There is just nothing like a chopped salad — a salad with a whole lot of ingredients cut small, so you can get a terrific assortment of components all on one forkful. This one features chicken, so it’s a real main dish salad. Super satisfying.

You don’t have to serve this with anything — it’s a meal on its own. But if you want to whip up a batch of beer bread or biscuits, no one would ever say no to a piece of homemade bread with a terrific salad for lunch.

Chopped Salad with Chicken and Blue Cheese Dressing: A perfect chopped salad, with a terrific assortment of ingredients; every forkful is a good one.

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Chopped Salad with Chicken and Blue Cheese Dressing Ingredients

• Heart of romaine – I like crunchy lettuce in my chopped salads.
• Baby spinach – Adds some good nutrition and a softer texture to the combo.
• Grape or cherry tomatoes – You could also use larger tomatoes and cube them.
• Cucumbers – I like to use baby cucumbers, but you can also use regular or English cucumbers. Slice them in half lengthwise and then into half moons.
• Red bell pepper – Or whatever color you like.
• Red onion – Again, pick a color, any color!
• Greek or black olives – We love olives in my family, but skip them if you don’t.
• Cooked chicken breast – Dice the chicken into small cubes so the pieces blend nicely into the salad. This is a great use for a rotisserie chicken.
• Blue cheese dressing – Use storebought or homemade, your choice. See below for a quick way to transform homemade blue cheese dip into a creamier dressing.
• Crumbled cooked bacon – Bake the bacon, or try cooking it in the air fryer.

Substitutions and Variations for Chopped Salad

• You can change up the vegetables as you like; just try to get a vibrant mix of colors in there. Play with different colored bell peppers, use a medley of cherry or grape tomatoes, and any onion will do if you don’t have red. You can also use different types of olives.
• If you want to skip the chicken and bacon and keep the salad vegetarian, by all means, do that.
• Other good dressing options are Creamy Avocado Dressing, Avocado Ranch Dressing, or Ranch Dressing for a change of pace.

Blue Cheese Dressing

Making your own blue cheese dressing is surprisingly easy. Just add a few tablespoons of milk or cream to this blue cheese dip recipe for a quick homemade dressing. 

If you decide to purchase it, I recommend making a beeline for the dressing in the refrigerated produce section of the market. They taste fresher and usually have more generous chunks of actual blue cheese blended in. Make sure to store the dressing in the fridge.

How to Make Chopped Salad with Chicken and Blue Cheese Dressing

1. Build the salad: Pile the romaine and spinach in a large shallow serving bowl. Add the tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, onions, olives, chicken, and toss.
2. Dress, toss, and serve: Dollop on the blue cheese dressing and toss again. Top with the bacon if desired.

Salad Storage and Make-Ahead Tips

The vegetables can be prepped up to two days ahead of time; same with the chicken. If you want to make this salad ahead of time, don’t dress it until just before serving.

What to Serve With Chicken and Blue Cheese Chopped Salad

Lentil Tomato Soup

Pan con Tomate

Crispy Baked Sweet Potato Fries

More Salad Recipes

• Southwestern Chicken Taco Salad Bowl
• Chopped Salad with Chicken, Tomatoes, and Lemon Thyme Dressing
• Fully Loaded Spinach Salad with Bacon and Blue Cheese
• Chicken Piccata Orzo Salad
• Winter Chopped Salad