Grilled Chicken Salad with Corn — 🌽🍅🥑🍗 An EASY salad that’s ready in 15 minutes and you won’t be able to stop eating it! Tender chicken, juicy corn, crisp bell peppers and tomatoes, creamy avocado, cilantro, and fresh lime juice for the WIN! When it’s too hot to fire up your oven, make this instead for a light yet satisfying meal the whole family will love and take advantage of summertime ingredients while they last!
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This sweet corn salad is perfection for us. It’s got so many awesome flavors and textures that whenever I make it, we eat the whole batch the same day.
We’re trying to milk every last drop of summer and this salad is perfect for Labor Day weekend or end of summer backyard barbecues.
Tender chicken, juicy sweet corn, creamy avocado, crisp red bell peppers, tomatoes, and the fresh zing of lime juice and cilantro is what summer is all about. I wish I could find great fresh sweet corn all year because I would make this year-round.
We can eat this sweet corn salad by itself and are extremely content but it would also be great with other Mexican recipes or other grilled chicken recipes, especially Grilled Lime Cilantro Chicken.
Ingredients for Grilled Chicken and Corn Salad
To make the chicken corn salad, you’ll need:
- Chicken breasts
- Lime juice
- Honey
- Olive oil
- Fresh sweet corn
- Unsalted butter
- Avocados
- Red bell pepper
- Grape tomatoes
- Fresh cilantro
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 Chicken Salad with Corn
- Clean the fresh sweet corn by removing all the husks and silks, drizzle the corn with a bit of olive oil and rub it in, and add the corn directly to the grill.
- Grill the chicken while you grill the corn.
- When both are done, cut the kernels off the corn cob.
- Add all the corn salad ingredients to a large bowl, stir, and serve!
Recipe Variations
This corn salad recipe is ripe for experimentation and mixing and matching based on what you enjoy.
Some recipe tweaks include:
- Try adding red or green onions
- I used multi-colored grape tomatoes but other tomato varieties are just fine
- Incorporate black beans for extra protein
- Add cayenne pepper or canned or fresh diced green chiles or jalapeños if you’re looking for a kick
- Add zucchini or cucumber to amp the veggie level up
- Cotija cheese or queso fresco would be lovely
The sky is the limit with where you want to take this salad with Mexican-inspired flavors!
Recipe FAQs
Grilling it for about 7 to 8 minutes over medium-high heat, while rotating the ears a quarter-turn every couple minutes, works well for me but it all depends on the heat and potency of your grill. If your corn is blackening very quickly, your grill is likely a bit too hot. A little bit of blackening is fine, but too much blackening of the corn can adversely effect the flavor of the salad making it taste too charcoaly.
If you’d rather make a vegetarian grilled corn salad, you’re welcome to omit the chicken and add extra veggies instead.
I find the corn and chicken cook in the same amount of time, but as a pro-tip make sure you use thin-sliced or pounded chicken breasts. Those big fat ones will take much longer to cook than the corn and it’s nice to have the chicken and corn be finished in about the same amount of time so that you’re not manning the grill for longer than is necessary and you can get on with eating and enjoying this irresistible grilled corn salad salad.
What to Serve with Grilled Chicken and Corn Salad
Storage Instructions
In the Refrigerator: This recipe will keep airtight in the fridge for up to 5 days noting that the avocado will oxidize as time passes. This isn’t a freezer-friendly recipe.
To Reheat (optional): I find that sitting a container of leftovers out on my counter for about 30 minutes before I am going to consume it is fine. But if you want to reheat it, use your microwave, noting that warmed avocado may not be for everyone.
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Grilled Chicken and Corn Salad
Ingredients
Chicken
- 1.25 to 1.50 pounds thin-sliced or pounded boneless skinless chicken breasts
- ⅓ cup lime juice
- ⅓ cup honey
- ⅓ cup olive oil
- 2 teaspoons kosher salt, (or to taste)
- 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, (or to taste)
Corn
- 5 ears fresh sweet corn, husks and silks removed
- ¼ cup olive oil, divided
- ¼ cup unsalted butter
Salad
- 2 medium avocados, ripe but not mushy, diced into small pieces
- 1 large red bell pepper, seeded and diced small
- 1 cup grape tomatoes, (I used multi-colored; other varieties of tomatoes may be substituted)
- ¼ to ⅓ cup fresh lime juice, (or to taste)
- ¼ cup fresh cilantro, finely minced (or to taste)
- 1 to 2 teaspoons kosher salt, (or to taste)
- 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, (or to taste)
- 2 to 3 tablespoons olive oil, (optional)
Instructions
Chicken
- Place all contents in a large ziptop plastic bag, seal, and smoosh around to coat evenly. Place bag in the fridge to marinate for at least 30 minutes, or overnight. When you’re ready to grill, preheat to medium-high heat.
Corn
- Evenly drizzle the corn with the olive oil and rub it in evenly over the corn.
- Place the chicken and corn on the grill and cook for about 7 to 9 minutes, turning the ears every couple minutes by one-quarter turn, or as needed so that corn is cooking evenly but isn’t burning. Flip the chicken once midway through cooking.
- After corn is cooked, cut the corn off the ears with a sharp knife, place into a large bowl, top with the butter, and stir to combine until the butter melts.
- Dice the chicken into bite-sized pieces and add to the bowl with the corn.
Salad
- To the bowl with the corn and chicken, add all remaining ingredients except the olive oil, stir to combine, and taste. If desired, add additional salt, pepper, etc.; or add a pinch of cayenne pepper for heat, or add any of the suggestions given in the blog post. Serve salad immediately.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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Originally posted August 26, 2019 and reposted September 6, 2021 and August 9, 2024 with updated text.
Easy and delicious summer supper. And great leftovers.
Thanks for the 5 star review, Sahara, and I am glad this was an easy and delish summer supper! I love the leftover from this recipe. I make extra, just to have leftovers :)
Mine is in the fridge now giving the ingredients a chance to “get acquainted”. It already tastes yummy. I did change a couple things based on what I had on hand. No chicken thawed out so I put 6 pieces of bacon, crumbled in place of the chicken. It needs more, I think. I had lemons instead of limes. And I added a can of black eyed peas for more protein (and because I like black eyed peas! 😂🤣 I added a little bit of cojita cheese. That one I wish I’d left out, but, oh well, it’s too late now!
Mine is in the fridge now giving the ingredients a chance to “get acquainted”. It already tastes yummy. I did change a couple things based on what I had on hand. No chicken thawed out so I put 6 pieces of bacon, crumbled in place of the chicken. It needs more, I think. I had lemons instead of limes. And I added a can of black eyed peas for more protein (and because I like black eyed peas! 😂🤣 I added a little bit of cojita cheese. That one I wish I’d left out, but, oh well, it’s too late now!
Thanks for the 5 star review and glad you were able to mix and match and improv with this recipe based on what you had on hand!
great
david_yu@carrefour.com
I got a few ears of sweetcorn from a neighbor so had to try this yesterday. Loved it of course! It’s so good with the marinated chicken. Fresh corn and garden tomatoes are a couple of my favorite summer foods too!
I got a few ears of sweetcorn from a neighbor so had to try this yesterday. Loved it of course! It’s so good with the marinated chicken. Fresh corn and garden tomatoes are a couple of my favorite summer foods too!
Thanks for the 5 star review and glad you were able to take advantage of the last morsels of summer and that you even had homegrown garden fresh produce for the recipe!
Fresh sweet corn won’t be around much longer–this would be a fantastic way to enjoy it. We have loved your grilled sweet corn salad recipe this summer!
This is a spin off on that one and glad you’ve loved it! Even though lots of people have moved past summery meals already, there is nothing like fresh sweet corn (and tomatoes) for me and this was my one last hurrah recipe!
This is so perfect for summer!
Paige
https://thehappyflammmily.com