Sometimes when dining out, I like ordering a nice salad like Wendy’s BBQ Ranch Chicken Salad. I love the different flavor combinations that get my creative juices flowing- I enjoy recreating the salads at home for a quick weeknight dinner.
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how to make a wendy’s salad at home
My favorite Wendy’s salad is the BBQ ranch chicken salad. Sometimes they discontinue it, and sometimes they bring it back. No matter what they decide, I can eat it all the time when I make it at home.
While this salad requires a bit of extra preparation, it’s delicious and will make a great addition to your meal plan! It’s also an excellent way to use up leftover grilled chicken. You may like it so much that you plan on grilling extra to ensure leftovers for this salad!
BBq ranch chicken salad ingredients
Here’s what I used to make my salad. It tastes just like Wendy’s salad.
- Grille chicken
- Lettuce
- Corn kernels
- Bacon
- Diced tomatoes
- Shredded cheddar cheese
- Honey
- BBQ sauce
- Ranch dressing
What dressing is best for a BBQ salad?
There are two sauces on this salad- a honey BBQ glaze and BBQ ranch. If that’s too much BBQ flavor for you, do the glaze and then just use the plain ranch as the dressing.
The fresh lettuce, blackened corn, and freshly chopped vine-ripened tomatoes make for a flavorful salad that you are going to love. You are going to love this Wendys BBQ Ranch Chicken Salad. This would be a great salad to bring to work with someone for lunch.
What do you eat with a chicken salad?
This is an entire meal all on its own. It’s an incredibly filling recipe. But if you still want something on the side, serve it with a cup of fresh fruit.
This will also taste delicious with some french fries or a bowl of soup.
How do you make bbq chicken for salad?
I just used grilled chicken, I didn’t BBQ it first. The BBQ in the recipe name describes the dressing, not the chicken.
But if you want, you can cook some chicken breasts in your slow cooker and pour some BBQ sauce on top. Then, just shred it and add it to your salad. Yum!
Use rotisserie chicken
This is one of my favorite time-saving cooking hacks. Pick up a rotisserie chicken from the grocery store. Now all you have to do is slice off some meat and put it in your salad. It’s so easy and requires almost no work.
Other veggies to add to your salad
The thing I love about making my own salads is how easy it is to customize it. You can make the same salad taste and look different with just a few ingredient swaps.
Try adding some of these veggies in for a little different taste.
- Avocados
- Cucumbers
- Green peppers
- Carrots
- Red onions
What type of cheese is best for wendy’s salad?
I think Wendy’s just uses shredded cheddar cheese. So if you want to make a true copycat recipe, stick with sharp cheddar cheese.
But if you want to mix things up, you can use Monterey Jack or Pepper Jack. Both taste amazing in this salad.
Do you love Wendy’s? I have more copycat Wendy’s menu items to try.
Wendy's BBQ Ranch Chicken Salad
Ingredients
- 4-5 slices of grilled chicken (you can find this in the freezer section at the grocery store or use leftovers) or a grilled chicken breast
- 1/4 cup corn kernels, drained
- 1/4 cup diced tomatoes
- 1 tablespoon shredded cheddar cheese
- 2 slices Applewood smoked bacon, cooked and chopped
- 1 tablespoon honey
- 2 tablespoons BBQ sauce
- 2 tablespoons creamy ranch dressing (Marzetti® brand recommended)
- 4 cups salad greens - ideally a mix of iceberg and romaine
Instructions
- In an iron skillet, cook the corn over medium-high until it begins to blacken. Be careful as this will happen quickly and you don’t want it to burn. Remove from skillet. If your chicken isn’t already cooked, turn the heat to medium and add 1 teaspoon olive oil in the same skillet. Sprinkle your chicken with ¼ tsp salt and ¼ teaspoon black pepper. Cook chicken on one side in the skillet until edges are opaque, about 7-10 minutes. Turn over and cover and cook about 10 minutes more or until a meat thermometer registers 165 degrees. Let rest for 5 minutes.
- Cut the chicken into bite-sized chunks. Place the salad greens in the bowl and add the chicken, corn, tomatoes, and bacon. Mix the honey with 1 tablespoon of the BBQ sauce and drizzle over the salad. Blend the remaining BBQ sauce with the ranch dressing and serve with the salad.
Petch
I thought Wendy’s gave packets of a Visalia Onion dressing by Marietti’s for this salad. A few times I read through the ingredients hoping I could recreate the dressing and seemed there was a some smoke flavor in addition to the base of oil, vinegar, onion, and sugar. I remember the drizzling of a dark red barbeque sauce, which you achieve through your glaze but wasn’t the actual dressing some unique Marzetti’s Visalia dressing and not Ranch?
Jaki
I loved this salad! Why did they stop making it?!
Stephanie
You can make it at home now 😉
Amy
I love this salad from Wendy’s but they aren’t making it anymore. Thank you for posting this!!
Shilpa Malhotra
Sounds delicious! Mmmmmm, that looks EXTREMELY tasty.
Kritika
Yes I do agree with you thanks a lot for this
Amelie Moore
This is a wonderful recipe! I made this for our dinner last night and my husband and I loved it!
Stephanie
I am glad you enjoyed the salad!
Adriean
Is there a certain kind of BBQ sauce you recommend? There’s smoky, tangy, Carolina, spicy…. which is best?
Psychic Nest
Hi Stephanie,
I adore chicken salad! Thank you for sharing this fantastic recipe!
Zaria
Lydia (The Perfect Pantry)
I’ve never eaten this at a Wendy’s but it sounds delicious.
JoyDee
This is much tastier than Wendy’s
GeriGreene
Looks delish ~ thanks for all that you do.