Santa Rosa Chicken and Wild Rice Salad

• servings: 6 servings
• active time: 15 minutes
• total time: 35 minutes

Ingredients

Salad:

3/4 cup wild rice blend (see note)

2-3 cups cooked diced or shredded chicken (rotisserie chicken is a great option (see note)

1 red bell pepper (diced)

1 cup chopped sugar snap peas (chopped, blanched asparagus works great as a sub)

1-2 avocados (peeled and diced)

1 head butter lettuce (chopped (optional)

Dressing:

1/3 cup unseasoned rice vinegar

1/3 cup neutral-flavored oil (like vegetable, canola, avocado)

2 cloves garlic (finely minced)

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

1 teaspoon sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

Pinch of black pepper

Directions

Cook the rice according to package directions or *instant pot. Scoop the cooked rice into a large serving bowl and let cool to room temperature (alternately, the rice can be made ahead of time and stored in the refrigerator until needed).

Add the chicken, bell pepper, peas (or asparagus, if using), and avocado.

For the dressing, combine all the ingredients in a jar or blender and shake/process until well-combined. Add additional salt and pepper to taste, if needed.

Pour about 2/3 of the dressing over the salad and toss to combine. Add more dressing to taste or for desired consistency, if needed.

Serve immediately or refrigerate the salad for 1-2 hours (you may want to save a bit of the dressing and toss the salad with it before serving if it has been refrigerated).

Give the salad a good toss before serving.

The chicken and rice salad can be served: a) on its own, b) over a bed of chopped butter lettuce, or c) tossed WITH the butter lettuce. Yum!

Notes

8/5/25 Cook 3/4 rinsed rice, 3/4 cup water, 1/4 tsp salt in instant pot, pot-in-pot, for 37 minutes high pressure and at least 10 minutes natural release unless longer is available. Used 8 oz bag of sugar snap peas, trimming off ends after cleaning and then cutting (so more than 1 cup chopped). Used 2 avocados and added salt to taste. Used chopped butter lettuce as well.

Rice: the rice blend used in this salad is very adaptable! I’ve used a boxed wild rice blend before, as well as the brown rice medley from Trader Joe’s. Another time I made it, I used a rice/quinoa blend I found at Costco (not sure it even had wild rice in the ingredients, but it was still tasty).

Chicken: this pesto marinated chicken is great in this recipe.

Make-Ahead: this recipe includes the time needed for cooking the rice; however, you can get ahead of the game if you make the rice before you need it, and store it in the refrigerator until ready to assemble the salad. The dressing can also be made ahead of time (several days!).

Seasoning: if all you have is seasoned rice vinegar, I’d omit the salt and sugar and then add those ingredients to taste, if needed, at the end.

Nutrition

• Calories: 337 kcal
• Total Fat: 20 g
• Saturated Fat: 2 g
• Cholesterol: 40 mg
• Sodium: 167 mg
• Total Carbohydrate: 22 g
• Dietary Fiber: 5 g
• Total Sugars: 3 g
• Protein: 19 g