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This spinach salad is a meal in itself. It’s very filling. It’s hard to believe that a 6 oz bag of spinach turns into 1/2 a cup of dressing. No wonder a typical green salad doesn’t keep you full. This one is different. It’s loaded with the good stuff; chicken breast, tomatoes, croutons, and bacon. You can’t go wrong with that list!
After trying this salad at a few church potlucks, I’m so glad to finally learn how to make it. It takes a little prep with the chicken and bacon, but it’s pretty straightforward and very tasty. I look forward to making this for our own family dinners.
Watch the Chicken Spinach Salad Video
Ingredients for Creamy Spinach Salad
6 oz bag of fresh spinach
1 Tbsp lemon juice
3 Tbsp mayo
2 chicken breasts
10 oz (1 1/2 cups) baby tomatoes
6 strips bacon
1 to 1 1/2 cups croutons
2 Tbsp green onion/chives
Salt and pepper for chicken
How to Make Spinach salad:
1. Use a food processor to mince the spinach. Add mayo and lemon juice and mix until well combined and creamy.
2. Season chicken with salt and pepper and saute until cooked through. Cool chicken to room temp. Dice into 1/2-inch chunks.
3. Saute bacon until crunchy. Dry/drain on paper towels. Chop bacon.
4. Finely chop green onion or chives
5. Cut the tomatoes in halves or quarters depending on tomato size.
6. Mix all the ingredients and dressing together just before serving. **
Notes:
**You can prep all ingredients ahead of time but do not combine until ready to serve.
Creamy Spinach Salad with Chicken and Baby Tomatoes
Ingredients
- 6 oz bag of fresh spinach
- 1 Tbsp lemon juice
- 3 Tbsp mayo
- 2 chicken breasts
- 10 oz 1 1/2 cups baby tomatoes
- 6 strips bacon
- 1 to 1 1/2 cups croutons
- 2 Tbsp green onion/chives
- Salt and pepper for chicken
Instructions
- Use a food processor to mince the spinach. Add mayo and lemon juice and mix until well combined and creamy.
- Season chicken with salt and pepper and saute until cooked through. Cool chicken to room temp. Dice into 1/2-inch chunks.
- Saute bacon until crunchy. Dry/drain on paper towels. Chop bacon.
- Finely chop green onion or chives. Cut the tomatoes in halves or quarters depending on tomato size.
- Mix all the ingredients and dressing together just before serving.
This was soooooo good!!! My new favorite salad, thank you!
I need to re-do the photos for this salad. Isn’t it good?! This recipe could use a little revival.
It does, thank you (:
Hi Natasha,
I have a lot of spinach on hand right now, do you think I could blend it all and store it in the fridge for a few days? Will it spoil if I put lemon juice and mayo in there and keep it covered in the fridge for 3 days? (Without adding the other ingredients…?)
I would keep in the fridge 2-3 days top, hope this helps.
I tried this recipe yesterday me and my husband both enjoyed it.. thank you for such great recipe.
You’re very welcome. I’m so glad you enjoyed it!
Thanks for this recipe! I absoloutely love cooking with spinach! Its one of my favorite salad greens. This past Saturday, I decided to spend the entire day cooking and trying out new recipes from your blog and other websites. I tried the Chebureki, the Raspberry Pretzel Jello, the Guacamole, the Creamy Spinach Chicken/Tomato Salad and various other dishes from other websites. Everything turned out really well, so we invited all our married siblings with thier familes to join us for dinner to eat all the amazing food we cooked up. lol. We were just sitting down to eat when my older sister came late and brought the same Creamy Spinach Chicken/Tomato Salad! lol. It was pretty funny, cuz I made it also, and I was just bragging to my other siblings about what an awesome blog you have and that I love this salad and all your recipes. lol. 😉 Guess I’m not the only one…. You seem to be all the rage around here! I’ve been telling all my friends about you. Thanks for this amazing recipe! Its definately a favorite with my family 🙂
Wow, what a coincidence!! That’s pretty funny. Thank you for your encouraging comment 🙂 It made my day!
HI Natasha.
I wanna try to make this salad. Do you think that I could also add avocado to the food processor together with spinach? How about adding broccoli to this salad also?
Small pieces of broccoli would probably be nice. I haven’t tried with avocado, so I can’t really say yes or no. If you try it, let me know what you think 🙂
What a great idea to turn the spinach into a dressing! This is going on my long list of food things to make 🙂
looks yummy thanks!
this one is quite the deliciousness! thanks for posting it
Your welcome.
Tofu is also known as bean curd and has a smooth texture and a mild taste. Tempeh is made of fermented grains and has a grainy texture and a nutty flavor. Seitan is also known as wheat meat and probably comes closest to meat as far as texture goes.
I like the idea of creaming the spinach to make it into a dressing! It would have never occurred to me to do this. I think I might try making a vegetarian version of this salad with firm tofu or tempeh and perhaps soy bacon bits. (Seitan would have been a better replacement for chicken than tofu or tempeh in this case, but it’s so freakin’ expensive that I rarely buy it…)
I’m not familiar with those ingredients, but the dressing is very good and it probably would taste great with what you mentioned!
The ingredients don’t even sound like a salid, how fancy. I will have to try and make this for Slavel’s B-day.
Oh, you’ve got my mouth watering! I can’t wait to try this.