Grilled Chicken and Haloumi Salad with Lemon Dressing

This wonderful Grilled Chicken and Haloumi Salad is surprisingly filling and robust, making for a healthy and flavorsome dinner option. The Salad is finished with an amazing Lemon Dressing that’s made using whole Lemons! It brings a wonderful brightness to the Salad and balances out the spices from the Cajun seasoned Chicken. Adding everyone’s favorite Greek Cheese, Haloumi, adds another wonderful textural element to complete this tasty Salad

How to make our Grilled Chicken and Haloumi Salad with Lemon Dressing

Like most classic Chicken Salads, this dish is relatively straight forward to make. The dish can be broken down into several components. Preparing the Lemon Dressing, Seasoning and Frying the Chicken, then building the Salad so it’s ready to serve

In this recipe we’ll share how to simply complete all three of these components so you can enjoy this delicious and healthy Salad. As always, there can be alterations and substitutes you can make when preparing your version of this dish. It’s a very flexible meal that will taste amazing however you prepare it

Let’s begin by preparing the Chicken

This dish doesn’t require a long preparation time for any of the components. Unlike other Chicken dishes, we don’t need to set the Chicken away to marinade for hours. In fact, you can prepare the Chicken and apply the dry rub about 10 – 15 minutes before serving

For the dry rub we’re keeping this very simple by using Cajun Spice. Cajun Spice is a great seasoning you can get from your spice aisle. It’s loaded with flavors of Garlic, Paprika, Onion, and Chili and is a versatile and tasty seasoning for all meats, but especially Chicken!

We recommend using Chicken Thighs for our Grilled Chicken and Haloumi Salad. They have more flavor and are far less forgiving than Chicken Breasts when it comes to cooking. You can over cook them a bit and they’ll still be nice and tender

Season the Chicken generously with the Cajun Spice mixture and let them sit for about 10 – 15 minutes. This just helps the Spice to seep into the Chicken, allowing for more flavor once cooked

Then, simply pan fry the Chicken over a medium high heat until cooked. It’ll take about 8 – 10 minutes depending on the size of your Chicken pieces. Once cooked, set them aside to rest before slicing and adding to the Salad

While the Chicken is marinating in the Cajun Spice you can prepare the Lemon Dressing

This Lemon Dressing is so unique, as it uses a Whole Lemon, rind and all! The Whole Lemon is chopped into pieces and added to the blender along with Garlic, Parsley, Rice Wine Vinegar, Dijon Mustard, Salt, and Pepper

Slowly, you drizzle in the Olive Oil as the blender is running until the ingredients start to catch and they turn into a silky-smooth Dressing. You will need a blender for this recipe to achieve the beautiful consistency needed for the dressing

This amazing Lemon Dressing is so vibrant and packed full of flavor

The only catch when making this dressing is to try and remove as much of the white ‘pith’ from the Lemons before they are added to the Blender. The white pith is what gives Lemons their bitterness, which doesn’t taste great in the Dressing. Removing it will leave that beautiful citrussy Lemon flavor

We love this dressing so much we have dedicated an entire article to it here. Well worth a read if you want to learn more about this amazing Salad Dressing

Bringing the Grilled Chicken and Haloumi Salad together

The final step in this dish before plating is to cook the Haloumi. I recommend chopping it into bite-sized pieces and then pan frying with a little bit of Olive Oil. I like using Olive Oil as it’s the native Oil used in Greek Cooking. It’ll flavor the Haloumi perfectly (as Haloumi doesn’t usually carry a lot of flavors itself)

It’ll only take a few minutes in the frying pan to cook, so you can prepare the Haloumi while the Chicken is resting. Once cooked, set the Haloumi aside and slice up your remaining Salad ingredients. We’ve opted for Lettuce, Tomatoes, Red Onion, and some roughly chopped Pistachio Nuts to add some crunchy

Mix everything through in a Salad bowl along with some of that amazing Whole Lemon Dressing and the dish is done! You can serve the Grilled Chicken and Haloumi Salad family style or plate individual bowls

Grilled Chicken and Haloumi Salad with Lemon Dressing Recipe

Ingredients

• 2 lbs. Chicken Thighs
• 1 tbsp. Cajun Spice Seasoning
• 2 tsp. Neutral Frying Oil
  
  

Whole Lemon Dressing Ingredients

• 1 Lemon
• 1 Garlic Clove, peeled
• ¼ cup of Parsley
• 2 tbsp. Rice Wine Vinegar
• 1 tsp. Dijon Mustard
• Pinch of Salt and Pepper
• ½ cup of Olive Oil
  
  

Salad Ingredients

• ½ lb. Haloumi, cut into bite-sized pieces
• 1 tsp. Olive Oil
• 4 cups of Romaine Lettuce, shredded
• ½ Red Onion, finely diced or sliced
• 2 cups of Cherry Tomatoes, diced
• 2 tbsp. Pistachio Nuts, roughly chopped
  
  

Equipment needed: Blender

Instructions

1. Season the Chicken Thighs well with Cajun Spice and allow to sit for 10 – 15 minutes. Heat Neutral Oil in a frying pan over medium high heat
2. Pan fry the Chicken until cooked through (about 8 – 10 minutes) with an internal temperature of 160F. Set aside to rest before cutting into bite-sized pieces
3. Cut the Lemon into large chunks and carefully cut away and discard any white pith that sits between the flesh and skin. Place in a blender with Garlic, Parsley, Rice Wine Vinegar, Mustard, Salt, and Pepper
4. Blitz the Ingredients while slowly pouring in Olive Oil. You may need to stop at intervals to press the ingredients down the side of the Blender (turn it off before doing this!). Continue adding Oil until a smooth Dressing forms. Pour into a jar and set aside
5. Heat Olive Oil in a frying pan over medium heat then add your Haloumi pieces. Fry until golden-brown on both sides (a few minutes should do it) then set aside
6. Combine remaining Salad ingredients in a large bowl along with the Chicken and Haloumi. Add a few tbsp. of the dressing and mix through. Add as much dressing as you like before serving
   
   

Recipe Notes

• You can prepare the Lemon Dressing up to a day in advance in preparation for this meal
• This dish will work with any protein. Try it with Beef, Pork, or Fish
  
  

This wonderful and bright Grilled Chicken and Haloumi Salad is the perfect meal to feed the family on a busy weeknight. Ready in under 30 minutes it’s easy to make, healthy, and tastes amazing. The Lemon Dressing brightens the whole dish, and it makes for an amazing plate of food

For more tasty and healthy recipes such as this delicious Salad, check out these other recipes of ours:

• Baked Salmon with Lemon and Leeks
• The Ultimate Poke Bowl
• Greek Meatball Salad
• Warm Lamb Salad
  
  

Happy Cooking!