Buffalo Chicken Salad Lunchbox

This buffalo chicken salad is the ultimate low carb meal prep. Topped with blue cheese, avocado, and homemade Ranch dressing, it’s everything you need for lunch!

https://youtu.be/y2ypjNRjjPA

What is Buffalo Chicken?

While most people think of Buffalo Chicken as fried wings coated in buffalo sauce, I always think of my slow cooker buffalo chicken that pulls apart easily and goes great in tacos, topped on a pizza, or in this Buffalo Chicken Salad.

This salad is wayyyy healthier than the original version and easier to make thanks to the slow cooker. Healthier versions of favorite recipes are what the Family KickStart Program is all about. It’s clean eating, re-imagined with epic breakfast lunches and dinners just like this. Check it out if you are interested in eating clean as a family!

The heart of this recipe is the sauce. It’s tangy, smoky, and my favorite part of the recipe.

You’ll always find a bottle of Buffalo sauce in my fridge but what exactly is it? Buffalo sauce is a combination of cayenne pepper, butter, and spices, it’s tangy, smoky, and adds the right amount of heat to this chicken recipe.

What to Put on Buffalo Chicken Salad

I don’t know if you like Blue cheese or Ranch with Buffalo chicken but for this recipe, we get both! Here are all the toppings you’ll need for this salad:

• Slow Cooker Buffalo Chicken
• Blue cheese crumbles
• Diced avocado
• Cherry tomatoes
• Diced red onion
• Homemade Ranch

In case you don’t want to wait for the slow cooker, use shredded chicken from a rotisserie chicken and mix it with buffalo sauce, you won’t miss a thing!

How to Prep Buffalo Chicken Salad for a Lunchbox

All the ingredients except for the avocado and Ranch dressing can be assembled in lunch containers and stored in the refrigerator for up to 2 days.

If you’re making this right after preparing the buffalo chicken, you’ll want to make sure the chicken is room temperature or chilled before topping it over the lettuce; otherwise, the salad will wilt.

For the kids, I like using little bentos to pack this salad, since they have compartments, that way I can separate ingredients or pack additional snacks. If I’m packing it for the office, I’ll use my meal prep containers, they’re a little larger and hold up well in my bag and dishwasher.

How to Keep Salad Fresh for Lunch

Avocadoes brown quickly and we know that wouldn’t go over smoothly with the kids. If you do want to pack them with the salad, wait until the morning you plan to eat this for lunch then add them before packing into a lunch bag.

To keep the salad from getting soggy, pack the ranch dressing into sauce containers and pack with the rest of the lunch. If you don’t keep any on hand, I’ve been using these for years and they’re still going strong.