Light and delicious, this easy chicken salad recipe is one of my favorite ways to keep lunch simple. It’s sweet with a bit of tang, and the apples and nuts give it just the right amount of crunch. My kids gobble it up when served over a bed of lettuce or as a chicken salad sandwich made with this paleo bread.
Quick tip on reducing prep time: One of my “tricks” for avoiding burnout in the kitchen is to make double batches when possible. That usually means that I bake a couple of chickens together in the oven sometime early in the week so that I have one for dinner and one to use later for tortilla soup, homemade chicken soup, lettuce wraps or this chicken salad.
6 Ways To Serve Chicken Salad
One of my favorite things about chicken salad is how versatile it is. My kids devote most of their math ability to counting how often I’ve made something recently so that they can gently let me know – so helpful, right?
Fortunately, it’s easy to keep this simple chicken salad interesting by serving it in one of six ways:
- Spread over homemade crackers
- As a lettuce wrap – my favorite kinds of lettuce to use are romaine and butter.
- Stuffed inside apple sandwiches (Like this but with chicken salad in the center)
- As a traditional chicken salad sandwich
- Over a bed of lettuce (any kind will do)
- Rolled up in a tortilla (these grain-free ones are amazing)
Also, in case you need it, here’s a tutorial on how to bake a whole chicken, and here’s how to use the bones to make rich, nutritious bone broth.
I hope your family loves this chicken salad as much as we do!
Easy Chicken Salad Recipe
Equipment
- large bowl
- small bowl
- spoon
Ingredients
- 2 lbs chicken (cooked and shredded)
- 1 cup mayo (optional homemade mayo recipe)
- 1 cup walnuts or pecans (chopped)
- 2 cups apples (diced)
- ½ cup green onion (chopped)
- ½ cup diced celery
- 2 tbsp apple cider vinegar (optional homemade apple cider vinegar recipe)
- 3 tbsp lemon juice
- 2 tsp raw honey
- sea salt (to taste)
- black pepper (to taste)
Instructions
- In a small bowl, combine the mayonnaise, apple cider vinegar, lemon juice and honey.
- In a large bowl, add the shredded chicken, nuts, apples, onion and celery.
- Add the mayonnaise mixture to the large bowl and combine the ingredients thoroughly, then add salt and pepper to taste.
- Serve the chicken salad over a bed of lettuce, as a lettuce wrap, with crackers, or as a sandwich, etc.
Nutrition
Want more easy meal ideas?
I’ve put together a list of 25+ quick, healthy, easy recipes that help me get dinner on the table no matter what the day brings. I hope you find it as helpful as I have.
4 More Ways To Use Leftover Chicken
If you decide to bake a couple of chickens to make meals easier, here are some ideas for using the leftovers:
