Around these parts, we take our ranch dressing seriously! So seriously in fact, that we plan recipes like BBQ Chicken Layered Salad just for the chance to properly highlight my favorite dressing!
I love my 7 Layered Salad recipe so much and I wanted to figure out how to put a different spin on it. That new spin? It’s little bit country, a whole lot of crunch and it’s the perfect dish for a potluck, BBQ or picnic. By putting the dressing on the bottom your salad doesn’t get soggy, but you could also wait to add dressing until just before service. Can’t wait to hear if you like this one as much as I do!
You might have seen me make this recipe live on my Facebook page last week, if not, feel free to check it out here.
First, let’s make the BBQ ranch. This is really simple. All you have to do is mix store-bought BBQ sauce with store-bought ranch dressing. That’s it. Then layer it into the bottom of a large glass bowl or trifle dish. Glass is best because you can see all the pretty layers, but just use whatever you have girl, it will still be delicious!
Then toss the shredded chicken with BBQ sauce as well. This will give that chicken even more flavor. We just used store-bought rotisserie chicken that we shredded, but feel free to use leftovers or cook up a few chicken breasts on the stove top.
Once that’s done, just start layering the different components of your salad in your serving dish.
Finish off the salad with shredded cheese, avocado, black olives and croutons. I used Texas toast croutons for the top, but feel free to use cornbread croutons or crumbled cornbread or even tortilla chips.
If you don’t plan on eating the BBQ Chicken Layered salad right away, then save the dressing on the side and just serve the salad and people can place their dressing on their own.
If you don’t have a big enough bowl or dish to display the salad in, use a large vase! That’s what I used. Then you can just dump everything into a large bowl and toss together.
- 1 cup store-bought ranch
- 3/4 cup store-bought BBQ sauce
- 1 1/2 cups shredded rotisserie or leftover chicken
- 1 pint cherry tomatoes, sliced in half
- 4 cups shredded lettuce
- 1 small yellow bell pepper, sliced
- 1 small orange red bell pepper, sliced
- 1 small red onion, sliced
- 1/2 cup sliced black olives
- 2 large avocado, diced
- 3 scallions, sliced
- 1/2 cup shredded cheese
- 6 strips crumbled crispy bacon
- 1 cup croutons or crushed tortilla chips
- In a small bowl, whisk together the ranch with 1/4 cup BBQ sauce until smooth, set aside.
- In a medium bowl, toss together the shredded chicken with remaining BBQ sauce, set aside.
- To assemble the layered salad, pour the BBQ ranch into a tall trifle dish or glass serving bowl. Then layer in the remaining ingredients, tomatoes, lettuce, bell peppers, chicken, red onion, avocado, cheese, scallions, bacon, olives, and croutons. Serve immediately or cover with plastic wrap and keep in fridge until ready to eat.
