad. I believe the dressing is what makes this so good. I made "A Good Easy Garlic Chicken" to go with this rather than marinating and really like the tortilla crispies. My husband could have done without them, but I used whole wheat tortillas, which don't have a lot of flavor so that might have been the problem. My mother makes a dip that is similar to the dressing in the recipe. She mixes an 8 oz package of cream cheese with 1 cup or so of picante sauce and refrigerates it. It's tastes just like this dressing, except it's thicker due to the cream cheese. I made this salad 2 nights in a row. I'd love to try it with chopped avacado. Thanks for sharing.

Not one of my favorites, dont think I'll be making this again.

This was AWESOME! I love the Applebee's version, and this was pretty darn close. And it was pretty easy, as well. I served it with a dallup of guacamole and it was a wonderful meal.

Awesome! The only thing I changed was not making the dressing in the blender...I just whisked the two dressing ingredients in a bowl by hand. I, too, needed to make double the dressing. Will definitely make again, the whole family loved it!!

this was okay. i "george foremaned" the chicken & it seemed to lose a lot of flavor that way. next time i'll bake it. i'll try this again & try to improve upon it.

I followed this recipe word for word and it was wonderful. I wanted to try something new and different and I warned my family this might not be something you like. I was pleasantly surprised to hear raves from them all. The chicken is delicious--I might make that as a separate main course w/ rice in the future.

The tortilla crispies did not work for me, I ended up burning them twice! But I'm sure that was just me and the salad was delicious without them! The green onions gave it just the kick it needed! I will definitely make this again (without the crispies).

I added fresh cilantro to the dressing which gave it a fabulous taste

Excellent I follwed the recipe exactly it was amazing. Actually not exact I was feeling lazy so I bought Kraft pre-mixed tex mex cheese it had jalepeno in it and gave the salad a nice kick. I didn't use the crispy pieces of tortilla to lower calories but my husband mixed the crunch so I will use next time.

Delicious chix salad. I made extra chix and my husband took it for lunch.

AWESOME!! :thumbsup: I did add black beans/extra sweet corn niblets and fresh cilantro. Yummy...:)

Good Recipe. I skipped the mayo in the marinade only to make it a little bit lower in calories and it was still great.

This recipe is fantastic! I love to change up the toppings to make it interesting. Also, I crisp up my tortillas in olive oil on the cook top which gives them added flavor. Superb!

This was OK but not wonderful. I think we would have preferred more of a southwestern marinade.

This was a nice and easy salad. No one complained while eatting. I cooked the chicken in the oven. I cant wait for the winter to be over so I can grill it. I love me some grilled chicken!

This was the best chicken salad I have ever tried. Loved everything about it!

YEAH BABY! This is awesome!! The combination of the tortilla crispies, the marinated grilled chicken and the funky dressing makes this salad a huge hit with my entire family!! A filling meal all by itself and I think is one of the best green salads I have come across on this site yet! Thanks Judy! I'd recommend this to anyone!

Very good & very easy!! I added corn and avocado & only marinated the chicken for about 6 hours. This will be added to our family favorites ;-)

I made this as-is and really enjoyed it. Will definitely make again.

Very good salad on a warm evening. I used crushed taco chips as someone else mentioned. Definitely will be making again! Thanks.

Wow..Love this! I make my taco salad dressing the same so I had to try this recipe. The chicken, dressing and crispies really work. Will definitely make this (platter style) and serve for my CDM party! Thanks Judy..

This was a great salad. I think we'd enjoy it next time with the addition of black beans or white beans. The dressing was delicious and easy!

My husband is starting to love salads thanks to this goodie! I only marinated chicken for a couple of hours & it still came out so good! :)

Excellent. Some sliced avocado on the side or even mashed and spread into the salad goes great.

This salad was even better than I expected, which is good, since the first time I made it I served it to company. I made it as directed, except I put all the ingredients in one large bowl, I used bagged mixed salad greens, extra tomato and chicken. The chicken and the dressing were especially tasty! Oh, I followed some other suggestions and added a can of sweet corn too. I'll make this again for company!

I recently made this for a group of my friends for lunch. Instead of making four individual plates, I made this on a large platter and topped it with crumbled tortilla chips. This is a great recipe and I will definitely use it again!

This was really good but I didn't care for the marinade.

My husband and I loved this. It was a very filling and satisfying salad. We skipped the onions. LOVED the tortilla crispies. We made them with corn tortillas and salted them before broiling. Now my husband wants me to make them as a snack. GREAT RECIPE!

Overall the recipe itself was good... But it was not as good as expected. There was not enough dressing; we definitely needed to double it. We also needed more cheese. The cheese topping + the tortilla crisps (we used crushed taco chips) tied the salad all together. The chicken was AWESOME!!! Though we may not make the salad again, we'll make the chicken just because it was so good!

Very good salad. Made it for 2 - alot left over. Simple dressing with delicious flavor. Recommended.

This was awesome!! We invited a few friends, and we are all trying to diet, so this was our dinner. Everybody enjoyed it and we finished it all!!! Great meal!

This is excellent the way it is, but there are so many ways you can change it to make many different salads. This one is definitely a keeper. Thanks...

Pretty good. I just used crushed tortilla chips. I prefer a creamy dressing with this salad.

Excellent salad. The salad dressing is so good. I didn't mix it in the blender, but mixed it by hand and put it into the fridge the same time I started to marinate the chicken. This let the flavors of the salad dressing blend and left it a little chunky. We will be eating this by the pool all summer!

Excellent. I added black beans, corn, and avocado which made it a hearty meal. I took a shortcut and used a rotisserie chicken.

This was very good. I followed the directions as written. I did double the dressing since my husband and I like extra dressing. We will make this again.

Excellent! I added some black beans and it was fab.

Love this salad! I leave out the tomatoes (personal preference), but it’s one of the very few salads I’ll actually eat.

Very tasty! I didn't think I would like the mayo on the chicken, but you don't really taste it and it makes the chicken very moist and tender.

Make this salad quite frequently. Only substitution I make is to use Fritos and Hidden Valley Spicy Ranch Dressing. The marinade is what really makes it though.

Good salad but lacked the wow factor. I added hard boiled eggs which we liked. Not sure how to beef up to a five star but I will make again and try.