This Chicken Avocado Watermelon Salad is made with baby spinach, sweet watermelon cubes, juicy chicken breasts, avocado, feta cheese and a tasty mint lime dressing. A complete meal in a bowl!
Hang on to summer! This watermelon salad combines our favourite summertime flavours all in one bowl. It's an easy 30-minute meal that makes a complete lunch or dinner.
While there are scads of watermelon salad recipes on Pinterest, this one was inspired by a salad I ate in a tiny restaurant on Gabriola Island, one of the beautiful Gulf Islands off the coast of British Columbia. After a bike ride around the island with friends, we stopped in at a small bistro for lunch.
The menu had interesting twists on the usual burgers and sandwiches, but this Chicken Watermelon Salad jumped out at me. It seemed like a refreshing meal after a morning of biking and hiking.
After one bite, I knew I'd be recreating it at home to share with you here.
❤️ Why this recipe works
This salad has enticing colours, textures, and a to-die-for, lick-your-plate mint lime dressing. Sweet watermelon cubes, buttery avocado, salty feta crumbles and tender chicken strips, oh my! Together they give that sweet and savoury contrast that makes a dinner salad memorable. You'll want to make this!
Here's what you'll need:
🛒 Ingredients
- chicken breasts: boneless, skinless
- spinach: baby spinach leaves
- watermelon: I use a mini seedless watermelon for this recipe
- avocado
- feta cheese
- for the dressing: fresh lime, fresh mint leaves, honey
Throughout the summer, I'd attempted to make a watermelon salad several times. Every time I bought a watermelon, it seemed to disappear. Either the grandkids stopped in and devoured it, or I'd use it to make this Strawberry Watermelon Collagen Smoothie. And at least once or twice, it ended up in this Strawberry Watermelon Sangria Slushie.
While this recipe is similar to this Greek Watermelon Basil Salad and my Skinny Greek Chicken Bowl with Watermelon and Feta, today's recipe is a spinach salad. It's full of creamy avocado and a fresh, summer-inspired sweet and tangy dressing.
You'll love it.
Tips for making Watermelon Salad
- Boneless skinless chicken breasts work beautifully in this salad as they cook quickly and they're tender and juicy. I suggest poaching them, as they cook in just a few minutes. However, you can use grilled chicken or even rotisserie chicken to make these an even faster meal to put together!
- Combine the dressing ingredients while the chicken is cooking. Set aside to allow the flavours to blend.
- Layer the ingredients either in a large serving bowl, or create individual salads in shallow bowls. Add the avocado just before serving to prevent browning. Squeeze a little lime juice on the slices to prevent discolouration, if you like.
- It's easy to make this chicken watermelon salad for a large group. Just use the slider in the recipe card below to adjust the number of servings.
Variations: Make it your own!
- Change the cheese: try a strong-flavoured cheese like blue cheese or gorgonzola instead of feta
- Add even more colour and flavour with a few slices of red onion.
- Add a little crunch with nuts! Try sliced almonds or roughly chopped pistachios.
Enjoy, everyone!
📖 Recipe
Chicken Avocado Watermelon Salad with Mint Lime Dressing
Ingredients
- 2 4-oz chicken breasts, boneless, skinless, poached (see instructions)
- 1 teaspoon dried thyme
- 4 cups watermelon cubes
- 1 medium avocado, thinly sliced
- 4 cups baby spinach, long stems removed
- ¼ cup feta cheese, crumbled
Mint Lime Dressing
- ¼ cup olive oil, extra virgin
- 2 tablespoon lime juice, freshly squeezed
- 2 tablespoon fresh mint leaves, finely minced
- 1 tablespoon honey
- 1 pinch sea salt
Instructions
- Sprinkle chicken breasts with salt and pepper and dried thyme. Place chicken in a skillet and pour in enough water (or chicken broth) to cover chicken about half way. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for 5 minutes. Remove from heat, cover and allow the chicken to rest for 15 minutes before slicing.
- Combine dressing ingredients in a blender or by shaking in a covered jar.
- To make individual dinner salad bowls, arrange baby spinach leaves in each of two shallow bowls. Layer with watermelon cubes, thinly sliced chicken, avocado and crumbled feta cheese.
- Drizzle with Mint Lime Dressing and serve right away.
Dierdre
This dressing is to die for! I added a little more honey and used it on a fruit salad. Yum!
Flavour & Savour
Oh that's a great idea! I must try that!
Pat
How many mint leaves and do you mince them?
Flavour & Savour
Thanks for catching that, Pat. Use about 2 tbsp of fresh mint, a small handful. The number of leaves will depend on the type of mint you have. If you use a blender, leave them whole and they'll be finely minced once blended. If shaking in a jar, you will have to mince them first. Enjoy!