Grilled Panzanella Salad is a perfect family meal for the warmer months! Made with grilled veggies, hearty bread, chicken sausage, and a delicious vinaigrette, this easy Panzanella Salad with Chicken Sausage will fill your family up without weighing them down!
The recipe for Grilled Panzanella Salad with Chicken Sausage is one of my favorite recipes.
This grilled salad is easy to make, low fat, high protein, and utterly satisfying. Plus, my entire family devours this salad when it is placed on the dinner table, which makes this Mom happy!
Unlike a traditional Panzanella salad that is made with stale bread and rarely features lettuce, this grilled salad is made with grilled bread, along with freshly grilled vegetables. It is smokey, hearty, and good for you!
How To Make Grilled Panzanella Salad
- Prepare the vinaigrette by whisking together all the ingredients.
- Preheat grill to medium-high heat
- Prepare the vegetables, by cutting the heart of romaine in half lengthwise, slicing the onion, and cutting the zucchini and peppers in half.
- Drizzle the vegetables with olive oil and season with salt and pepper.
- Prepare the bread by slicing it into ½-inch thick slices and lightly brushing with olive oil.
- Place the prepared sausage, peppers, zucchini, and onions on the main part of the grill. Add the bread slices to the top rack of the grill.
- Cover and grill for 3-4 minutes. Open the grill and flip the veggies, sausage, and bread.
- Cover and grill for another minute or two and then remove bread slices.
- Allow vegetables and chicken sausage to finish grilling, for about another 2-3 minutes.
- Remove vegetables and sausage from the grill.
- If desired, grill the halved romaine lettuce head for 2-3 minutes. This step is optional, but if you would like a smoky char to your lettuce it is a great tip to grill your lettuce as well.
- Dice up grilled sausage, veggies, bread, and romaine lettuce into bite-size pieces.
- Slice tomatoes and add to grilled salad ingredients.
- Toss with vinaigrette and freshly grated Parmesan, if desired, and serve immediately.
More Grilling Recipes
If you gave this Panzanella Salad a try, I would love for you to leave a review and comment below.
Grilled Panzanella Salad
Ingredients
For Vinaigrette
- ¼ cup olive oil
- 1 lemon juice and zest
- 1 teaspoon capers
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 tsp oregano dried
For Panzanella Salad
- 10 ounces Chicken Sausages
- 1 cup sweet mini peppers
- 1 pint grape tomatoes sliced in half
- 8 oz Italian Bread
- 1 large head of romaine
- 4 small zucchini
- 1 sweet onion optional
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 teaspoon each of kosher salt and pepper
- freshly grated Parmesan cheese for serving optional
Instructions
Salad Dressing
- Prepare the vinaigrette by whisking all the ingredients together, until well combined and set to the side.
Grilled Panzanella Salad
- Preheat grill to medium.
- Prepare vegetables by cutting head of lettuce in half, peppers in half, zucchini in half lengthwise and onion in large slices. Drizzle vegetables with olive oil and season with salt and pepper.
- Slice bread into ½ inch thick slices. Lightly brush with olive oil.
- Place sausage, peppers, zucchini, and onions on the main part of the grill. Add the bread slices to the top rack of the grill. Cover and grill for 3-4 minutes. Open grill and flip the veggies, sausage and bread. Cover and grill for another minute or two and then remove bread slices. Allow vegetables and chicken sausage to finish grilling, for about another 2-3 minutes. Remove vegetables and sausage from the grill. If desired, grill the halved romaine lettuce head for 2-3 minutes.
- Remove everything from the grill and dice up into small bite size chunks.
- Toss with tomatoes, vinaigrette, and grate fresh Parmesan over the entire salad. Serve immediately or after 1 hour to allow the bread to soften.
Caroline
I love the idea of a grilled panzanella, and the addition of sausage definitely makes it a meal. Yum!
Kristen Chidsey
Thanks Caroline, it is a great family meal for sure!
Denise Wright
This looks great! I love panzanella salads but never thought to add chicken sausage. Delicious!
Kristen Chidsey
Thanks Denise. It makes my favorite salad a hearty meal for my family!
The Ninja Baker
Very beautiful, Kristen! Viva Italia and viva scrumptious panzanella salads =)
Kristen Chidsey
Thanks so much 🙂
Hezzi-D
Love Panzanella salad and the chicken sausage sounds delicious!
Kristen Chidsey
Thanks so much Hezzi!
Nikki
I cannot wait to give this one a try! A grilled salad will change up my routine! Looks so delicious!
Kristen Chidsey
Thanks Nikki! I bet you will love this and it will become a new favorite.
Liz
It's been years since I've made a panzanella. Thanks so much for the nudge to get it back on the menu---and making it an entree is perfect for the warmer weather (when it finally gets here!!!).
Kristen Chidsey
LOL! Yes, up in Indiana I bet it is not that warm considering it is only a high of 65 here in NC today! But you surely need this on your menu ASAP
Cindy Kerschner
We eat a lot of chicken sausage. I love that you put it in a salad.
Kristen Chidsey
It really makes an easy and flavorful dinner
Kirsten
Kristen,
I have been saving up cubes of bread for summer salads. (I decided I'm sick of trying to get decent slices off the last inch or so of my multigrain sourdough so I'm just cubing it and freezing). I love the idea of grilling everything and tossing it all together--that's very clever. Looking forward to tomatoes to try this!
Thank you.
Kristen Chidsey
Thanks Kirsten! I love that you have been saving your bread cubes for summer salads. So smart.
Valerie | From Valerie's Kitchen
I love panzanella and the grilled veggies look divine! So delicious!
Kristen Chidsey
Thanks Valerie! Grilling everything makes this so much more enjoyable then a traditional panzanella salad.
Kristen
Thanks for the laugh about the salad spinner...I am going to be chuckling about that for a while. The salad sounds wonderful, too.
Kristen Chidsey
Kristen, I am glad I made you laugh. We all need that!