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Balsamic Strawberry Chicken Salad

Heidi Larsenby Updated: Jul 10, 2025

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A simple golden balsamic vinaigrette does double duty as both a marinade for the chicken and the dressing for this light and fresh strawberry salad. It’s the perfect main dish salad that celebrates the flavors of summer.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

“I just made this last night. It was so good! My husband said it tasted like it was from a restaurant! Haha! I think this is our new favorite meal! The chicken tasted so good with the marinade, that could be a meal in itself!” ~Lisa, FoodieCrush reader

Strawberry grilled chicken salad in a bowl

My Favorite Main Dish Summer Salad

Photo of Heidi from FoodieCrush

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 strawberry grilled chicken salad is exactly one of those recipes and finds itself as my lucky lunch at least once a week.

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

Heidi
Ingredients for a strawberry salad with grilled chicken and balsamic

Heidi’s Tips for Making This 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 using grill pan in the recipe card 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. You can also make a classic balsamic vinaigrette, however.
  • The dressing does double duty as a chicken marinade too. Remember to discard the marinade after marinating the chicken. You do NOT want to use it for the dressing after soaking in raw chicken. Ew.

Let’s Make the Strawberry Chicken Salad!

The full recipe, with amounts, can be found in the recipe card below.

Two bowls of grilled chicken salad with strawberries

Step 1: Make the Balsamic Dressing / Marinade

Whisk together the balsamic dressing, or shake it up in a jar. It’s a simple combination of:

  • Extra virgin olive oil
  • Golden balsamic vinegar
  • Sugar
  • Fresh tarragon
  • Kosher salt and pepper

Step 2: Marinate the Chicken

Pour HALF of the dressing over the chicken. Set the chicken aside to marinate for at least 30 minutes.

Strawberry chicken salad in a bowl

Step 3: Grill the Chicken

Once the chicken has had time to soak up some flavor, grill until done. Then, it’s just a matter of assembling the salad and digging in! The rest of the salad comes together with:

  • Fresh spinach
  • Strawberries
  • Avocado
  • Red onion
  • Feta cheese
  • Sliced almonds

Heidi’s Tip: You can also make this salad with leftover grilled balsamic chicken, Greek chicken, or lemon chicken.

If you make this recipe, please let me know! Leave a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ rating below, leave a comment to tell us what you think, and tag me on Instagram @foodiecrush.

4.32 from 145 votes

Balsamic Strawberry Chicken Salad Recipe

A simple balsamic dressing does double duty as a marinade for the chicken in this light and fresh strawberry chicken salad.
Print
Course Salad
Cuisine American
Keyword strawberry chicken salad
Prep Time 5 minutes
Cook Time 30 minutes
Marinating Time 30 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 5 minutes
Servings 2 servings
Calories 759kcal

Ingredients 

Dressing:

  • ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 tablespoon golden balsamic vinegar
  • 1 teaspoon granulated sugar
  • 1 tablespoon roughly chopped fresh tarragon
  • ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
  • ¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Salad:

  • 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
  • ¼ cup feta cheese
  • 2 tablespoons sliced almonds

Instructions

  • Whisk the extra virgin olive oil with the balsamic vinegar, sugar, tarragon, kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper in a small bowl until blended.
  • Place the chicken breasts in a shallow bowl and cover with half of the dressing, cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes to 2 hours.
  • Spray a grill pan or 12-inch non-stick pan with cooking spray and heat to medium high. Place the chicken breasts on the hot grill pan. Cook for 3 minutes then flip the chicken breasts. Cook for another 3 minutes, and turn. Reduce the cooking temperature to medium low and cook the chicken for 20-25 minutes more, turning every 5 minutes or so. Cooking time will depend on the thickness of the chicken, but it will be done when it hits 165ºF internal temperature. Let the chicken rest for 5 minutes then slice into ¼ inch slices.
  • Arrange the spinach, strawberries and red onion in a bowl. Lightly toss with the remaining dressing. Add the avocado, sliced chicken and top with feta and almond slices. Serve immediately.

Nutrition

Serving: 1g | Calories: 759kcal | Carbohydrates: 38g | Protein: 36g | Fat: 54g | Saturated Fat: 10g | Cholesterol: 89mg | Sodium: 721mg | Potassium: 1880mg | Fiber: 14g | Sugar: 14g | Vitamin A: 8846IU | Vitamin C: 72mg | Calcium: 309mg | Iron: 6mg

Ingredient Swaps

I always have fresh spinach in the fridge, but if you have kale, arugula, romaine, butter lettuce, or even spring mix mingling in the crisper, by all means, use it up!

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.

More Salad Recipes Using Strawberries

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Hi! I’m Heidi and I cook real good, real food I hope you’ll love to make, too.

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Comments

    4.32 from 145 votes (141 ratings without comment)

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    Recipe Rating




  1. Sharon Gudka-Befort

    5 stars
    This is so good! We live in Arizona & need recipes like this in the summer time. I toasted the almonds & used Ken’s Simply Balsamic Vinaigrette.

    Reply

  5. Ginny

    5 stars
    Made this for dinner tonight. It was so good! My husband and son loved it, too! Thank you foodiecrush for such a great salad recipe!

    Reply

  11. Cristina Ayala

    I love love this salad. I’ll have it for lunch and or dinner i change it up with the whatever i have in the fridge and have enjoyed them all. Thank you for this fantastic flavorful and healthy recipe that I enjoy with my family!!

    Reply

  13. Ana

    This turned out well! I have never cooked with tarragon and wasn’t sure how it was going to turn out, but the flavor combinations once all of the ingredients were put together worked nicely.

    Reply

  15. Lisa

    I just made this last night. It was so good! My husband said it tasted like it was from a restaurant ! Haha! I think this is our new favorite meal! The chicken tasted so good with the marinade, that could be a meal in itself!

    Reply

  19. Julia Kruz

    I ate a similar strawberry avocado spinach salad in the restaurant yesterday, but slightly the recipe is different. So I’ll try your version of the recipe. Thanks for sharing!

    Reply

  25. Jessica

    I have made this salad twice now and I LOVE it. I made one for my husband today also, and he thought it was amazing. He texted me from work to tell me how good it was.

    I entered the recipe into myfitnesspal, using the specific brands that I used and it was 675 calories!! I was shocked. It’s still amazing, but with that many calories, I’ll be having this a lot less than I planned. The olive oil accounts for 240 calories alone.

    Reply

  26. Merny

    Due to health isssues, I’m not able to eat dark green veggies….Is there a lettuce I could use to substitute ? (Romaine is out)…TIA

    Reply

  33. Emily

    This was delicious!!!! I didn’t have golden balsamic vinegar so I just used regular?? I thought the flavor were excellent! Perfect for a warm summer night.

    Reply

  41. Becky

    This looks so good Heidi!! Making this for the family this week or next and you know who will love it… Everett!! He loves strawberries and avocado! Thanks for the idea!

    Reply

  44. Liz @ Floating Kitchen

    Couldn’t agree more, Heidi. My “non-recipes” are hands down my all time favorite recipes. This salad is gorgeous and that tarragon dressing sounds great. I don’t use white/golden balsamic very often. I need to give it a go!

    Reply

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