My creamy chicken salad recipe combines tender chicken, celery, nuts, dried fruit, and a simple creamy dressing. It’s perfect to enjoy now, but it improves over time, making it an excellent option for meal-prepping.
I love this creamy chicken salad, especially the crunchy nuts and dried fruit. They add so much texture! The secret to this chicken salad is its creamy dressing made with mayonnaise, lemon juice, mustard, and a tiny bit of sesame oil (trust me!). For more of a classic recipe, see our easy chicken salad with herbs.
This salad is perfect for using leftover chicken, or take our tips below for cooking chicken perfectly for chicken salad (I’ve shared 3 easy methods for you to choose from). For more salads like this, see our easy tuna salad, egg salad, and my favorite smashed chickpea salad.
Key Ingredients
- Chicken: Use leftover chicken, rotisserie chicken, or one of our easy recipes for cooking chicken, like easy poached chicken (takes 25 minutes), simmered whole chicken (makes broth and super tender chicken in about 1 hour), and whole roasted chicken.
- Celery and Herbs: These add crunch, color, and freshness. I chop my celery pretty small. For the herbs, use what you have. I love parsley, chives, dill, tarragon, and mint!
- Nuts and Raisins: I love sliced almonds and golden raisins, but you can always substitute them with your favorite nuts and fruit. Walnuts are excellent, as are fresh fruits like diced apples or halved grapes.
- Creamy Dressing: The dressing for this salad couldn’t get much easier. Combine mayonnaise with fresh lemon juice, Dijon mustard, salt, and pepper. Then, add a dash of toasted sesame oil for a bit more flavor (we also use sesame oil in our dressing for broccoli slaw). You can swap the mayonnaise for plain Greek yogurt for a mayo-free salad. It tastes a bit more tangy but will still taste great. We also have this vegan mayonnaise recipe if you are interested.
Creamy Chicken Salad
- PREP
- TOTAL
I love this creamy chicken salad, especially the crunchy nuts and dried fruit. It’s also quick to make and lasts a few days in the fridge. We highly recommend the toasted sesame oil — it adds a lovely umami flavor to the dressing. A little goes a long way, so only add a few dashes (not more than a 1/4 teaspoon). When we have the time, we poach chicken breasts for this salad. Here’s our detailed recipe for how to poach chicken. You might also like this chicken broth recipe, which calls for poaching a whole chicken (perfect for this salad), and of course, this classic roast chicken.
You Will Need
For the Salad3 cups (480g) chopped or shredded cooked chicken
1 cup (120g) chopped celery
4 tablespoons chopped fresh herbs like chives, parsley, mint, or basil
1/4 cup (40g) lightly toasted nuts like sliced almonds, walnuts, pecans or pine nuts
1/4 cup (40g) dried fruit like golden raisins, cranberries, dates, or blueberries
For the Dressing1/2 cup (110g) mayonnaise, see homemade mayo
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt, plus more to taste
1/4 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
2 to 4 small dashes toasted sesame oil (scant 1/4 teaspoon), optional
1 to 2 teaspoons jam, optional
Directions
1Combine the chicken, celery, herbs, nuts, and dried fruit in a medium mixing bowl.
2Mix the mayonnaise, lemon juice, mustard, salt, and black pepper in a small bowl. Taste, then add the optional ingredients. Toasted sesame oil adds umami (a little goes a long way), and the jam sweetens the dressing.
3Toss the dressing with the salad. Taste, then adjust with more salt and pepper.
Adam and Joanne's Tips
- Storing: When stored in an airtight container, chicken salad stays in the refrigerator for 3 to 4 days, which is excellent news because, as I mentioned above, the salad tastes great the moment you make it, but give it a day in the fridge, and it tastes even better.
- In addition to or as a substitute for the dried fruit, add a handful of fresh fruit like halved grapes or chopped apples.
- For a lighter chicken salad, swap the mayonnaise for light mayo or use plain or Greek yogurt.
- The nutrition facts provided below are estimates.
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We LUV chicken salad (and ALL ‘salad’ sandwiches). I make them often. A good quality mayo is very important,….none of that salad dressing stuff! We prefer yellow mustard in salads (although we use Dijon in other dishes). For us, Dijon is way too tangy for chicken salad (at least it is for our palates.) I normally add finely diced celery, scallions OR chives, parsley, halved red grapes, some tarragon, and finely chopped pecans. I never add sesame oil (for what?). I also (sometimes) substitute celery salt for Kosher or regular salt. It adds incredible flavor! We like our Chicken Salad on lightly toasted whole grain bread or Croissants, with a couple leaves of Bibb (Boston) lettuce. Our son was seen adding some cranberry sauce to his sandwich, and I must admit, it looked pretty darn good! We LOVE ‘cold salad sandwiches’, especially on hot and busy summer days.
thank you so much I have been trying to cut back on groceries I love your recipes and now I know how to poach a chicken all these years I just love this trying to cut back on sugar also and eat healthy too.thanks again for this post Peace and Love, Lynn PS going to make Chicken salad today
Amazing recipes, glad I found you 🙂
This is a very nice recipe. Unfortunately, I used half the amount of chicken and then forgot to halve the dressing (I’m famous for doing that). But still, I used their Perfect Poached Chicken recipe they suggested, and it’s soooo delicious and easy. Will be my ‘go to’ for Chicken Pot Pie and whenever I need cooked chicken for a recipe. Thank you for sharing your culinary skills and recipes, which I find are right up my alley!