The Best Chicken Salad Recipes

These are our favorite chicken salads that you might choose to use in a sandwich as opposed to lettuce based salads with chicken as one of the ingredients. Chicken is an ideal protein for deli style chicken salads. Because chicken is relatively bland, flavor options are limitless.

Pineapple Cashew Chicken Salad

This was our favorite chicken salad as a child. A mysterious man moved into the neighborhood and opened a tiny catering shop. We would go there after school about once a week to pick up something for the next day’s lunch. Mr. Mysterious didn’t last the school year. He was gone without warning one day. Luckily, Scamper has always been a curious creature and before he disappeared, we kept a keen eye on his technique for creating our favorite luncheon delicacy. We eat it on romaine leaves. If we are serving it at lunch, we use the hollowed out pineapple shell as a serving piece and serve it with a small salad and flat bread crackers.

Ingredients

3-4 c cooked chicken breast, cubed
1 c fresh pineapple chunks
1/2-3/4 c salted cashews
1/2 c mayonnaise (adjust the amount to your taste)
Whole romaine leaves or endive leaves

chicken salad — Pineapple Cashew Chicken Salad

Preparation

The food processor is the trick and when you use a food processor, you can get away with half the mayo. If you like chunks of chicken, only pulse half of it and stir the chunks in at the end.

Pulse the chicken until it’s finely chopped
Add the pineapple and pulse that too
Stir in the mayonnaise
And the nuts
We give it another quick pulse or two
Some of the nuts will be crushed and some remain almost whole
Refrigerate it for an hour
We never put this one on bread.

Chicken Salad with Grapes, Almonds and Homemade Mayo

This is another family favorite. We serve this one on a bed of mixed greens with a loaf of crusty rustic bread and chilled Chardonnay. It makes a great casual lunch.

Ingredients

3-4 c cooked chicken, cubed
1 c seedless grapes, halved
1 c sliced almonds
1 stalk of celery, chopped
4 scallions, chopped
1 Tbsp chopped, fresh parsley
Juice of 1 lemon
1 Tbsp Dijon mustard
1 c homemade mayonnaise
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp fresh ground pepper

Homemade Mayonnaise

1 lg egg yolk
1 tsp white wine vinegar
1 tsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp onion powder
1 tsp Dijon mustard
1/2 tsp sugar
1 c grape seed oil

Preparation

Use a mixer at high speed to mix everything but the oil for 20 seconds
Slowly pour in the oil as the mixer continues to run
That’s it. Easy, breezy. It’s good for 3 days in the refrigerator.

Make the mayonnaise first
Combine chicken, grapes, almonds, celery, scallions and parsley in a bowl
Whisk the lemon juice, mustard, salt and pepper into the mayonnaise
Toss the dry ingredients with the mayonnaise mixture and chill for 1 hr.

Chicken Salad with Grapes, Almonds and Homemade Mayo

Curry Chicken Salad

This one is a great change from ordinary chicken salad. We love just by itself but if we serve it for a lunch we like to accompany it with warm naan bread and Pinot noir.