This is hands down the best chicken salad recipe I’ve ever made! It’s creamy, herby, and incredibly easy to make. Feel free to use leftover chicken or follow my simple method for perfectly cooked chicken that’s ideal for this salad.
My favorite chicken salad recipe comes from Richard Hattaway, who shared it with us a little while ago. His recipe features tender chicken, a creamy herbed dressing, and the perfect amount of crunch from celery.
You can enjoy this chicken salad right away, or if you have the time to wait, store it in the refrigerator for a few hours. As it sits, it gets better and better. For more easy salad recipes, look at our best tuna salad, shrimp salad, or this smashed chickpea salad. I also enjoy this chicken salad with almonds and raisins.
Key Ingredients
- Chicken: This salad is the perfect way to use leftover chicken. I especially love using the tender chicken you get after making a batch of our homemade chicken broth. For quick option, poaching chicken is a quick and easy way to get perfectly cooked chicken in just 20 minutes!
- Celery and Green Onions: The combination of crunchy celery and flavorful green onions is essential for this classic chicken salad. The celery adds a refreshing crunch, while the green onions provide a subtle oniony flavor without being overpowering.
- Creamy Salad Dressing: This is where the magic happens! The dressing is a simple blend of mayonnaise (homemade mayo is always a winner!), dry mustard powder, paprika, and a generous mix of fresh herbs. I love using dill, tarragon, parsley, and chives for a bright and flavorful dressing that complements the chicken perfectly.
Ways to Serve Chicken Salad
- Make a chicken salad sandwich: Layer the salad generously on your favorite bread, and then add lettuce, tomato, and other favorite toppings. My go-to bread for this is whole grain or my homemade focaccia. You can substitute the bread for a tortilla (here’s our homemade flour tortilla recipe) or add to lettuce cups like these hummus lettuce wraps.
- Add to salads: Add a scoop of this chicken salad to your favorite salad greens. I love it with Greek salad.
- Serve with crackers or slices of cucumber or zucchini.
- Stuff into veggies: I love stuffing it into vegetables like hollowed tomatoes, cucumbers, and bell peppers. Avocado halves work, too!
Best Chicken Salad We've Made
- PREP
- TOTAL
This easy recipe for chicken salad is delicious. As the chicken sits in the creamy herbed dressing, it gets better and better, making this a fantastic make-ahead meal. We love serving it on top of salads, stuffed into lettuce cups for a low-carb option, or in sandwiches.
You Will Need
3 ½ cups cubed cooked chicken
2 green onions, white and light green part only
1 stalk celery, finely chopped, about 1/2 cup
7 tablespoons mayonnaise, try homemade mayonnaise
1/4 teaspoon Coleman’s dry mustard powder
1/8 teaspoon sweet paprika
1 tablespoon chopped fresh dill
1 tablespoon chopped fresh tarragon
1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley
1 tablespoon chopped fresh chives
1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt, plus more to taste
1/8 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
Directions
1In a medium bowl, stir the mayonnaise, mustard powder, paprika, dill, tarragon, parsley, chives, salt, and pepper together.
2Next, fold in the chicken, celery, and green onion; the chicken will break up a bit as it mixes into the dressing.
3Transfer the salad to a resealable container. Press a piece of parchment paper down on top so it does not dry out, then cover it with the lid of the container. Refrigerate for up to 4 days. The salad tastes better over time, so if you can wait, allow the salad to sit for at least four hours before serving.
Adam and Joanne's Tips
- Cooked chicken: Use my poached chicken recipe, this roasted chicken recipe, or this chicken broth recipe (which cooks a whole chicken, leaving lots of tender meat that’s perfect for this salad).
- For a lighter chicken salad, swap the mayonnaise for light mayo or use plain or Greek yogurt.
- Substitute 1 teaspoon prepared Dijon mustard for the mustard powder.
- The nutrition facts provided below are estimates.
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Pretty good. The seasoning was on point. I left out the celery since I don’t usually eat celery and it seemed like a waste to buy a bunch to only use one stalk. Instead, I added some celery seed, used some pecans for some crunch, and added a teaspoon of rice vinegar to cut through the rich taste of the mayo. Just speculation, but I think an small diced apple would also be a good addition as well, especially if you didn’t use celery like I did. I think I would give a nice sweetness and crisp crunch. Sadly, I do not have any on hand to test this theory.
Hi Jenica, I love how you customized the recipe to fit your tastes and what you had on hand! Leaving out the celery and using celery seed is a smart swap, and the pecans and rice vinegar sound like fantastic additions for extra flavor and texture. And that idea about adding a diced apple is brilliant! It would definitely bring that sweetness and crunch you mentioned. If you try it sometime, let me know how it turns out! I’m always excited to hear about people’s creative twists on recipes.
This is absolutely the best chicken salad recipe I have ever tried! I didn’t have all fresh herbs so I used the dried but it was perfect.
I subbed dried herbs as I did not have fresh. I also added half tsp ground celery seed. This was a delicious! And a big hit! Thank you for sharing your recipe!!