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Chicken and Spinach Salad

A plate with creamy spinach salad with chicken and baby tomatoes

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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.

Ingredients in white bowls for creamy spinach salad with chicken and baby tomatoes

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

5 from 1 vote
Author: Natasha of NatashasKitchen.com
This Salad has a surprising Creamy Spinach Salad Dressing that is packed with spinach.
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 10 minutes
Total Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients 

Servings: 6 people as a side 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

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.

Notes

You can prep all ingredients ahead of time but do not combine until ready to serve.
Course: Salad, Side Dish
Cuisine: American
Keyword: creamy spinach salad
Skill Level: Easy
Cost to Make: $
Natasha's Kitchen Cookbook

Natasha Kravchuk

Welcome to my kitchen! I am Natasha, the creator behind Natasha's Kitchen (established in 2009), and I share family-friendly, authentic recipes. I am a New York Times Best-Selling cookbook author and a trusted video personality in the culinary world. My husband, Vadim, and I run this blog together, ensuring every recipe we share is thoroughly tested and approved. Our mission is to provide you with delicious, reliable recipes you can count on. Thanks for stopping by! I am so happy you are here.

Read more posts by Natasha

5 from 1 vote

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Comments

  • Nellie
    February 26, 2013

    This was soooooo good!!! My new favorite salad, thank you!

    Reply

    • Natasha
      natashaskitchen
      February 26, 2013

      I need to re-do the photos for this salad. Isn’t it good?! This recipe could use a little revival.

      Reply

  • Avera
    September 21, 2012

    It does, thank you (:

    Reply

  • Avera
    September 21, 2012

    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…?)

    Reply

    • Natasha
      natashaskitchen
      September 21, 2012

      I would keep in the fridge 2-3 days top, hope this helps.

      Reply

  • Masha
    March 28, 2012

    I tried this recipe yesterday me and my husband both enjoyed it.. thank you for such great recipe.

    Reply

    • Natasha
      natashaskitchen
      March 28, 2012

      You’re very welcome. I’m so glad you enjoyed it!

      Reply

  • Hope
    March 5, 2012

    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 🙂

    Reply

    • Natasha
      natashaskitchen
      March 5, 2012

      Wow, what a coincidence!! That’s pretty funny. Thank you for your encouraging comment 🙂 It made my day!

      Reply

  • alica
    February 19, 2012

    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?

    Reply

    • Natasha
      natashaskitchen
      February 19, 2012

      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 🙂

      Reply

  • Tallya
    January 24, 2012

    What a great idea to turn the spinach into a dressing! This is going on my long list of food things to make 🙂

    Reply

  • Anna
    September 27, 2011

    looks yummy thanks!

    Reply

  • anna
    June 14, 2010

    this one is quite the deliciousness! thanks for posting it

    Reply

  • Irina
    June 14, 2010

    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.

    Reply

  • Irina
    June 10, 2010

    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…)

    Reply

    • Natasha
      June 11, 2010

      I’m not familiar with those ingredients, but the dressing is very good and it probably would taste great with what you mentioned!

      Reply

  • a11a
    June 8, 2010

    The ingredients don’t even sound like a salid, how fancy. I will have to try and make this for Slavel’s B-day.

    Reply

  • Veronica
    June 8, 2010

    Oh, you’ve got my mouth watering! I can’t wait to try this.

    Reply

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