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A healthy, fall Kale Salad with Chicken made with roasted butternut squash, apples, pecans, and goat cheese with a maple-Dijon vinaigrette.

Fall Kale Salad with Chicken

This healthy fall chopped salad combines the nice and cozy flavors of fall in a lightweight, crisp, and refreshing chopped salad. Rotisserie chicken is a straightforward protein, and the one cooking is roasting the butternut squash. And since kale is hearty and won’t wilt within the fridge, it’s an amazing make-ahead meal. More fall salad recipes you’ll love are this Harvest Kale Salad with Winter Squash, Fall Brussels Sprout Salad with Apples, and Turkey Harvest Cobb Salad.

Why This Chicken Kale Salad Works

• Delicious: This kale salad with chicken recipe combines many flavors and textures to supply a salad you’ll crave all autumn. Each component adds something different: tart craisins, crisp apples, creamy goat cheese, hearty kale, sweet butternut squash, juicy chicken, and crunchy pecans.
• High Protein: The chicken, nuts, butternut, and cheese provide protein, giving each serving 30 grams.
• Healthy: Besides the numerous amount of protein, this salad packs in quite a lot of vitamins and minerals, because of all of the fruits and veggies. Plus, it has 8.5 grams of fiber and only 504 calories.
• Gluten-Free: Should you’re gluten-free, don’t miss this salad! All of the ingredients naturally don’t have gluten.
• Make Ahead: Kale salad is ideal for meal prep because it doesn’t get soggy. Make the salad once and luxuriate in it for lunches over the following few days.

Harvest Salad Ingredients

• Butternut Squash: Dice 12 ounces of butternut into half-inch cubes. To avoid wasting time, buy prechopped squash on the supermarket.
• Olive Oil to drizzle on the squash before roasting
• Fall Kale Salad Vinaigrette: Olive oil, salt, pepper, apple cider vinegar, maple syrup, Dijon mustard
• Kale: You’ll need five cups of shredded kale.
• Apple: My favorite apples for kale salads are crisp, sweet ones, like Honeycrisp or Pink Lady. Cut the apple right before serving.
• Pecans: Toast and chop a 3rd cup of pecans.
• Dried Fruit: Use dried cranberries (craisins) or golden raisins.
• Chicken: Buy a rotisserie chicken and dice the breast meat. If you’ve got leftover chicken or need to cook your individual chicken, go for it.
• Goat Cheese: Sprinkle two ounces of goat cheese over the salad.

Make Kale Salad with Chicken

1. Butternut Squash: Toss the squash with a teaspoon of oil, half a teaspoon of kosher salt, and an eighth teaspoon of black pepper. Spread it on a parchment-lined baking sheet and roast for 30 to 40 minutes at 400°F.
2. Massage the Kale: Drizzle the kale with a teaspoon of olive oil and massage it for about three minutes to tenderize it.
3. Apple Cider Vinaigrette: Whisk the apple cider vinegar, maple syrup, Dijon mustard, and remaining salt, and pepper. Step by step pour in olive oil, whisking until incorporated.
4. Assemble the Salads: Divide the massaged kale into 4 bowls. Top with 1 / 4 of the roasted butternut, diced apple, pecans, craisins, chicken, and goat cheese. Finish each salad with 1 ½ tablespoons.

apple cider vinaigrette
massaged kale

Variations

• Squash: Swap butternut squash for sweet potato or acorn squash.
• Protein: Switch out the chicken with salmon or deli turkey.
• Cheese: Substitute goat cheese for feta or blue cheese.
• Dairy-Free: Omit the goat cheese.
• Apple: Swap the apple with a pear.
• Dried Fruit: Sub apricots, dates, or currants.
• Nuts: Use walnuts or almonds as an alternative of pecans.
• Vinegar: Switch out apple cider vinegar for balsamic or white vinegar.
• Sweetener: Replace maple with honey or agave.

Best Variety of Kale for Salads

The essential two sorts of kale are lacinato kale (also called dinosaur or Tuscan kale) and curly kale. Since lacinato is more tender, it’s higher for salads.

Massaging Kale for Salad

Massaging kale for salads is important! It breaks down the tough leaves, making them far more palatable. Just pour just a little oil or dressing over the kale and massage it for a couple of minutes until it becomes darker green and softer.

Does kale get soggy in dressing?

Kale is a hearty leafy green for salads that doesn’t get soggy when coated in dressing. It actually gets more tender the longer it sits within the dressing, making it perfect for meal prep or serving at parties.

Meal Prep Kale Salad

This easy kale salad with chicken will last as long as 4 days should you make the salad the identical day you purchase the rotisserie chicken. Cooked chicken only lasts 4 days within the refrigerator, so in case your chicken is older, eat the salad sooner. For the freshest salad, store it in airtight containers and wait so as to add the pecans and apples until right before eating.

More Kale Salad Recipes You’ll Love

Prep: 15 minutes mins

Cook: 30 minutes mins

Total: 45 minutes mins

Yield: 4 servings

Serving Size: 1 salad

• Preheat the oven to 400F.

• Toss the butternut with 1 teaspoon olive oil, 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, and 1/8 teaspoon black pepper. Spread on a parchment-lined baking sheet and roast for 30 to 40 minutes, or until tender.

• In a big mixing bowl, mix the kale with 1 teaspoon olive oil. Massage the oil into the kale to assist tenderize it, about 3 minutes.

• To make the vinaigrette, whisk the vinegar, syrup, and mustard with ½ teaspoon kosher salt and 1/8 teaspoon black pepper. Whilst you whisk, progressively stream in remaining 3 tablespoons olive oil and whisk until incorporated.

• Just before serving, cut the apple into roughly ½-inch dice.

• To assemble the salad, divide the prepped kale amongst 4 bowls. Top with the roasted butternut, diced apple, pecans, craisins, chicken, and crumbled goat cheese.

• Drizzle vinaigrette over your entire bowl, about 1 1/2 tablespoons each.

Last Step:

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Serving: 1 salad, Calories: 504 kcal, Carbohydrates: 38 g, Protein: 30 g, Fat: 27 g, Saturated Fat: 6 g, Cholesterol: 70.5 mg, Sodium: 514.5 mg, Fiber: 8.5 g, Sugar: 17.5 g