Buffalo Chicken Salad is one the most flavorful ways to enjoy a chicken salad and is a perfect way to spice up your dinner routine! While the perfectly seasoned chicken and creamy ranch dressing are enough to make you swoon, it is the addition of crispy oven baked fries that take this salad over the top!
Love Buffalo Chicken? You will love Buffalo Chicken Pizza, Buffalo Chicken Tacos, Buffalo Chicken Casserole, and Instant Pot Buffalo Chicken.
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Buffalo Chicken Salad
My first love in college was not a guy. It was a Buffalo Chicken Salad served at a local restaurant.
That salad had it all! Strips of chicken breast tossed in a buffalo sauce adorned a large bed of greens that was topped not only ranch dressing, but get this–french fries!
I mean, who puts french fries on their salad?
Apparently it is a thing in some parts of this country and friends, it is a thing you need to try! The crispy, salty aspect fries add to the salad is absolutely mind-blowing.
I recreated that Buffalo Chicken Salad and have been making it for over a decade now (okay more like two decades!) and it is a meal my family wants on repeat. Because you know, eating fries on a salad is pretty enticing!
From the spicy tender chicken, to the creamy ranch dressing, to the freshness of the greens and cucumbers, to the crispy fries–this salad has it ALL! And if you like Buffalo Chicken, you will FLIP for this take on salad.
Ingredients for Buffalo Chicken Salad
- Chicken Breast
- Seasoning for Chicken
- Homemade Buffalo Sauce
- Ingredients for Salad–lettuce, cucumbers, carrots, peppers, tomatoes, etc
- French Fries–totally optional, but the addition of fries make this salad spectacular
- Ranch Dressing
How to Make Buffalo Chicken Salad
Step One: Prepare the Fries
Because the fries take longer to cook than the chicken, start with baking the fries, if using.
- Prepare homemade oven baked fries by cutting up potatoes into wedges and tossing with spices.
- Bake for 20 minutes, flipping halfway through.
Pro Tip: Because these fries are being tossed into a salad, I cut them into much smaller strips–it makes them easier to eat in the salad. If you leave the potatoes as wedges, they will take 25-30 minutes to cook.
Step Two: Prepare the Chicken
- Mix together salt, garlic powder, onion powder and paprika in a bowl.
- Dice up chicken breasts into 1 inch chunks or strips.
- Toss chicken with seasoning to evenly coat. I prefer to add the chicken and spice mixture to a ziploc bag and shake well to coat.
- Bake chicken breasts on a baking sheet fitted with baking rack. The baking rack will help the heat to circulate evenly around the chicken and cook the chicken evenly. If using just a baking sheet, flip the chicken half-way through the cook time.
Step Three: Prepare Buffalo Sauce
- In medium sized bowl, mix together hot sauce with honey and butter if using.
- Add cooked chicken into bowl and toss to coat with sauce.
Step Four: Assemble Salad
- Toss romaine or iceberg lettuce with carrot strips, diced cucumbers, diced peppers, and grape tomatoes.
- Top with buffalo chicken, french fries, and drizzle with ranch dressing or blue cheese dressing.
Short-cuts for Buffalo Chicken Salad
- Use oven baked chicken strips or nuggets and toss with buffalo sauce.
- Use leftover Instant Pot Buffalo Chicken for your salad.
- Skip the homemade fries, and use your favorite store bought brand.
- Skip the homemade ranch dressing and use your favorite store bought brand.
Buffalo Chicken Salad
Ingredients
For the Buffalo Chicken
- 1 pound boneless skinless chicken breasts cut into 1 inch strips or chunks
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- salt and pepper
- 1/4 cup cayenne pepper hot sauce like Frank's Red Hot
- 1 tablespoon honey
- 1 tablespoon butter, melted optional
For the Salad
- 1 head romaine lettuce or iceberg diced
- 1 red or yellow bell pepper diced
- 1 English cucumber diced
- 2 large carrots shredded or cut into strips
- 1 pint cherry tomatoes
- Homemade ranch dressing
Oven Baked Fries
- 2 russet potatoes scrubbed
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/2 tablespoon olive oil
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425.
- Prepare Oven Baked Fries, by thinly slicing 2 large russet potatoes into 1/4 inch strips. Toss with 1/2 tablespoon olive oil, 1/2 teaspoon each of salt and garlic powder. Bake for 17- 20 minutes, flipping fries, halfway through.
- While the fries are baking, mix together the paprika, garlic powder, salt, and pepper. Toss the seasonings with the chicken.
- Spread the chicken out evenly on a baking sheet fitted with a cooking rack. Bake the chicken for 8-10 minutes, or until the chicken reaches an internal temperature of 165 degrees.
- Prepare buffalo sauce by combining honey, melted butter (if using), and Red Hot and toss with the chicken.
- Toss together the lettuce, carrots, cucumbers, peppers, and tomatoes.
- Top with the sliced chicken (drain off extra buffalo sauce). Drizzle with homemade ranch dressing. Top with french fries. Serve immediately.
Notes
- The addition of butter to the buffalo sauce is not necessary, just helps to balance out the heat.
- I prefer to assemble individual salads so that if there are any leftover ingredients they can be stored separately and assembled the next day for a fresh (not soggy) salad. That way the chicken can be reheated if desired and the fries can be broiled for a minute of two to crisp back up.
- Nutrition does not include ranch dressing, but does include fries.
Kristen Chidsey
Latest posts by Kristen Chidsey (see all)
- Buffalo Chicken Salad - August 14, 2019
- Buffalo Chicken Tacos - August 13, 2019
- Instant Pot Buffalo Chicken - August 11, 2019
I thought I was the only person in the world that loved french fries ON my salad! SO glad to see that I’m not alone!
Great minds think alike 🙂
I am OBSESSED with all things buffalo! I honestly feel that non wing buffalo dishes are the best.
I agree with you 100%
I add rice to my salads sometimes, weird I know! I had a chicken casear salad with rice in it once at a local takeout place and never looked back! This salad looks great!
Not weird at all, and now I am totally trying this as well.
Mmm… french fries on salad. Now there’s an inducement to eat my greens!
LOL!
wow – this looks GREAT. I ‘ve seen this salad with fried chicken a lot and I can’t have it that way. I love this version!
Thanks Marye. And I feel your pain, no fried foods for me either!
Kristen,
That’s brilliant, to top a salad with fries. The temperature and textural contrast nails it for me, and I bet the flavor combination is amazing.
Most of my college meal memories are liquid . . . except for the time in Meat Processing that I learned what a Rocky Mountain Oyster was.
Thanks!
HA! You are cracking me up Kirsten!
Ok I am coming to your house this weekend. I need to try this! I do oven fried potatoes all the time and the buffalo chicken looks so GOOD!
Come on over anytime Brandy! I love to cook for others and make new friends 🙂
Love the fries on top! Definitely need to try this one.
Totally will rock your world!!
What a delicious and healthy meal! This is the kind of food my hubby enjoys! Pinned. 🙂
This is my husbands favorite salad and truly one of his favorite meals period–my son as well!
I LOVE fries on salad! Truthfully I love fries without salad too, but on the salad I feel a bit better about eating them 🙂
And when they are oven baked fries, the guilt is EVEN that much more less! Enjoy.
I can definitely see this as pub food, though I like the “healthier” aspects of it. Alas, I myself don’t do fries of any kind (Unless they’re from In-N-Out.) My wife, however, would probably love this recipe, so I’m going to surprise her with it later this month.
Jerry..your wife is going to be one lucky and happy later. I hope she enjoys. And you will love thw salad minus the fries.
Love anything Buffalo style! Great idea!
Thanks. I seriously adore this salad.
Seriously, someone hand me a fork! I totally want to dig into that! Pinning! Thank you so much for linking up with us at Saturday Night Fever!
Ashlyn. I wish I could send you some over the web, but you will have to just make them. They are so good!! Thanks for pinning!
What a great salad that we would really enjoy! Thanks so much for sharing your awesome post with Full Plate Thursday. Have a great week and come back soon!
Miz Helen
It looks delicious to me. You had me of course at buffalo chicken…one of my all time favorites. I wish my family felt the same way about it. They do like my buffalo chicken dip though, so there is hope.
Michelle,
My daughter can not stand the spiciness of Buffalo Chicken! For her, I just did not dip the chicken strips into the Red Hot mix and she loved them!
This looks so yummy. Thanks for linking up at the Bloggers Brags Pinterest Party.