Creamy Buffalo Chicken Salad
with Cheddar, Croutons & Lemony Ranch Dressing
- Milk
- Wheat
- Eggs
For beloved apps, Buffalo wings have few rivals. And it’s never been an everyday dish—until now! This salad features the dream team—Frank’s Hot Sauce + ranch dressing—plus it’s a dinner, lunch, or even brunch idea ready in under 30. Seared, chopped chicken is combined with a creamy-spicy Buffalo dressing, then gets scooped over a salad of crisp lettuce, celery, crunchy croutons, rich cheddar, and cooling lemon-ranch dressing. It wouldn’t be Buffalo without a drizzle of Frank’s Hot Sauce to finish.
Ingredients
1.5 tablespoon
Sour Cream
(Contains: Milk)
½ cup
Cheddar Cheese
(Contains: Milk)
2 unit
Croutons
(Contains: Wheat, Milk)
1 unit
Baby Lettuce
1 unit
Red Onion
10 ounce
Chopped Chicken Breast
1 unit
Lemon
¼ ounce
Frank's Seasoning Blend
2 tablespoon
Mayonnaise
(Contains: Eggs)
1.5 ounce
Buttermilk Ranch Dressing
(Contains: Eggs, Milk)
1 teaspoon
Hot Sauce
2.5 ounce
Celery
Not included in your delivery
teaspoon (tsp)
Salt
3 tablespoon (tbsp)
Olive Oil
1 teaspoon (tsp)
Cooking Oil
teaspoon (tsp)
Black Pepper
Nutrition Values
Utensils
Cooking Steps
• Pat chicken* dry with paper towels and season all over with salt and pepper. • Heat a drizzle of oil in a large pan over medium-high heat. Add chicken in an even layer and cook, stirring occasionally, until browned and cooked through, 4-6 minutes. Transfer to a cutting board to cool.
• Meanwhile, wash and dry produce. • Quarter lemon. Trim and discard root end from lettuce; chop leaves into bite-size pieces. Finely dice half the celery; thinly slice remaining celery on a diagonal. Halve, peel, and thinly slice onion; mince a few slices until you have 2 TBSP (4 TBSP for 4 servings).
• In a small bowl, whisk together half the ranch dressing, 3 TBSP olive oil (6 TBSP for 4 servings), juice from one lemon wedge (two wedges for 4), and a pinch of salt and pepper until well combined.
• In a large bowl, add lettuce, sliced celery, cheddar, croutons, and as much sliced onion and lemony ranch as you like. Toss to combine. Taste and season with salt and pepper, if needed.
• In a medium bowl, combine mayonnaise, sour cream, Frank’s Seasoning Blend, remaining plain ranch dressing, and juice from one lemon wedge (two wedges for 4 servings). Stir in minced onion and diced celery. • Once chicken is cool enough to handle, roughly chop. Add to bowl with Buffalo mayo and stir to coat.
• Divide salad between bowls. Top with Buffalo chicken and drizzle with hot sauce to taste.
Chicken is fully cooked when internal temperature reaches 165°.
Customer reviews
Review summary
Updated on Sep 2026- Flavor: The buffalo chicken and creamy sauce combo is bold and satisfying, with the Frank's seasoning delivering a nice kick 🌶️. Some found the overall dish too rich or heavy; others loved every bite — especially the buffalo mayo on the chicken.
- Ease of prep: Quick and straightforward to pull together, though patting dry the small chicken pieces was fiddly — using a whole breast and chopping it yourself makes this step much easier.
- Suggestions: Use only half the red onion (or less) — multiple reviewers found a full onion overpowering in both the sauce and the salad. Cut the olive oil in the lemony ranch dressing significantly, or replace it with extra lemon juice and ranch for a lighter, better-balanced dressing. Add tomatoes, cucumbers, or carrots to round out the salad and add freshness.
- Leftovers: Dress individual portions just before eating rather than tossing the whole salad ahead of time — this keeps the lettuce crisp and makes leftovers much more enjoyable the next day.
- Portions: The lettuce provided was consistently flagged as too small for two dinner-sized salads — plan to supplement with an extra head or bag of greens to make this a proper meal for two.
Reviews from our home cooks
Great take on a less healthful favorite. Hubby and I love the spice and I kept a serving of the chicken out of the buffalo sauce for the non-spice loving family member.
Excellent seasoning on the buffalo chicken and blended well with the salad, celery and lemony ranch dressing.
YUM! We really liked how the main salad dressing was light; which accompanied well with the creamy chicken sauce.
This was very easy to prepare and to clean up after and very tasty. I did not use the croutons but that is just my personal dislike nothing was wrong with them.
The lemon ranch dressing is SOOOO good. We also like that the Frank's Red Hot seasoning isn't too spicy. Will order this again.
This salad has bold flavors that really click together! So rich and yummy. Would definitely get this meal again.
This was a delicious recipe. My husband called it bang bang chicken. My son turned it into a wrap with our tortillas. I enjoyed the leftovers as much as the first round. Very good!
We really liked this, it was a really great portion for two people. Only suggestion is some seasoning for the chicken. We made up a little season mix for it.
There was no ranch in our box which is obviously a huge issue, but luckily we had some in the fridge. We added way more ranch and lemon juice to the dressing, otherwise it was far too oily. Other than that, the salad was delicious
We liked this a lot. The balance of flavors was very good. The only issue was that the chicken was not strips, it was already chopped up and a little slimy, had to rinse it off.
