Avocado Dressing with Grilled Chicken Salad for Full GAPS

This creamy avocado dressing turns grilled chicken, baby romaine and cherry tomatoes into a complete lunch. The avocado makes it smooth, homemade yogurt adds a tangy finish, and raw garlic gives it plenty of flavor. Blend the dressing while you arrange the salad, then spoon it over the four plates just before serving.

Start with cooked, thinly sliced grilled chicken and a finished batch of homemade yogurt. Those two prepared ingredients make the assembly simple. This is also a useful summer meal when you want crisp greens and tomatoes rather than another hot dish.

The combination comes from Deliciously Organic’s avocado dressing and chicken salad. Here, thick homemade GAPS yogurt replaces the Greek yogurt, keeping the measured amount the same.

Ingredients That Make the Dressing Work

Choose a ripe avocado with flesh that gives easily under a spoon. A hard avocado leaves firm pieces in the dressing. Cut it open when you are ready to blend, remove the pit and peel, and use the flesh from the whole avocado.

The dressing needs ¼ cup of thick homemade 24-hour GAPS yogurt. The linked recipe is specifically for raw milk. If you use a pasteurized-milk batch, follow its complete yogurt method, including its different heating and cooling steps. In either case, finish fermenting and chill the yogurt before making this salad.

If the yogurt is loose, use the yogurt-straining method to drain away some whey first. Measure the thickened yogurt afterward. That gives the dressing its intended body without adding more avocado or changing the oil and lemon juice.

Use cold-pressed extra-virgin olive oil and keep it raw in the dressing. The lemon juice goes straight into the blender too. Three raw garlic cloves make a distinctly garlicky dressing, so peel them before adding them with the measured natural salt.

For the salad, have all four grilled chicken breasts, five ounces of baby romaine and fifteen cherry tomatoes ready. Wash and drain the greens well so water does not collect underneath the dressing. Halve the tomatoes and slice the cooked chicken thinly.

How to Make the Salad

1. Prepare the yogurt and vegetables. Check that the yogurt is thick, then measure it. Drain the washed romaine, halve the tomatoes, and have the cooked chicken sliced and ready.
2. Blend the dressing. Combine the avocado flesh, garlic, olive oil, lemon juice, yogurt and salt. Purée until the mixture is even and creamy, with no firm avocado pieces or chunks of garlic. Stop the machine and wait for the blades before opening it to scrape the sides. Remove the scraper and refit the lid before continuing.
3. Build the plates. Divide the romaine among four plates. Add the sliced chicken and tomato halves, distributing the full measured amounts across the servings.
4. Dress and serve. Spoon the dressing over the salads, or set it alongside so each person can add it at the table. Serve the assembled salads right away.

The dressing should coat the leaves rather than run into a watery puddle. If you can still see garlic pieces, give it more blending after scraping safely. Check the yogurt before starting: straining a loose batch is more useful than trying to correct a finished dressing with unmeasured thickeners.

Where This Fits on GAPS

This is a Full GAPS salad after raw vegetables and homemade yogurt have been introduced and tolerated. It contains dairy, with no egg or nut ingredients. It is not a dairy-free recipe, and swapping the yogurt would make a different dressing.

On Full GAPS, use ripe avocado, prepared homemade yogurt and raw cold-pressed olive oil. Avocado and fresh lemon juice can accompany meat, and the romaine and tomatoes provide the raw vegetables in this meal. If you are still avoiding raw vegetables or have not introduced yogurt, save this complete salad for later rather than treating it as an Intro recipe.

The Equipment I Use

I use a Ninja BN801 when a recipe needs a blender. Its matching 24-ounce single-serve cup is an option for this small cold dressing batch; keep everything below the cup’s maximum liquid line and follow the matching blade and lid instructions. A suitable blender you already own can also make the dressing. For a larger batch, use manageable batches instead of filling a small cup past its limit.

You will also need measuring cups and spoons, a knife and cutting board, a scraper, and four plates or one shared platter. The chicken is already grilled when this assembly recipe begins. My Luvele Pure Plus is the yogurt maker I use for the homemade yogurt prepared ahead of time.

Serving and Keeping the Components

For a shared platter, arrange the same total amounts of romaine, chicken and tomatoes together and serve the dressing alongside. Keep the four-serving yield. You can also serve some of the dressing as a dip; chilling makes it firmer without changing the ingredients.

Keep dressing that you are not serving in a covered glass container in the refrigerator. Store cooked chicken separately, and keep undressed greens separate so they stay crisp. Assemble only what you plan to serve, and return the remaining components to the refrigerator.

For another homemade dressing, try the yogurt ranch dip. It uses a different seasoning mixture, so it is a separate recipe rather than a seasoning change to this card.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I Use Store-Bought Greek Yogurt?

Use finished homemade GAPS yogurt fermented for at least 24 hours. Thick texture alone does not replace the required preparation. If your homemade yogurt is thin, strain it first and then measure the ¼ cup.

Can I Use Leftover Grilled Chicken?

Yes. This recipe starts with cooked grilled chicken, thinly sliced. Keep the four-breast amount for four complete salad servings, and prepare the greens and dressing when you are ready to assemble.

Can I Make Just the Dressing?

You can blend the dressing ingredients together and keep the salad ingredients separate. The card’s four servings describe the complete salads; they are not a measured cup yield for dressing alone.

Can I Double the Recipe?

Yes. Select 2× on the card for eight salad servings. Double every ingredient, including the garlic, yogurt and salt. Blend manageable portions of dressing and use more plates or platters; the single-serve cup does not become larger when the recipe is doubled.

The planned Sauces, Dressings & Condiments Cookbook will bring more homemade options together. You can check the WFLI shop for current resources and upcoming releases. For this salad, have the yogurt ready first, then blend and assemble close to serving.