Quick and Easy Chicken Salad
on Apr 24, 2015, Updated Aug 22, 2024
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Quick and Easy Chicken Salad is one of my favorite dishes to throw together in a hurry. You can make it once and eat for the next few days.
My kids and husband love this chicken salad and I love all the great flavors and vegetables it has. I also love that it doesn’t need to be heated or cooked before eating. It’s the perfect thing to grab when you are hungry and need something now.
The best part? You can eat it however you see fit. I like to use mini bell peppers, celery, and cucumber to dip into the chicken salad. My kids liked it served on top of cracker, and my husband likes it on toasted whole grain bread with extra mayo on the bread. No matter how you eat it, it’s great.
Table of Contents
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- Fresh and Light: This chicken salad makes for a light and refreshing meal perfect for hot summer days.
- Quick and Easy Preparation: As the name suggests, this recipe is quick and easy to prepare, making it an ideal choice for busy weeknights or a fast lunch.
- Great for Meal Prep: This salad can be made ahead of time and stored in the refrigerator, making it a convenient option for meal prepping and having a ready-to-eat meal on hand.
Ingredients
- Cooked Shredded Chicken
- Grapes
- Mayonnaise: homemade is a great choice, if you have it
- Slivered Almonds
- Bell Peppers
- Green Onion
- Fresh Spinach
- Salt and Pepper
See the recipe card below for full information on ingredients and quantities
How to Make Quick and Easy Chicken Salad
Step #1. In a medium bowl, combine all the ingredients and stir well.
Step #3. Serve or eat as desired.
Step #2. Add more mayonnaise, salt, and pepper to taste.
Step #4. Store any leftovers in an airtight container in the refrigerator.
Recipe FAQs
Serve with fruit, cut up veggies, your favorite potato chips or put it on bread for a yummy sandwich.
This chicken salad is great for leftovers. Store covered in the fridge for up to 3 days.
You bet! Rotisserie is quick, easy, and will taste amazing in your chicken salad.
Expert Tips
- Chicken salad will taste best if you let it chill in the fridge for 30 minutes or more after mixing it together.
- Don’t “overdress” the salad. You want enough mayo to moisten it but not enough to make it soggy.
- The beautiful thing about a good chicken salad is the mixture of textures. If you don’t like or can’t use one of the crunchy ingredients (the grapes, bell peppers, and almonds) be sure to add something else crunchy to make up for it (celery, green onions, chopped pecans, etc.).
More Chicken Recipes to Consider
Pasta Dishes
Creamy Chicken and Vegetable Baked Pasta
Soups, Stews & Chowders
White Chicken Chili
Chicken Recipes
Kung Pow Chicken
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Summer Chicken Salad
Ingredients
- 2 cups cooked shredded chicken
- 1 cup chopped grapes
- 1/3 to 1/2 cups good mayonnaise, homemade wins!
- 1/2 cup slivered almonds
- 3/4 cup chopped sweet bell peppers
- 1/3 cup chopped green onion
- Small handful of fresh spinach, chopped (about 1 cup)
- Salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- In a medium bowl combine all the ingredients and stir well.
- Add more mayonnaise and salt and pepper to taste.
- Serve on bread, dip it on to crackers, eat it on celery and mini sweet bell peppers.
- Store any leftovers covered in the fridge for up to 3 days.
Notes
- If you don’t like one of the ingredients, simply leave it out or substitute something else for it! This is a very flexible recipe that you can make to your liking.
- You can boil and shred chicken breasts for this, use leftover meat from a whole cooked chicken, or even used canned chicken for this recipe.
- If you use a rotisserie chicken, discard the skin before chopping it up to add to the salad.
- There are a ton of ways to serve chicken salad. Try and find out which one is your favorite.
Making this when I get home
I am totally craving this right now!
Ummm can I just tell you how genius it is to chop up spinach and put it in a chicken salad? Why didn’t I think of that?! OMG I could definitely sneak some greens into my kids diets with that! Thanks! Great working with you on this project too. 🙂
Your chicken salad looks terrific—true comfort food! I can’t wait to try it. So glad to be joining you in helping out the Wagner family.