Best Classic Chicken Salad

This Chicken Salad is the best classic recipe made in the traditional way with grapes and toasted almonds. There’s also a variation made with dried cranberries perfect for the winter months as well. It’s naturally gluten free, dairy free, paleo, and there’s no mayo options as well. It’s a healthy chicken salad made with all real food ingredients, and perfect served over a bed of green for extra veggies!

Sweet juicy grapes, crunchy celery, toasted almond all combine together with the chicken and savory dressing to make the best chicken salad ever! I already have an Avocado Chicken Salad recipe on the blog which is super tasty. However the avocado doesn’t keep as well, and so we definitely need the classic recipe here too.

It’s one of those recipes that’s super simple, and everyone loves it. It’s elegant enough for things like bridal or baby showers. But it’s also great packed along for work lunches, or taken on a weekend picnic.

And it makes a wonderful light dinner that won’t leave you hungry. We especially love this recipe in the heat of summer when you don’t feel like eating anything hot!

Let’s talk about the ingredients for the Best Classic Chicken Salad!

• Chicken – Chicken breasts are traditional, but we like using either chicken breasts or chicken thighs. I took a slight departure from the classic recipe and roasted the chicken which provides more flavor than the traditional way of poaching it. If you can find chicken breasts with the bone and skin, they will be the best for this recipe. Roasting the chicken with the skin on keeps the breast meat perfectly moist. But no worries if you have boneless skinless, just keep and eye on them so they don’t overcook, and you’ll be fine.
• Green onions – provide a lot of savory flavor here and the perfect amount of onion flavor without being overwhelming. I also love using chives when I have them in my herb garden for an even more subtle flavor.
• Celery – provides both crunch and flavor along with being another veggie added to your meal.
• Grapes – cut in half to make for a more bite sized amount are the perfect sweet pairing to this savory dish. For the fall and winter months we like to use fruit juice sweetened cranberries when grapes aren’t in season.
• Avocado Mayonnaise – is my favorite here, and you’ll find the link to my homemade version in the recipe. You can use any mayo you’d like here or you can sub some or all of the mayo for Greek yogurt. Check out the substitutions below for the ‘no mayo’ options.
• Dijon mustard – Combines with the mayo to make up the base of the dressing.
• Lemon juice – adds a bright spot to the dressing and keeps it from tasting heavy or bland.
• Fresh herbs – my favorites in order are basil, tarragon, and dill. Basil has a tendency to turn brown after a day or two in the fridge, but tarragon and dill keep well. I really love all 3, but I just can’t get enough of basil during the summer. Tarragon isn’t always available, but it’s phenomenal in chicken salad as is dill which is more readily available. And you can always use your extra dill from the bunch to make my Easy Blender Ranch Dressing.
• Sliced almonds – toasted to a light golden brown add a nice flavor and lovely crunch to this salad. You can also use any toasted nut or even pumpkin seeds that you like here, I can’t think of a bad pairing with this salad.

Now let’s make this recipe step by step!

Step 1:

Start by roasting your chicken first so it has time to cool. You can see here I only had boneless skinless chicken breasts here and the meat was still perfectly juicy. It’s just that chicken breasts with the bone and skin are more forgiving, and less prone to be dry.

Step 2:

While the chicken is cooking, mix together all the ingredients for the dressing.

Step 3:

Then finely dice the celery, halve the grapes, and thinly slice the green onions.

Step 4:

When the chicken is done and cool enough to handle, chop the chicken into small bite sized pieces.

Step 5:

Add the chicken to a medium sized mixing bowl along with the dressing, celery, green onions, and fresh herbs. Mix to combine.

Step 6:

Finally stir in the grapes and season to taste with sea salt and pepper.

Tip: Allow the chicken salad to set in the fridge for 20-30 minutes before serving if you can to allow the flavors to develop.

Storage & Meal Prep Tips:

• Chicken salad keeps well for 3-5 days in the fridge.
• To make this ahead for meal prep, I definitely recommend keeping the almonds separate and add them as you eat the salad for the best crunch. If you’re using basil, it’s best to add it as you eat the salad too because it has a tendency to turn brown after 2 days. When I meal prep this, I like to use dill which keeps the best in my opinion.

Let’s jump into some FAQ’s!

How to serve this Chicken Salad:

1. Our favorite way to eat this is over a pile of mixed greens, but spinach and arugula is great too.
2. It’s also really tasty rolled into a wrap with mixed greens. A local coffee shop where I live serves a chicken salad wrap like I described above with blue cheese dressing in place of the mayo dressing and it’s incredible as well!
3. Pile it into a sandwich with or without greens.
4. You can serve this as a snack like my 3 Quick and Easy Apple Slice Snacks. Slice and apple in circles, and use a small round cutter to remove the core, then pile on some of this chicken salad.

I really hope you enjoy this Best Classic Chicken Salad! And if you do get a chance to make it, I hope you’ll leave me a comment/rating below. I always love hearing from you here! Also for lots more salad recipes, head over to the recipe index.

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