Grilled Chili Lime Chicken Fajita Salad (+ VIDEO) (2024)

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BY Karina | 148 Comments

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Grilled Chili Lime Chicken Fajita Saladwith a dressingthat doubles as a marinade! Agenius way of keeping ALLof the incredible flavours in this salad!

ThisChili Lime Chicken Fajita Salad has so much flavour happening, you don’t know where to start. Creamy avocado slices, grilled red and yellow pepper strips (capsicum), or the succulent chicken thighs. Fajita territory went down in this kitchen. Yeah, it did…

Fajita Salad

The challenge over here was to make something Tex-Mex or with Mexican inspired flavours. I’m over Tacos, (I know, don’t get me started on the sin this sentence is committing right now), and I’m over winter food.Long story short, I wanted a salad. And ifyou’ve been following me for a while, you know by now that I don’t do rabbit salads, AKA starvation salads. I load them up with so much food there’s no chance of starving anything.

The Marinade

This marinade doubles as a dressing. Why? I didn’t want a dressing to come along and destroy the flavour the marinade had perfectly created in the chicken, so I mademore of it, halved it, then saved halfof the UNTOUCHED marinade to use later as a dressing!

Too many recipes call for one type of flavour combination to season the chicken, and another completely different flavoured dressing for drizzling. This way, we’re getting both done at the same time, while keeping the same beautiful flavour throughout this fajita salad!Red chili flakes + freshly squeezed lime juice + cilantro (sub it out if you don’t like it, but it is so good in this) + garlic + cumin = so many flavours that dance together and create a steamy love affair in your mouth!

Rest assured, the dressing DOES NOT touch the chicken at any time. How?

Mix up your marinade/dressing ingredients in a 1 cup capacity jug (if you have one. A normal jug or mug is fine to use.)
Pour out HALF into a shallow bowl or dish to marinate your chicken thighs.
The other remaining UNTOUCHED half that is still in your jug is then refrigerated to use as a dressing once your salad is ready! I do feel the need to break this down as some people have been confused about this marinade/dressing description.

Marinate for however long you have. I’ve tried marinating for two hours, overnight, and when I didn’t have the time to soak anything, I mixed, dipped and grilled without marinating. It all works!

Bbq, Grill Pan or Skillet

Which brings me to my next point.Chargrilled chicken. You can use breast for this recipe, but thighs are so juicy and tender and 100% suit this salad. I use either a stove top grill pan for this OR a barbecue, depending on the season!

What if you don’t have a grill or grill pan?A non stick pan or skillet is fine to use also (see the video above the recipe card).

Dressing

Once your chicken is cooked through, allow it to rest for a good 5 minutes to lock in the juices before slicing into strips. Use this resting time to fry up your sliced onion and pepper strips.Then throw all of your ingredients together in a large bowl and drizzle with the reserved UNTOUCHED dressing.

We always use Romaine lettuce in this fajita salad, which is also known as Cos lettuce in Australia, but you can also use butter lettuce, ice berg lettuce or even Kale!

In less than 20 minutes, you have a loaded up salad, fresh and fullof flavour. Just like this Honey Mustard Chicken, Avocado + Bacon Salad, or this popularGrilled Chimichurri Chicken Salad, thisGrilled Chili Lime Chicken Fajita Salad is a meal in itself and packed with flavour!

Watch how we make this Grilled Chili Lime Chicken Fajita Salad right here!

ORIGINALLY POSTED AUGUST 9, 2015

Tender and juicy chicken thighs grilled in a chili lime marinade that doubles as a dressing! Creamy avocado slices, grilled red and yellow peppers, and succulent chicken pieces.
ORIGINAL RECIPE BY KARINA, CAFEDELITES ©

Ingredients

Marinade/Dressing:

3 tablespoons olive oil
100 ml (just over 1/3 cup) freshly squeezed lime juice
2 tablespoons cilantro, chopped
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 teaspoon brown sugar
3/4 teaspoon red chili flakes, (or red pepper flakes -- adjust to your preference of spice)
1/2 teaspoon ground Cumin
1 teaspoon salt

Salad:

4 chicken thigh fillets, skin removed (no bone)
1/2 yellow bell pepper, deseeded and sliced
1/2 red bell pepper, deseeded and sliced
1/2 an onion, sliced
5 cups Romaine, (or cos) lettuce leaves, washed and dried
2 avocados, sliced
Extra cilantro leaves to garnish
Sour cream, (optional) to serve

Instructions

Whisk marinade ingredients together to combine. Pour half the marinade into a shallow dish to marinade the chicken fillets for two hours if time allows. Refrigerate the reserved untouched marinade to use as a dressing.
Heat about one teaspoon of oil in a grill pan or skillet over medium-high heat and grill chicken fillets on each side until golden, crispy and cooked through. (Grill in batches to prevent excess water being released.) Once chicken is cooked, set aside and allow to rest.
Wipe pan over with paper towel; drizzle with another teaspoon of oil and fry pepper and onion strips until cooked to your liking.
Slice chicken into strips and prepare salad with leaves, avocado slices, peppers, onion strips and chicken. Drizzle with remaining marinade/dressing and serve with (optional) extra cilantro leaves and sour cream.

Nutrition

Need More Salad Ideas? Click on this link OR the image below!

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Comments

Daniella says
February 11, 2024 at 10:31 am

I made this for dinner tonight and it was delicious. Loved everything about it. Definitely a keeper. I didn’t wipe out all the delicious bits from the chicken. I left it in and cooked the veggies to get all the brown bits on the veggies. After cooking for a bit, I added a bit of water to lift up all the flavour. It was fabulous. Thank you. 😃
Reply
Robert says
July 12, 2023 at 9:36 am

What a delicious meal. I made this at the end of work day and it was actually put together fairly quickly. I was wavering for a minute but decided I’d give it a try. Definitely made he right choice, everyone loved it and this will certainly be in my rotation of meals to make somewhat regularly. Great flavors, I made it with boneless chicken thighs with crispy skin and boneless, skinless chicken breast for my wife. Cooked the chicken out on the grill. Thanks for sharing this recipe, will definitely steer people in your direction for a great weeknight or weekend meal.
Reply
Lori Brown says
June 26, 2023 at 8:49 am

OMG….that was the most amazing, flavorful chicken I’ve had in a long time. I made Mexican corn to go along with it…yum, yum, yum! Chicken had soooo much flavor….my husband had no critiques to add…which he always does. Good job! Thank you for this recipes.
Reply
Natty G says
November 22, 2022 at 4:57 am

While everyone else is thinking of the Thanksgiving meal this week, I rummaged through my veggie drawer, came across 1/2 a red bell pepper I need to use and am now heading to the store to pick up the rest of the ingredients for this salad! I’ve been making and sharing it for years and it’s an instant favorite with literally everyone. I double the dressing ingredients though because it doesn’t stretch far enough, but then again, I grill more of the veggies than the recipe calls for and probably use more lettuce… I can’t help it; everyone wants seconds! I love your other salad recipes, too. In my book, you are the salad queen. I thought it was high time I thanked you. Good job!
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Rayana M says
August 03, 2022 at 4:39 am

This fajita recipe is super tasty, every time! I’ve been using this for about 5+ years now, always good. Although I never add the crush red peppers- can’t handle the spice. I also tried this with just mushrooms, peppers and onions, deeeee-lish 😁
Reply
Mejor banda de rock en español says
February 15, 2021 at 5:29 am

i really need this recipe! thanks for sharing this amazing recipe!
Reply
commercial dog poop scooper says
February 10, 2021 at 3:22 am

love your site! all the recipes are too good.. keep it up
Reply
healthy food says
June 04, 2020 at 11:38 pm

I have already cooked two times at home! Delicious!! My hubby even asks me to cook more so he can bring it as lunch. 🙂 awesome recipe..
I’ll surely share your page on my XP Work Doku App.. 🙂
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- Tanya says
  January 06, 2022 at 4:33 am
  
  This is absolutely delicious, i marinade it for 24 hours though
  Reply

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