South American Rainbow Shredded Chicken Salad is a vibrant, high-protein salad made with chimichurri-marinated tinned chicken, charred sweetcorn, black beans, fresh mango, smashed Hass avocado, purple cabbage, red pepper, baby spinach, and crunchy Vilgain organic tortilla chips. It provides around 521 kcal and 37g of protein per serving and takes approximately 15 minutes to assemble.
Growing up in Colombia, salad was never really the point of a meal. Main dishes in Colombian cuisine are generous, warming, and built around bold flavours; bandeja paisa, ajiaco, sancocho, arroz con pollo. A plate of leaves on the side was never going to compete with that. But living in the UK as a certified nutrition coach, I’ve learned to build meals that bridge both worlds, bringing the bold, vibrant, deeply flavourful ingredients of Latin America into formats that work for everyday balanced eating. This South American Rainbow Shredded Chicken Salad is exactly that. It is not a sad desk salad. It is a bowl of food that genuinely excites you to eat it.
In this post you’ll learn:
- Why chimichurri is the most versatile sauce in South American cooking and how it transforms this salad
- How a salad can deliver 37g of protein and nearly 15g of fibre in one bowl
- How to make it your own with different proteins, toppings, and flavour variations
Why This South American Chicken Salad Works
The architecture of this salad is intentional. Every ingredient is chosen to contribute both flavour and nutrition, and nothing is here just to add bulk. Chimichurri does double duty, half of it marinates the chicken so every strand is deeply flavoured, and the other half is drizzled over the finished bowl as a dressing. This is a technique used across South American cooking, where sauces are integrated into the food rather than added as an afterthought.
The charred sweetcorn is one of those small steps that makes an enormous difference. Dry-frying tinned sweetcorn in a hot pan for three to four minutes until the kernels darken and blister at the edges creates a smoky, caramelised depth that elevates the whole bowl. It takes less than five minutes and transforms what is otherwise a fairly ordinary ingredient into something that genuinely tastes grilled. The black beans add earthy richness, a meaningful hit of plant-based protein, and nearly 5g of fibre in a 60g portion alone.
Mango in a savoury salad is a very South American idea. Across Colombia, Peru, and Brazil, fresh fruit appears alongside savoury proteins in a way that feels completely natural, the natural sweetness and acidity of ripe mango cuts through the richness of the avocado and the herbaceous intensity of the chimichurri beautifully. The Vilgain organic tortilla chips go in last, scattered over the top just before serving, for a crunch that holds up just long enough to make every bite more interesting. For the chimichurri recipe used in this salad, head to my chimichurri recipe.
The Colombian Story Behind This Salad
In Colombia, the closest thing to this salad you would find at a family table might be a simple ensalada of tomato and onion dressed with lime and salt, fresh, clean, and entirely secondary to whatever was being served alongside it. Salad as a main course simply wasn’t part of how we ate. Food was about abundance, warmth, and feeding people properly.
Coming to the UK changed my relationship with salads entirely. British food culture has a genuinely sophisticated approach to salad bowls — ingredients are chosen thoughtfully, textures are considered, and a good salad is treated as a meal in its own right. I came to love that approach. But I also found myself wanting the flavours I grew up with, the brightness of fresh coriander, the garlicky tang of chimichurri, the tropical sweetness of mango, the smokiness of charred corn.
This salad is what happens when those two food cultures meet. It is unapologetically South American in its flavour profile — bold, vibrant, and built around ingredients that feel familiar to anyone who has eaten across Latin America. But it is assembled in a way that works as a complete, nutritionally balanced meal in the way that British salad culture has taught me to appreciate. As a nutrition coach, I think that kind of cultural bridge is exactly what makes food interesting.
Nutrition Breakdown
(Per serving — whole recipe)
- Calories: ~521 kcal
- Protein: ~37g
- Carbohydrates: ~54g
- Fat: ~16g
- Fibre: ~14g
At 37g of protein this is one of the highest protein salads you will find anywhere, a figure that rivals most gym-focused protein bowls but with a flavour profile that would not look out of place on a restaurant menu. The fibre content of nearly 14g is exceptional, coming from the black beans, avocado, cabbage, mango, and sweetcorn working together. The calorie count of around 521 kcal makes this a genuinely complete and satisfying main meal.
Coaching insight: The combination of high protein and high fibre in this salad means it may support satiety for significantly longer than a standard lunch. If you find yourself hungry an hour after eating, the problem is almost never the calories — it is the protein and fibre content. This salad addresses both simultaneously.
Note: All nutrition values are estimates. The chimichurri macros are based on the recipe at recipesalexarciab.com/recipe/south-american-steak-sauces and will vary depending on your exact ratios of olive oil and herbs. Tortilla chip macros calculated using Vilgain Organic Tortilla Chips (salted). Always verify with your preferred nutrition calculator.
Ingredients
(Serves 1)
- 100g tinned chicken breast (Vilgain recommended — use code ALEX for 10% off)
- 15g chimichurri (see my chimichurri recipe — half to marinate, half to dress)
- 80g tinned sweetcorn, drained
- 60g black beans, drained and rinsed
- 80g ripe mango, diced
- 30g fresh baby spinach
- 60g purple cabbage, finely shredded
- 50g red pepper, julienned
- ½ small Hass avocado (~50g flesh)
- Juice of ½ lime
- 10g Vilgain organic tortilla chips, roughly crushed
- 5g fresh coriander, to serve
- Salt to taste
Smart Substitutions
- Tinned chicken: Fresh cooked and shredded chicken breast or thigh works equally well — thigh adds more fat and flavour; rotisserie chicken is a brilliant shortcut
- Chimichurri: Any herb-based dressing works — a simple olive oil, garlic, and parsley combination is the closest alternative; shop-bought chimichurri if you’re short on time
- Black beans: Kidney beans or chickpeas work well; puy lentils for a different texture
- Mango: Nectarine or papaya in season; tinned mango in juice drained well out of season
- Hass avocado: Any ripe avocado; guacamole if you want a smoother finish
- Vilgain tortilla chips: Any lightly salted corn tortilla chip; toasted pumpkin seeds for a lower-calorie crunch option
- Purple cabbage: White cabbage or iceberg lettuce for a milder flavour; red chicory for bitterness
If you’re adjusting based on your goals: using fresh chicken thigh instead of tinned breast adds approximately 40–50 kcal and 2–3g of extra fat per serving; swapping black beans for chickpeas adds approximately 10 kcal and reduces fibre slightly; skipping the tortilla chips saves approximately 46 kcal.
Customisation Options
Scale It Up for Meal Prep
This salad scales beautifully for batch cooking. Prepare the chimichurri chicken, charred sweetcorn, and black beans in larger quantities and store separately in the fridge. Assemble individual bowls fresh each day, the avocado smash and tortilla chips should always be added just before eating.
Make It Vegan
Replace the tinned chicken with a tin of jackfruit in brine, shredded and marinated in chimichurri, or use 120g of cooked quinoa as the protein base. The black beans and mango already make this a very plant-forward bowl, the swap is seamless.
Add More Heat
Add thinly sliced fresh jalapeño or a pinch of chilli flakes to the avocado smash. A few drops of hot sauce drizzled over the top just before serving adds a Colombian-inspired kick that works beautifully with the mango.
Make It a Wrap
Spoon the entire bowl into two large wholemeal tortilla wraps for a portable lunch version. The chimichurri chicken, mango, and avocado smash make a particularly good wrap filling, the tortilla chips inside add crunch that holds up surprisingly well.
Add Grains
Stir 80g of cooked quinoa or brown rice into the base for a more substantial meal that sits around 700 kcal and pushes protein above 40g. This version works particularly well as a post-workout meal.
Storage and Meal Prep
The assembled salad is best eaten immediately, particularly because of the avocado smash and the tortilla chips, both of which deteriorate quickly once dressed. However, the individual components store very well:
Chimichurri chicken: Store marinated and shredded in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days.
Charred sweetcorn: Store cooled in an airtight container for up to 3 days.
Black beans: Once drained and rinsed, store in the fridge for up to 3 days.
Avocado smash: Make fresh each time, add extra lime juice and press cling film directly onto the surface if you need to keep it for a few hours, but it is always best made just before serving.
Tortilla chips: Add last, always. Even 10 minutes in a dressed salad will soften them.
For more high-protein meal ideas to build into your week, take a look at my other high protein recipes.
How This Fits Into a Balanced Diet
This South American Rainbow Shredded Chicken Salad is a perfect example of what balanced, non-restrictive eating looks like in practice. It is a meal that delivers exceptional nutritional value; 37g of protein, nearly 14g of fibre, a full spectrum of micronutrients from seven different vegetables and fruits while being genuinely exciting to eat. It does not feel like a health food. It feels like something you would order at a good restaurant.
That distinction matters. As a nutrition coach, one of the most important things I help clients understand is that sustainable healthy eating is not about eating less of the foods you love, it is about finding versions of delicious, satisfying food that also happen to nourish you well. This salad is built entirely around bold South American flavours that I grew up with, reimagined as a complete, balanced meal. That is the kind of cooking that makes healthy eating feel effortless rather than effortful.
Final Thoughts
This South American Rainbow Shredded Chicken Salad is the recipe I make when I want something that genuinely reminds me of home, the brightness of chimichurri, the sweetness of mango, the creaminess of Hass avocado, all in a bowl that works as hard nutritionally as it does flavourfully. It takes about 15 minutes to put together, uses ingredients that are easy to keep on rotation, and delivers a meal that looks as good as it tastes.
Make it once and it will earn a permanent place in your weekly rotation. Subscribe to my blog and get my free weekly meal planner template to build more high-protein, flavour-packed meals like this one into your week with ease.
Alex 🙂
South American Rainbow Shredded Chicken Salad (High Protein and Rich in Fibre)
A vibrant, rainbow-coloured South American shredded chicken salad built on bold Latin American flavours. Chimichurri-marinated tinned chicken, charred sweetcorn, black beans, fresh mango, smashed Hass avocado, purple cabbage, red pepper, and baby spinach, finished with Vilgain organic tortilla chips and fresh coriander. Around 500 kcal and 37g of protein in one bowl.
Ingredients
Instructions
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Drain the tinned chicken and break into shreds with a fork. Toss with half the chimichurri until every strand is coated. Set aside.
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Dry-fry the sweetcorn in a hot pan with no oil for 3–4 minutes until golden and charred in spots. Set aside to cool slightly.
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Scoop the Hass avocado flesh into a small bowl with the lime juice and a pinch of salt. Smash with a fork — keep it chunky rather than smooth.
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Lay the baby spinach as the base of a wide bowl. Arrange the purple cabbage and red pepper in colour-blocked sections on top.
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Add the chimichurri chicken, charred sweetcorn, black beans, and diced mango.
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Dollop the avocado smash in the centre. Drizzle over the remaining chimichurri and scatter the fresh coriander.
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Pile the crushed tortilla chips over the top last for maximum crunch. Serve immediately.
Nutrition Facts
Nutrition Facts
Servings: 1 ServingCalories:521kcalTotal Fat:16gSaturated Fat: 3gSodium:380mgTotal Carbohydrate:54gDietary Fiber: 14gSugars: 18gProtein:37g
Note
- Add the tortilla chips absolutely last, even a few minutes in a dressed salad will soften them
- Char the sweetcorn in a very hot dry pan, patience here makes a real difference to the flavour
- Use the ripest mango you can find, the sweetness is essential to balance the chimichurri
- Hass avocado is smaller and richer than standard avocados, approximately 50g of flesh per half
- Use code ALEX for 10% off Vilgain products at vilgain.co.uk
- All nutrition values are estimates chimichurri macros will vary based on your recipe ratios; verify with your own calculator
