The Best ever Chicken Salad Recipe

This recipe for chicken salad is the best ever! Because of the dressing, nuts, and grapes, we refer to this chicken salad as “fancy,” but it’s really rather simple. This is a simplified and more vibrant take on the traditional chicken salad, making it ideal for dinner preparation.

This makes the ideal main meal or side dish. If you use leftover rotisserie chicken, it’s quite simple.

Ingredients for Chicken Salad

This chicken salad just has five basic ingredients, but for the finest flavor, texture, and color, each one is essential.

Chicken: You may substitute rotisserie chicken, baked chicken breasts, or sautéed chicken breasts in place of the two large chicken breasts that we use from a full-roasted chicken. You may also use dark-meat chicken, such as our easy-to-cook Air Fryer Chicken Thighs.

Celery lightens the taste and gives the salad a nice crunch. Don’t cut corners and give it a go, even if you’re not a lover of celery.

Grapes: Add some delicious, juicy grapes to the salad. Similar to our Broccoli Grape Salad, the grapes offer a cool touch and give the salad a “fancy” appearance.

Pecans: To add even more flavor, we roasted the nuts on a dry pan.

medium red onion: finely chop half of a medium red onion, or add more red onion according to taste. Green onions can also be sliced and used instead, although red onions store better in the refrigerator.

The Best Chicken Salad Dressing

The sweetness from the grapes negates the need for any additional sugar or honey. Compared to only mayo, this dressing is lighter because to the addition of sour cream and is creamy and zesty.

Mayonnaise: –Use genuine mayonnaise for the best taste.

Sour cream: –We use full-fat sour cream, but you may use fat-free Greek yogurt or low-fat sour cream in its place.

Lemon juice: –Make sure you use freshly squeezed lemon juice instead of concentrate.

Dill: Our favorite dill is freshly cut finely; however, you may also use two tablespoons of finely chopped fresh parsley in its place.

Salt and Pepper: Add salt and pepper to taste.

Chicken Salad Substitutions

Nuts: You may skip the pecans entirely or swap them out for walnuts, almonds, or cashews.

Fruit: Try some chopped pears or apples, or some dried fruits like raisins or cranberries.

Onion: Use sweet Vidalia onion or chives instead of yellow onion if you’d like a softer onion flavor.

Celery: You may omit the celery or replace it with chopped bell pepper or even cucumber if you don’t like it. But note that leftovers with cucumber will not keep as well.

Canned Chicken: Although fresh, cooked chicken has the nicest texture, canned chicken is still an option.

How to Make Chicken Salad

This salad is a fantastic lunch alternative because it’s quick to make and only requires one dish.

Toast pecans To toast the nuts, cook them over medium-low heat in a dry pan, tossing constantly, until they turn brown and become fragrant. After transferring them to a chopping board, roughly chop them once they have cooled down, and add them to a large bowl.

Chop Chicken –Dice the chicken breast and add it to the mixing bowl after it has been chopped. Please note that diced chicken is preferred over shredded chicken in terms of texture.

Halve Grapes – Halve the grapes by cutting them with a serrated knife, and add them to the bowl.

Chop celery and onion – Chop the onion and celery finely, removing the ends. Cut the celery sticks in half lengthwise, and then thinly slice them before adding them to the bowl.

Make Dressing – To make the dressing, put all of the ingredients in a dish and pour the dressing over the salad.

Toss to combine – Mix everything together, stirring to coat the salad completely with dressing. Cover and chill until ready to serve.

Pro Tip

The best way to reheat a croissant is to toast it in an air fryer at 350˚F for 3 minutes until it’s lightly crisp on the outside and warmed through. This is what we do with store-bought croissants and they taste like they just came out of a bakery oven.