More About This Recipe
- Perfect for picnics, ideal at celebrations and just-right for any quick-fix meal, this chicken salad sandwich recipe is a balanced combination of hearty meat, crunchy celery and onion and creamy mayonnaise. If you have leftover cooked chicken from another meal, turn it into easy chicken salad. And if Thanksgiving dinner has given you more turkey than you can handle, swap it in this recipe for chicken salad to make an easy day-after meal. One commenter remarked that she omits the celery and adds in chopped apple instead. Another swaps the celery out for a tablespoon minced jalapeño peppers to add a spicy twist. Avoiding bread? This would be just as tasty served in lettuce wraps instead. Easy chicken salad is just the beginning. Dont miss out on Betty Crocker’s best sandwich and wrap recipes for more ideas.
The Best Chicken Salad
This Chicken Salad is truly divine. At first glance you might balk at the grapes, but trust me, they make the salad exquisite. The sweet crunch of the grapes combines beautifully with the chicken and richness of the mayo. The celery and pecans create nice crunch to the chicken salad that elevates it to the next level.
I love using this for picnics and special lunches. It is so easy to make but it is so fancy at the same time. Chicken Salad comes together in a flash so you can have this on the table in no time. And you will love how it is so versatile as well, serve it as a wrap, on a croissant, on some rye bread, or in a lettuce bowl. However you serve it, just make it! You are going to love it, it is so divine!
Chicken Salad With Apples And Cranberries
The Spruce / Diana Chistruga
Chopped walnuts or pecans and chunks of apples and cranberries add crunch and texture to this savory-sweet chicken salad. Curry powder and lemon juice form a tangy mayo-based dressing. Make it lighter by skipping the mayo and using only olive oil as a binder. Serve it in ciabatta bread as a sandwich, or on flour or cauliflower tortillas with sesame seeds on top.
Read Also: Is Chicken Salad Good For Weight Loss
Ingredients For Chicken Salad
The 5 ingredients in this chicken salad are so simple, but each one is important for the best taste, texture, and color.
- Chicken we use 2 large chicken breasts from a whole roasted chicken, but you can use rotisserie chicken or sauteed chicken breasts instead. Leftover dark meat chicken will also work.
- Celery adds a great crunch to the salad and lightens up the flavor. Even if you arent a fan of celery, dont skimp on it and I hope you give it a try.
- Grapes add sweet juiciness to the salad. Just like in our Broccoli Grape Salad, the grapes are a refreshing addition and make the salad feel fancy.
- Pecans we toasted nuts on a dry skillet to give them even more flavor.
- Red onion finely chop half of a medium red onion, or you can add red onion to taste. You can also substitute for chopped green onion, but red onion keeps better refrigerated.
Ingredients In Chicken Ranch Salad
This recipe still has all the basics found in a classic chicken salad and adds a fun twist of bacon and ranch dressing!
- Chicken: Use grilled chicken for that unmistakable outdoor flavor, or use leftover chicken from last nights roast chicken dinner, and get two meals for the price of one!
- Herbs & Spices: Parsley, dill, and seasoned salt. Make your own homemade seasoned salt, or use Mrs. Dash or another favorite.
- Mix-Ins: Bacon, green onions and celery. Celery is optional but adds a delicious crunch!
- Dressing: Ranch dressing, mayo, and a bit of mustard make the creamy and zesty base.
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How Long Will This Chicken Salad Keep
You can make this salad a day or two ahead of time if you wait to add the lettuce until right before serving. The salad will keep for several days in the fridge, but the lettuce will lose its crunch and get all wilty, so you may want to leave the lettuce out if you expect to have leftovers.
Do you have a favorite chicken salad recipe? Please let us know about it in the comments.
How To Make Chicken Salad
Prepare a classic chicken salad in 15 minutes with only a few simple ingredients.
For this chicken salad sandwich recipe, any bread will do, thick slices of a baguette or buns/rolls hold up well. This is naturally low carb and its great over a tossed salad as well.
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I would love it if youd leave a rating and review below. It helps other readers and it helps support the blog! Every time you leave a comment, star rating or share on your social channels , you are helping support the blog. I cant thank you enough!
Please note that any nutrition info you find in the recipe is for it as written in the recipe card. If you make any changes to the recipe to suit your tastes, I recommend using My Fitness Pal or the Lose It app to calculate the nutrition info. I dont provide nutrition info to cover all scenarios.
How Do You Make Chicken Salad From Scratch
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How To Make Quick And Easy Chicken Salad
Letting this sit in the fridge for a bit, helps meld the flavors together. Shoot for at least an hour. In a medium sized bowl combine the chicken, grapes, pecans, green onions, celery, mayonnaise, lemon, and mustard. Salt and pepper to taste. Serve with croissants, romaine, or with crackers. This chicken salad is always so fun for everyone to make their own sandwich or add it on top of green lettuce.
Grilled Chicken Salad Recipe
Summer is the perfect time for grilling. Many nights we have leftover grilled chicken. Don’t hesitate to use the grilled chicken breasts you have in the fridge to make this recipe.
Just shred as you would other cooked chicken breasts and enjoy the smokey grill flavors added to your creamy chicken salad.
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Best Chicken Salad Recipe
Chicken salad is one of those recipes where you think everyone should know how to make it but when it comes to it there are a lot of different ways it can go.
My goal in creating this recipe was to keep it easy with basic ingredients I had on hand.
My favorite chicken salad recipe is from Costco. They use a rotisserie chicken with mayonnaise and celery. If you ask me, this version is pretty darn close. This easy recipe makes for a quick dinner or lunch.
How To Prepare Chicken For Chicken Salad
There are a lot of opinions here, but I really like to use my instant pot to make the chicken. Its really easy and this is not the situation where you want a bunch of browning. You could also poach the chicken in water on the stove if you dont have an instant pot.
An instant pot is just a pressure cooker, so if you have another kind of pressure cooker, feel free to use that. You just really need to have a tender chicken for this recipe. So, a pressure cooker or poaching produces the best result.
Its also important that whatever cooking method you use, you season the chicken. I got with simply a little salt and black pepper. Fresh Parsley, onion powder and garlic powder would also be a great addition.
Texture is also a concern with chicken salad. I dont like those small pieces or cut up chicken. I like a true deli style chicken salad where the chicken is ground and fluffy. It helps it absorb the ingredients better.
To grind the chicken, I just use my food processor. You could also do more of a shred using a hand or stand mixer. If you dont have those, you can use 2 forks. Grinding it down a bit is my favorite though. Trust me, texture matters here. It just feels like a traditional chicken salad recipe when you grind it a bit.
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Chicken Salad With Herb Mayonnaise
This herby chicken salad uses roasted chicken breasts, but rotisserie chicken works well, too. Parsley, dill, chives, oregano, and lemon juice give the salad a lively flavor. Serve in lettuce cups, or in sandwich bread with sliced tomato and lettuce. Add deep-fried sweet potato chips to the plate for a delicious lunch.
Vegetarian Curried Chicken Salad
Chicken salad is so popular that even vegetarians get a craving for it at times. This curried “chicken” salad sandwich is great for meatless Mondays, too. The mock chicken salad is made with cauliflower, cashews, cranberries, onion, and carrot. With the combination of curry powder, ginger, mint, Sriracha, and turmeric, it definitely doesn’t lack flavor, and it’s fantastic on pumpkin bread.
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How To Poach Chicken
I love to use poached chicken in this recipe as its easy, healthy, and flavorful. It also means you dont have to turn your oven on if its a hot sunny day outside. A definite bonus.
If done correctly, poaching can yield one of the most tender pieces of chicken youve ever had. To nail this every time, follow the simple steps below.
Can you use baked chicken or store-bought rotisserie chicken? Of course. While I prefer poached chicken, almost any chicken works in this recipe. Just make sure you have about four cups of diced or shredded chicken.
Ingredients In Chicken Salad
Chicken:
- Use leftovers from last nights dinner or leftover rotisserie chicken or grilled chicken.
- To Make Chicken for chicken salad I like to use either poached chicken or baked chicken breasts or thighs.
- You can use canned chicken in a pinch but of course fresh is best when possible.
- Ensure the chicken is cooled and shred or chop the chicken into bite sized pieces.
Add-ins:
- As this is a classic chicken salad recipe, Ive kept the additions to a minimum. Celery for crunch, green onions for flavor.
- This recipe can be made with a variety of nuts, veggies, and fruit for added flavor and texture.
- Chicken salad with grapes, avocado or dried cranberries is a favorite. Pecans or almonds pair well with this recipe.
Dressing:
- Mayonnaise is the base of this recipe and its simply seasoned.
- You can get creative and substitute some of the mayo for ranch dressing or your favorite salad dressing recipe.
- Create an Avocado Chicken Salad by replacing some of the mayonnaise with mashed avocado.
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Picnic Potato And Chicken Salad Cups
Summer is the time for picnics and salads. That is, potato and chicken salads! Get the best of both worlds with these Picnic Potato and Chicken Salad Cups. Full of fresh herbs like parsley and sage, you get the starchiness of potatoes and the succulence of roasted chicken. Throw in crispy bacon and plenty of crisp veggies and youve got yourself the best potato-chicken salad your picnic has ever seen.
What Makes This Chicken Salad Special
The “secret sauce,” so to speak, of this chicken salad, is the tablespoon of plum preserves my mom adds to the mayo-based dressing. You could use any berry jelly or jam, but as we always have a lot of plum jam on hand , that’s what mom reaches for first.
Mom balances out the sweetness from the dab of jam with a bit of lemon juice.
The result? Wonderful!
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Napa Valley Chicken Salad
This flavorful, easy-to-make chicken salad comes together with just a few ingredients, each of which play an integral role in the profile and body of the dish. The dressing is a combination of sharp Dijon mustard and zesty Ranch dressing and complements the sweetness of red grapes, the earthiness of toasted pecans and the crispness of celery. Enjoy this salad on its own or put it on a sandwich with fresh tomatoes and lettuce for a summertime classic youll want every day.
Get the Recipe: Napa Valley Chicken Salad
Easy Basic Chicken Salad No Celery
Ill break down for you the substitutions and methods that can be used to make this easy chicken salad recipe. Every recipe should be somewhat adaptable in my book. This is a great recipe to improvise with because its versatile.
I like to use chicken breasts for my chicken salad because they are lean and healthy, but if you are in a pinch a rotisserie chicken works just fine. Dark meat chicken just wouldnt be very appetizing here.
While I prefer to use red onion, green onions or white onions will work just fine. If youre trying to make this chicken salad even lighter you can replace half the mayo with light sour cream or non fat Greek Yogurt.
I love how the sweet pickle relish plays with the zing of the dijon mustard, but if you prefer , you can replace that with dill pickles or relish for a tangier flavor profile. A little lemon juice is also nice here.
If you want a sweeter application, you could add cut up green apples or seedless grapes to the mix. Some like to add hard boiled eggs, but sorry for me thats verging on egg salad. You do you though!
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Jalapeno Popper Chicken Salad Quesadillas
Whenever I make my jalapeno popper chicken salad, I like to make a double batch so that I can make some quesadillas! These quesadillas are basically just tortillas filled with the chicken salad mixture along with some extra cheese thats toasted until the tortillas are crispy and the cheese has melted. The jalapeno popper chicken salad is super tasty and already contains cream cheese and cheddar cheese so using it makes for some really creamy quesadillas that just packed with melted cheese!
Jalapeno Popper Chicken Salad Quesadillas
Prep Time
How Can I Make Chicken Salad Healthier
Many people ask, Is chicken salad healthy? Chicken salad can definitely fit into your healthy-eating planwith a few tasty tweaks. Use lean, white breast meat to start. To cut back on the fat and calories from mayonnaise, incorporate mashed avocado, plain Greek yogurt or vegan mayonnaise When choosing your crunchy ingredients, opt for fresh, chopped veggies like onions, green bell peppers or carrots. Finally, serve your chicken salad in a lettuce wedge or over a mixed greens salad for more nutrients without the extra carbs.
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Chicken Salad Avocado And Cheddar Panini
These Chicken Salad, Avocado and Cheddar Paninis strike a balance between bright vibrancy and rich, buttery deliciousness. The salad itself consists of tender chicken, red grapes, slivered almonds, pecans, onion, Granny Smith apple, dried cranberries and lots of salt and pepper, each of which adds a fresh flavor and strong texture to the salad. Once assembled on a croissant with avocado and plenty of cheddar, the brighter elements of the chicken salad balance the richness of the other sandwich elements. Enjoy for brunch, lunch, dinner, daytime snack, midnight snack, elevenses, etc. .
Get the Recipe: Chicken Salad, Avocado and Cheddar Panini
Tips For This Recipe:
- Either chill the chicken before you make the salad or chill the chicken salad mixture before serving.
- Try adding different mix-ins to your chicken salad: different kinds of nuts, grapes, apples, dried cranberries, dried cherries, avocado, chopped green onion or red onion.
- Cook your chicken ahead of time so that you can make this recipe quickly. Try my Instant Pot Shredded Chicken or Crockpot Shredded Chicken. Cooked chicken will stay fresh for up to 4 days in the refrigerator, so go by the date when your chicken was cooked to figure out how long you can store your chicken salad in the fridge.
- For a low carb lunch, serve chicken salad in lettuce wraps or on top of a spinach salad.
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