🍑🥗 This Grilled Peach Salad with Chicken and Lemon Vinaigrette combines caramelized grilled peaches, juicy grilled chicken, crisp lettuce, salty feta, fresh mint, tomatoes, and more! The perfect way to take advantage of summer produce, it’s filling, crave-worthy, and so EASY!
Easy Grilled Peach Salad with Chicken
This chicken salad with peaches contains all of my favorite flavors of my very favorite season!
- The recipe comes together with minimal ingredients but is bursting with delicious contrasting flavors and textures.
- It feels healthy yet satisfying, and it’s naturally gluten-free.
- You can grill the chicken fresh for this salad, or you can use leftover chicken from last night’s dinner. It’s a flexible recipe that can be customized using whatever chicken you have on hand. The same can be said for the other vegetables and fruits, and making swaps and substitutions as you see fit.
This grilled peach salad recipe screams ‘summer’ and all things fresh, juicy, and bursting with flavor! Use up any extra peaches with a peach raspberry crisp or a peach mango pineapple white sangria, and you’ve got the perfect warm-weather meal.
Ingredients Needed
You can mix and match the ingredients in this chicken, peach, and feta salad to use up whatever’s lying in your produce drawer. Here’s what I used to make the salad and lemon vinaigrette:
- Grilled chicken: My favorite chicken to throw into the salad is this Grilled Hawaiian Chicken. My second choice is my Grilled Lemon Chicken, but my spicy-sweet Grilled Peach Chicken also tastes great. If you have leftover roast chicken from last night’s dinner that you need to use up, or if you meal prepped poached chicken, use that instead. Another option is using store-bought rotisserie chicken
- Fresh peaches: I do not recommend using canned or frozen peaches in this salad. Both are too soft to grill, and I personally don’t like the idea of eating canned or thawed frozen peaches in a salad. You want fresh peaches (or nectarines, plums, or pluots will also work)
- Honey
- Veggies: Lettuce, cherry tomatoes, cucumber, and onion (I used a red onion)
- Feta cheese
- Fresh mint
- Honey lemon vinaigrette: Olive oil, honey, lemon juice (or apple cider vinegar), salt, and black pepper
Note: Scroll down to the recipe card section of the post for the ingredients with amounts included and for more complete directions.
How to Make Grilled Peach Salad with Chicken
Grilling the peaches for this salad has a prep time of less than 5 minutes total — it’s so easy to do! If you’ve never grilled peaches before, this salad is the perfect way to try them for the first time.
Below is a rough overview of the steps for making the grilled chicken and peach salad:
- Grill the Chicken (if grilling fresh and not using leftovers): I suggest making my Grilled Hawaiian Chicken since it has only a 30-minute marinade time. The chicken will need about 10 minutes total on the grill (or stovetop grill pan); add the peaches in the final few minutes of cooking.
- Grill the Peaches: Quarter the fresh peaches, then drizzle with honey. Keep the skins on! They help the peaches hold their shape. Grill them over medium-high heat for about 1 minute per side, or until the peaches develop grill marks. Immediately remove them to the salad bowl.
- Make the Dressing: To a mason jar, add the honey, oil, lemon juice, salt, and pepper, and shake to combine.
- Assemble the Salad: Combine the grilled peaches, chicken, veggies, and feta in a large bowl. Drizzle over the dressing and toss to combine.
Grilling Tips: If grilling on an outdoor grill and not on a grill pan, be sure to clean and then lightly oil the grill grates before adding the peaches. Because of their delicate nature, the heat, and the honey, they will be prone to sticking. They also will cook very fast, in about 1 minute per side, so pay attention so they don’t burn.
Recipe Variations
You can customize this summer peach salad using any combination of chicken, veggies, and cheese you’d like!
- Swap the grilled peaches for sliced fresh peaches. Grilling the peaches infuses them with tons of flavor and makes them super juicy, but fresh peach slices will work too! Or use nectarines, apricots, or even plums.
- Swap the grilled chicken for leftover roasted, baked, or poached chicken. Or, omit the chicken entirely.
- Swap the lemon dressing for your favorite balsamic vinaigrette.
- Swap the feta with another salty cheese, such as Parmesan or halloumi (which can also be grilled!). Or use a creamy burrata cheese, creamy goat cheese, or blue cheese.
- Swap the lettuce with another leafy green, such as baby spinach, arugula, butter lettuce, or your favorite greens mix.
- Swap the fresh mint with other fresh herbs like basil leaves, chives, or parsley.
- Swap the veggies with any other summer vegetables, like bell peppers or avocado.
- Add nuts, such as pine nuts, walnuts, or slivered almonds.
- Hot honey dressing/vinaigrette is easy to achieve by adding a tiny pinch of cayenne pepper to the mix. Start with 1/8 teaspoon and work up. If you have chili oil on hand, 1/2 teaspoon of it should also do the trick.
Grilled Peach and Chicken Salad with Honey Lemon Vinaigrette
Equipment
- 1 outdoor (gas) grill (or indoor grill pan)
Ingredients
Chicken
- 1 pound grilled chicken*, see Notes
Peaches
- 2 large fresh peaches, quartered with pit removed, keep skin on (should be ripe but not mushy or over-ripe)
- 1 tablespoon honey
Salad
- 6 cups lettuce, such as Romaine, butter lettuce, arugula, spring mix, etc.
- 1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved if desired (grape tomatoes, heirloom, Roma, etc. may be substituted)
- 1 cup diced cucumber, peeled if desired, or use English cucumber and don’t peel
- ⅓ cup crumbled feta cheese, or shredded Parmesan, shredded cheese blend, etc.
- ⅓ cup sliced red onions, or white/yellow onions
- ¼ cup fresh mint, finely minced (or fresh basil, parsley, or your favorite fresh herbs)
- Salt and pepper, to taste
Honey Lemon Vinaigrette
- ¼ cup olive oil
- ¼ cup honey
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice, or apple cider vinegar
- 1 teaspoon salt, plus more to taste or as desired
- 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, plus more to taste or as desired
Instructions
- Chicken – Use your favorite grilled chicken recipe, made either on your outdoor grill, or use an indoor grill pan. You can grill it fresh, and if you're doing so, see the Notes below for my favorite grilled chicken options. I use boneless skinless chicken breasts for easy slicing over the salad later on but you could in theory use any type of chicken. You can also use leftover chicken (grilled, baked, roasted, poached), or use store bought rotisserie chicken. Although remember you need to grill the peaches so you may as well grill the chicken, too.
- Peaches – If your grill is not already hot from grilling the chicken, preheat it now to medium heat or preheat your grill pan. To a medium bowl, add the peach quarters, honey, and toss with a soft spatula tip to coat the peach pieces evenly.
- Place the peaches on the grill and grill for about 1 minute on each side, flipping as necessary. Tip – The fruit will cook VERY fast. Be careful so it doesn't burn, if your grill runs hot, you may only need 45 seconds per side or so. Be mindful and present so you don't burn them and need to start over. Set aside momentarily.
- Salad – Either add all the ingredients to a large serving bowl OR you can plate individually, dividing all ingredients among 4 bowls/plates. Tip – All quantities and ingredients are very flexible so if you have tons of garden tomatoes on hand, or zucchini from the farmers market, or extra peaches, etc. use what makes sense for you and treat my recipe as an outline or guide.
- Add the chicken and peaches with the other salad ingredients; set aside momentarily.
- Vinaigrette – To a mason jar or glass jar with a lid, or medium bowl, add all the ingredients and seal jar and shake vigorously. Or whisk well to combine the ingredients. Taste, and make any necessary seasoning or flavor adjustments. Tips – If the vinaigrette tastes at all flat, boring, or dull, it likely needs more salt so don't be afraid to add more. It may also need a bit more of an acid (lemon juice or vinegar). 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard is also great to add, optionally. If you want to make a hot honey lemon vinaigrette, add 1/8 tsp cayenne pepper OR 1 teaspoon chili oil, or to taste. Drizzle the vinaigrette over the salad, to taste.
- Storage – Salads are always best fresh. If you have leftover grilled chicken, grilled peaches, or any of the salad components, store them all separately in airtight containers in the fridge for up to 3-5 days. Extra vinaigrette will keep airtight in a mason jar or similar in the fridge for up to 10-14 days. This is not a recipe that should be frozen.Make Ahead – It's fine if you want to place all the components in 4 meal prep containers for grab-and-go work lunches. Make sure to store the vinaigrette separately and only dress the salad right before eatings.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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