Name: Tex-Mex Chopped Chicken Salad
Prep time: 25 min
Total time: 25 min
Ingredients: 3 tbsp Greek yogurt; 2 tbsp mayonnaise; 1 tsp apple cider vinegar; 1 tsp lime juice; 1 tsp Mexican style chili powder; 1 tsp Penzey's chicken taco seasoning; 1/2 tsp onion powder; 1/2 tsp garlic powder; 1/2 tsp cumin; cayenne pepper for more heat if desired; 1 1/2 head romaine lettuce (, chopped); 2 cups chopped chicken pieces; 1 cup frozen sweet corn; 1 15 oz . can black beans (, drained and washed); 3 Roma tomatoes (, seeds removed, diced); 1 cup red onion (, chopped); 1 jalapeno pepper (, diced); 4 oz . medium cheddar cheese (, cut into 1/4" pieces); spicy nacho Doritos corn chips to crumble into salad if desired (, (careful, as these add quite a few calories))

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If you’re like me, you like a quick, easy-to-make meal. Something you could put together kind of spur of the moment. In steps your friendly neighborhood Rotisserie Chicken! Grab one on your way home, along with whatever else you need for this easy, tasty salad. Most of these ingredients are one’s that you probably have on hand. Next, stir up this new and improved southwest-style dressing and make a Tex-Mex chopped chicken salad.

The Southwest Style Dressing

When I say new and improved, I’m referring to my copycat Newman’s Own southwest dressing that I concocted in the Southwest Dressing Recipe post I did a while back. What I did was take out a lot of the fat and sugar and made a dressing that has less than 50 calories per serving! And it has the same great taste.

The main ingredient this time is Greek yogurt. High in protein but low in fat. The dressing contains a little mayo but no added sugar. The spices are what keeps this southwest dressing true to form. You can make it as spicy hot as you’d like by adding a little more cayenne pepper. In fact, when I mixed this up, I used a half teaspoon of cayenne and both MaryJo and I had happy, tingly mouths after we finished eating.

Chop up the veggies and you’ll be eating in no time. If you use roma tomatoes, I find it easiest to cut them lengthwise into quarters, then use my thumb to remove the seeds and juice. You can see in the picture that they are ready to be diced up.

For the chicken, I used one breast, thigh and leg of a rotisserie chicken, which gave me 2 cups of chopped chicken. Clean the meat off the rest of the chicken and you can have that for another meal.

If you’d like to make this dressing for everyday use, I’d add a little water or extra lime juice to thin it, as it is pretty thick. Just add enough to make it pourable. It should keep for a couple of weeks in the refrigerator.

Let me know how you like the new southwest dressing recipe and I hope you’ll try this easy Tex-Mex chopped chicken salad.

I used Penzey’s Chicken Taco Seasoning in the dressing mix. You can use other taco seasonings or add a little more Mexican-style chili powder. The chili powder I used is McCormick Hot Mexican Style Chili Powder.

The nutrition information includes 5 Doritos corn chips which are nearly 60 calories…Ouch!

Here are a few more tasty recipes to try: