Grilled Chicken Salad with Mango Salsa

Summer is in full swing, and it’s a HOT one this year. Most of the country is experiencing record breaking temperatures already! To beat the heat, we’ve been doing everything we can to avoid using the oven to cook dinner. This means a lot of salads — like this recipe for grilled chicken salad with mango salsa — that can be made with some of the freshly picked lettuce, spinach, and kale from our weekly CSA share.

When we do decide it’s time to crank up the oven or use the stovetop, I like to make a double batch of whatever I’m making so that we can enjoy the leftovers the next day without reheating the whole house. Another option to not turning on the oven is grilling outside. Now I’m not going to lie, I really can’t wait for a time when we live somewhere that we have an outdoor space where we can grill again. Our current tiny Boston condo does not allow grills in our common areas. Fortunately, we have friends who live in the next building who do have a grill. Grilling solves the issue of heating up your house on a hot day.

While you might still be using a hot burning flame to cook your dinner, grilling usually also involves a cold beverage of your choice, and relaxing outside with friends. So it’s totally worth it. And you can’t beat the flavor that a grill imparts on your food. Whether you decide to grill outside or inside on a grill pan, I recommend that you whip up the mango salsa before the grill gets warm. This will give the salsa flavors time to mingle and really get to know each other. It also gives you a chance to taste test the salsa while the chicken is cooking.

In fact, I recommend making a double batch of the salsa to enjoy with some tortilla chips while the chicken is grilling. Just be sure to save some to put on top of the grilled chicken in this salad. The salsa, along with a fresh squeeze of lime juice is all the dressing this salad will need.

GET THE RECIPE: Grilled Chicken Salad with Mango Salsa Recipe