Strawberry Spinach Salad with Chicken and Avocado

Name: Strawberry Spinach Salad with Chicken and Avocado
Prep time: 5 min
Cook time: 30 min
Total time: 65 min
Ingredients: 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil; 1 tablespoon golden balsamic vinegar; 1 teaspoon sugar; 1 tablespoon roughly chopped fresh tarragon; 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt; 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper; 2 boneless skinless chicken breasts; 6 cups loosely packed fresh spinach; 6-8 large strawberries (, hulled and quartered); 1 avocado (, peeled, seeded and cut into chunks); 3-4 thinly sliced rings of red onion; 1/4 cup feta cheese; 2 tablespoons sliced almonds

by Heidi Published: Jun 14, 2020 Updated: Oct 26, 2022

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A simple balsamic dressing does double duty as a marinade for the chicken in this light and healthy, fresh avocado and strawberry spinach salad.

In This Post

Simple Strawberry Spinach Salad

The best recipes are made from muscle memory. These are the recipes you’ve made time and time again, with so much repetition you really don’t even think about what you’re doing when you make it, you just do.

These recipes aren’t really even recipes at all. They’re just the wonderful result of what happens when you take the basics and then add a twist here and a switcheroo there, all depending on what’s fresh and seasonal and hanging out in the fridge. This chicken spinach salad is exactly one of those recipes and finds itself as my lucky lunch at least once a week.

It’s loaded with heart healthy baby spinach, sliced sweet strawberries, creamy avocado, and a simple dressing that does double duty as the chicken marinate. Cook the chicken on the stove top or on the grill and you have a salad made for filling lunches or easy dinners.

Isn’t that the perfect reason to share?

What’s in This Strawberry Spinach Salad?

To make this avocado, spinach, and strawberry chicken salad, you’ll need:

Extra virgin olive oil
Golden balsamic vinegar
Sugar
Fresh tarragon
Kosher salt and pepper
Chicken breasts
Fresh spinach
Strawberries
Avocado
Red onion
Feta cheese
Sliced almonds

How to Make a Spinach and Strawberry Salad

Whisk together the balsamic dressing and pour half over the chicken. Set the chicken aside to marinate for at least 30 minutes.

Once the chicken has had time to soak up some flavor, grill until done. Then, it’s just a matter of assembling the strawberry spinach salad and digging in!

Can I Use Another Leafy Green?

I always have fresh spinach in the fridge, where it finds its way into everything from my breakfast fritattas, to my lightened up sweet green smoothies and spinach lasagna. So it’s a natural base for this hearty salad, that works for lunch or dinner even.

But if you have kale, arugula, romaine, butter or even spring mix mingling in the crisper, by all means, use it up!

Can I Use Another Berry?

The ying and yang of sweet strawberries with red onion and avocado is one of my favorite combos ever. However, you can always swap out raspberries or blueberries for the strawberries and instead of feta, give goat cheese a try. I have and likely will again.

Tips for Making Strawberry Spinach Salad

I like to cook a few chicken breasts on Sunday or Monday to eat during the week in salads like this. I’ve shared how to cook them on the stove top below, but if you’re ready to grill, this technique is always a grilled chicken success.

This balsamic tarragon dressing is my standard, go-to-all-the-time salad dressings. I use white balsamic dressing because it’s a bit mellower and doesn’t dominate the flavor of the salad, instead letting all of the other flavors shine through.

The dressing does double duty as a chicken marinade too. Remember that after marinating chicken to discard the marinade. You do NOT want to use it for the dressing after soaking in raw chicken. Ew.

More Spinach Salad Ideas You’ll Love

If you make this recipe, please let me know! Leave a star rating on this recipe below and leave a comment, take a photo and tag me on Instagram with #foodiecrusheats.

4.32 from 145 votes