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This homemade Panera Apple Salad is like making your favorite Panera salad recipe at home! This is the perfect lunch or dinner salad recipe and it has its own homemade dressing and grilled chicken. We absolutely love making this at home.

salad mixed with apples and onions and chicken and more in a clear bowl.

Panera’s Fuji Apple Salad

This recipe is, of course, a copycat recipe of one of the best salads from Panera! This is the perfect salad all year but especially in fall. It brings in so many different tastes and flavors that all work perfectly together! On top of the salad ingredients, there is also a great salad dressing that pairs well with salad too!

Make this recipe in a large bowl and then let you family or whoever you are serving, grab however much they want. Trust me, it will be gone before the night is over. Both the salad and dressing are so easy to make! Do not pass up on this recipe!

Ingredients Needed

  • Mixed Greens: Your favorite mix! This can include romaine, arugula, spinach, or other spring mix elements!
  • Tomato: Cut into slices or use grape tomatoes (or cherry tomatoes).
  • Fuji Apple: Make sure to dice these well so they are easy to eat.
  • Red Onion: Optional if you don’t love raw onion.
  • Sunflower Seeds: Buy shelled sunflower seeds for ease; these add a bit of crunch.
  • Goat or Feta Cheese: Use whichever one you like best. Or even use gorgonzola cheese or any other blue cheese you like.
  • Chicken Breasts: I usually make grilled chicken or use leftover oven baked chicken breasts. You can also use pre-cooked rotisserie chicken.
  • White Balsamic Vinegar: Substitute regular balsamic if you don’t have white.
  • Honey: Adds a bit of sweetness to the dressing.
salad mixed with apples and onions and chicken and more in a clear bowl with a dressing being poured in.

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How to make Panera Apple Salad

  1. Toss all ingredients in a large salad bowl.
  2. The amount of chicken you use depends on how many you’re feeding. As a main dish, this salad feeds 2 and 8 ounces of chicken breast is plenty.
  3. Place all dressing ingredients in a jar. I also love adding garlic powder, salt, and freshly ground black pepper. Seal and shake.
  4. Pour over salad, toss to coat. Serve immediately.
salad mixed with apples and onions and chicken and more in a clear bowl.

Expert Tips

  • Making your own dressing is easy, but if you do not want to, you can buy a Fuji Apple dressing that Panera sells at the grocery store.
  • Customize this recipe to you–if there is an ingredient you don’t like, take it out! Make it vegan or vegetarian, or even dairy-free. It’s gluten-free as written!
  • This recipe should be served immediately once dressed.
  • Add some apple chips on top for extra crunch and authenticity. You could also toast pecan halves to add – those would be fantastic.

FAQs

How to store this recipe?

Store this recipe in the refrigerator with some plastic wrap over the top to help it stay fresh – I find it stores best without the dressing or apples. Otherwise they brown and the leaves get soggy – so if you’re making it ahead don’t add the apples or dressing until you’re ready to serve.

5 from 3 votes

Panera Apple Salad with Homemade Dressing

By: Dorothy Kern
Homemade Panera Apple Salad with a sweet vinaigrette – make your favorite Panera salad recipe at home! This is the perfect lunch or dinner salad recipe.
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Total Time: 10 minutes
Servings: 2 servings
ingredients in Panera apple salad
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Ingredients

FOR THE SALAD:

  • 4 cups mixed greens
  • 1 to mato, sliced
  • 1 fuji apple, diced
  • ½ red onion, sliced
  • ¼ cup sunflower seeds, shelled
  • ⅓ cup crumbled goat or feta cheese
  • 1-2 cooked, sliced chicken breasts

FOR THE DRESSING:

  • 2 ounces white balsamic vinegar
  • 2 ounces olive oil
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • ½ teaspoon pepper
  • 1 tablespoon honey
  • ½ teaspoon garlic powder

Instructions 

  • Toss all ingredients in a large salad bowl.
  • The amount of chicken you use depends on how many you’re feeding. As a main dish, this salad feeds 2 and 8 ounces of chicken breast is plenty.

Make the dressing:

  • Place all dressing ingredients in a jar. Seal and shake.
  • Pour over salad, toss to coat. Serve immediately.

Notes

This is a great salad without the chicken too!

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Nutrition

Serving: 1serving | Calories: 644kcal | Carbohydrates: 38g | Protein: 22g | Fat: 46g | Saturated Fat: 10g | Cholesterol: 62mg | Sodium: 2620mg | Potassium: 635mg | Fiber: 4g | Sugar: 24g | Vitamin A: 1065IU | Vitamin C: 24.8mg | Calcium: 344mg | Iron: 5.1mg

Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.

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Dorothy Kern

Welcome to Crazy for Crust, where I share recipes that are sometimes crazy, often with a crust, and always served with a slice of life.

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5 from 3 votes (1 rating without comment)

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6 Comments

  1. The video for the recipe shows eggs going in the dressing. There are no eggs mentioned in your recipe. ?????? Why does it need raw eggs?

    Reply

  2. Did you mean sesame seeds or sunflower seeds. The picture looks like sunflower seeds but recipe says sesame seeds.

    Reply

  3. We just had this salad at Panera today and you forgot the apple chips. That was a nice additional to the salad

    Reply