Southwest Spinach Salad with Chicken Recipe

A bold and vibrant 30-minute meal featuring spinach, sauteed chicken, roasted bell pepper, corn, avocado, and a chipotle dressing

This delightful Southwest spinach salad dishes up a mouthful of incredible, bold Southwest flavors. If you're not familiar, the flavors of the Southwestern USA region can be described as vibrant, pronounced, and spirited. Southwest cooking has evolved over time, influenced and shaped by many cultures, including Native American, Spanish, Mexican, and even cattle-herding cowboys.

So, what transforms our simple spinach salad into the unique, mouthwatering, lively flavors of Southwest cuisine? A few simple tweaks is all!

It's the spice rub for the chicken and the additional indigenous ingredients in the salad. It's the spices in the chipotle dressing, too. Everything screams out “Southwest Flavors!”

I use cumin, coriander, cayenne, and smoked paprika throughout the dish. The red bell peppers, corn, avocado, green onion, and cilantro are synonymous with Southwest cooking. And finally, chicken, although not native to the Southwest, became very popular after it was introduced, and every Southwest household has a favorite chicken recipe.

Three Reasons Why You Will Love the Southwest Spinach Salad

• Bold, bright Southwest flavors in a delightful spinach salad – The bold, dynamic, and zestful Southwest flavors are showcased in the ingredients of our Southwest spinach salad recipe and emerge to satisfy and delight the adventurous and eager connoisseur.

• How to make the chicken breast taste satisfyingly Southwest – It begins with my vibrant spice mixture. I coat the chicken with the rub and then sauté it in olive oil, which not only brightens up the chicken breast but is a perfect accompaniment to the rest of the piquant (a fancy way to say pleasantly stimulating or exciting to the mind) ingredients.

• There’s a ton of interesting bonus information added to this recipe, too – I've included instructions for making a Southwest chicken rub and a Southwest chipotle salad dressing, If you want to how to roast a red bell pepper on your stovetop, I have a recipe here for that.
  
  The chipotle salad dressing and the sauteed chicken can also be used as stand-alone recipes, as the salad dressing can be used in many other types of salads, and the sauteed chicken can be the main ingredient in many other dishes.

This is Southwest Spinach Salad is Easy to Make!

I can't stress this enough. It's easy. When you look at the recipe it might look intimidating, but that's because I rolled three recipes into one.

Cooking the chicken - this is the only "cooking" part of this recipe. And it's easy. Takes only 10-15 minutes. You can meal prep this part if you're making this salad for tomorrow's lunch.

Making the rub and the chipotle dressing - No cooking involved. Just mix together some basic ingredients in a small bowl. That's it!

Making the salad - You pretty much just put it all in a bowl.

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Ingredients and Directions for the Chipotle Dressing

• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
• 1 small chipotle chili in adobo sauce, finely minced
• 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
• 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• Salt and pepper to taste

Directions: Thoroughly mix the olive oil, lime juice, and Dijon mustard together until an emulsion is formed. Add and thoroughly mix in the chipotle chili, smoked paprika, cumin, salt and pepper.

Ingredients and Directions for the Rub and Sauteed Chicken

• 1 boneless, skinless chicken breast
• ½ tablespoon onion powder
• ½ tablespoon garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 teaspoon dried cumin
• 1 teaspoon dried coriander
• 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
• 1 teaspoon cayenne
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 3 tablespoons olive oil

Directions: To ensure that the chicken cooks evenly and remains moist and juicy, place the chicken breast between two pieces of plastic wrap. Then, with a meat mallet, gently pound the chicken breast until the thickness of the chicken breast is even.

Mix all the Southwest chicken rub spices together, and liberally sprinkle the spice mixture over both sides of the chicken. Place the three tablespoons of olive oil in a sauté pan, and sauté the chicken breast until it is golden brown, roughly 3 – 4 minutes a side, depending on the thickness of the chicken breast.

Ingredients and Directions for the Final Salad

To Assemble The Spinach Salad (for one serving)

• 2 cups uncooked packaged baby spinach
• 1 red bell pepper, charred, peeled and cut into bite-size pieces
• ½ cup frozen corn kernels, thawed and dried on a paper towel
• ¼ cup fresh cilantro, chopped
• ¼ cup green onions, chopped
• 3 tablespoons chipotle dressing, recipe below
• 1 whole sauteed and sliced Southwest chicken breast, recipe below
• 1 small avocado, cut into large chunks

1. Char the red bell peppers – See how to roast a bell pepper at home here.

2. Assemble the salad and add the dressing – Place the spinach in a large bowl and add the roasted red bell peppers, corn kernels, cilantro, and green onions. Drizzle in the chipotle dressing and toss to coat.

3) Finishing the salad – Place the salad on a serving plate, and add the chopped avocado and sliced chicken on top of the salad. Garnish with some of the chopped cilantro, diced green onions, and roasted red bell peppers if you desire.

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Notes and Suggestions to Consider While Making this Southwest Spinach Salad

• Taste the strength of the ingredients as you go along – Many of the ingredients, especially the spices, might be spicy and hot depending upon your tolerance.
  
  As you are making the chicken rub and the chipotle salad dressing, be sure to taste the combination of the ingredients and adjust the recipe to suit your needs and your tastebuds.
  
  This goes for the salt and pepper, too. Add only as much as you feel is necessary. Remember, you can always add more, but you can never take it away.

• A special caution about the chipotle pepper in adobo sauce – Chipotle pepper in adobo sauce is intentionally created to be very hot. But the flavor is just amazing and can’t be reproduced or substituted with any other ingredient.
  
  Just be cautious; taste it first, then use as little or as much as you like. But believe me; you will be happy when you discover the depth and richness that chipotle pepper brings to the salad dressing.

• No chicken available, no problem! – Steak, shrimp, or fish are all excellent protein substitutions that would work fantastically with this Southwest spinach salad. Simply follow the directions for the Southwest rub in the recipe, add it to the protein of your choice, and sauté as directed in the recipe.

Tips, Tricks, and Substitutions

• Substitutions for the spinach – Although spinach is a remarkable base for our Southwest chicken salad, any leafy lettuce will do just as well. Consider using red leaf lettuce, green leaf lettuce, arugula, mesclun or spring mix, or even romaine.

• Buy a chicken rub – If you are in a hurry or have run out of time and can’t make the Southwest chicken rub from scratch, many excellent Southwest seasonings are available on the market. A favorite Southwest-style chicken seasoning is iSpice Southwest Seasoning.

• OK, one more time – Roasting the red bell peppers, although a blast to do and the end product tastes so remarkable (and here are my instructions to do it), it is a somewhat tedious and messy task. Buying them already prepared is a time-saving shortcut. They are not as delicious as homemade, but they will certainly do as a quick substitution.

Recommended Side: Rice

The perfect accompaniment to our Southwest spinach salad with sauteed chicken is rice. Not just any rice, however, but Southwest rice. Try including a spicy Spanish rice, cilantro lime rice, or even avocado rice. The rice can be added right to the salad, underneath the salad  as a base, or just serve it on the side. Whatever you decide to serve it, the rice will take the Southwest flavors of the salad right over the top.

More 30-Minute Southwestern Dishes

One Pan Southwest Chicken and Rice

Gluten-Free Blackened Shrimp Tacos

Instant Pot Stuffed Pepper Soup

Crock Pot Chicken Chili Enchilada Soup (okay, not a 30-minute meal because it's cooked in a Crock Pot, but it is super easy to prepare)