25 Flavor-Packed Salads That Star Everyone's Favorite Protein

This recipe was semi-inspired by the Chinese chicken salad at The Cheesecake Factory. It's sweet, savory, refreshing, and extremely crunchy (we're huge suckers for iceberg lettuce.) The key ingredient in this summer salad? Uncooked ramen noodles for that irresistible crunch.

Get the Chinese Chicken Salad recipe.

This Buffalo chicken salad is the best way to eat your Buffalo chicken wings, covered in a homemade ranch dressing, with all of your favorite sides. Bonus, no saucy orange fingers!

Get the Buffalo Chicken Salad recipe.

With sweet strawberries, herby chicken, tangy feta, and crunchy pecans, this summer salad will make even so-called spinach haters fall in love after just one bite. It lets sweet flavors shine, but is complemented by the sharp textures and flavors of our other ingredients. Leave out the chicken for a summer side dish, or add it in for a hearty main!

Get the Strawberry Spinach Salad recipe.

This super savory pasta salad is a certified hit. Swapping in a tangy mustard vinaigrette for the usual mayo-based dressing lightens things up a bit, and a healthy serving of seared chicken and crispy bacon make it satisfying enough to be a meal all on its own.

Get the Chicken Pasta Salad recipe.

With a rich, tangy Caesar dressing, tender, roasted chicken thighs, crunchy croutons, and a snowfall of freshly grated Parm, this chicken Caesar salad tastes more voluptuous than virtuous.

Get the Chicken Caesar Salad recipe.

As much fruit salad as it was green salad, Panera's beloved salad featured a juicy orange and onion poppyseed dressing and pops of fresh fruit. We’re hoping it’ll one day return to the Panera menu, but in the meantime, it’s super-easy to make at home.

Get the Copycat Panera Bread Strawberry Poppyseed Salad recipe.

This salad has ALL of the important components: a well-seasoned protein, creamy feta, a little crunch from toasted walnuts, and a burst of sweetness from juicy blackberries. It comes together quickly—the majority of your prep can be done while the chicken is marinating.

Get the Blackberry Chicken Salad recipe.

Juicy grilled BBQ chicken sits alongside festive South-of-the-border-inspired toppings like black beans, corn, cheese, and tortilla strips. Put that on top of some crunchy romaine and drizzle it with BBQ sauce and ranch dressing, and you’ve got yourself a hearty lunch you’ll look forward to eating again and again.

Get the BBQ Chicken Salad recipe.

Panera’s Cobb salad is like no other, thanks to their creamy and bright green goddess dressing. The rest of the salad has all of your classic Cobb toppings, like hard-boiled eggs and crispy bacon, but feel free to switch things up if you like.

Get the Copycat Panera Bread Green Goddess Cobb Salad With Chicken recipe.

While also a Thai staple, laab is the national dish of Laos. While it has evolved throughout history and in neighboring countries, it's always filled with fresh herbs and aromatics, and punchy flavors.

Get the Laab Gai: Lao Minced Chicken Salad recipe.

We love this salad served on top of greens as much as we love it between two slices of sourdough bread. If you can't find a good ripe mango, pineapple would be delicious as well!

Get the Avocado Chicken Salad recipe.

Traditional chicken salad is great—but stir in some curry powder, toasted cashews, and cilantro and you have one of the most satisfying lunches ever.

Get the Curried Chicken Salad recipe.

CPK may be famous for their BBQ Chicken Pizza, but this is the unsung hero on their menu. An exuberant jumble of lettuce, chickpeas, turkey, salami, tomatoes, cheese, and an Italian mustard-herb vinaigrette, this is one salad that might actually tempt us to put down the pizza.

Get the CPK Italian Chopped Salad recipe.

We love relying on rotisserie chicken—our favorite supermarket shortcut—for quick and easy meals, and this healthy lunch couldn't be more simple to make. Toss shredded chicken with a good amount of parsley (this is inspired by our favorite condiment, chimichurri, after all), garlic, olive oil, and vinegar and serve with toasted bread.

Get the Chimichurri Chicken Salad recipe.

This grilled chicken salad—filled with cucumbers, tomatoes, and avocado—is the healthy summer dinner we tend to make again and again. Want even more protein? We bet some added hard-boiled eggs would go great in here too.

Get the Grilled Chicken Salad recipe.

Everyone is obsessed with The Cheesecake Factory's Mexican tortilla salad, and for good reason: it gets piled high on a crispy tostada and looks so fun as it’s making its way to your table. There are a lot of components, but the good news is that each is super-quick and easy to make at home too.

Get the Copycat Cheesecake Factory Mexican Tortilla Salad recipe.

We believe that good chicken salad is all about the technique, and less about the actual ingredients. The delicious lunch and picnic staple expertly combines well-seasoned chicken, a rich mayo dressing, plenty of fresh celery, and a touch of acid, but feel free to switch up your mix-ins if you like.

Get the Chicken Salad recipe.

For this pasta salad recipe, we took everything we loved about the classic salad and added penne. The result is a pasta salad that is not only hearty and filling, but crisp and refreshing. Caesar salad fans—get ready to meet your new favorite BBQ side.

Get the Chicken Caesar Pasta Salad recipe.

This pasta salad has a creamy peanut dressing and is full of fresh, crunchy veggies with no mayonnaise in sight. It’s super-simple to make and is as delicious hot as it is cold, which means you can easily make it ahead of time.

Get the Thai Chicken Peanut Pasta Salad recipe.

If salads were people, this Copycat Quesadilla Explosion Salad would be a real party animal. Surrounded by wedges of quesadilla and bursting with fajita chicken, cheese, corn and black bean salsa, and tortilla strips, this Chili’s copycat is basically a fiesta on your plate.

Get the Copycat Chili's Quesadilla Explosion Salad recipe.