This chicken salad recipe is one of my favorites—it makes a delicious quick lunch or dinner.
Chicken, mayonnaise, a few add-ins and some seasonings come together to create a creamy salad or filling for a homemade chicken salad sandwich or wrap!
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Chicken Salad Ingredients
- Chicken: I most often use rotisserie chicken, but leftover chicken of almost any kind, including grilled chicken, can be used. If using canned chicken, mix all ingredients except the chicken in a bowl and then gently fold in the drained canned chicken.
- Add-ins: Since this is a classic chicken salad recipe, I add celery for crunch and green onion for flavor.
- Dressing: Mayonnaise adds a creamy texture, while simple seasonings add flavor.
Variations
- Add dill or other fresh herbs.
- Lighten it up a bit by replacing half of the mayo with Greek yogurt.
- Change the flavor by adding ranch dressing.
- Dress it up with add-ins like chopped apples, grapes, or chopped nuts such as almonds, walnuts, or pecans.
How to Make Chicken Salad
Prepare this classic chicken salad recipe in just 15 minutes with only a few simple ingredients.
- Chop cooked and cooled chicken and place into a large bowl with celery and onions.
- Mix dressing ingredients (recipe below) in a bowl. Toss with chicken.
- Serve on rolls, bread, or over a bed of lettuce.
Serving Suggestions
- This chicken salad sandwich recipe can be served on any type of bread, including a croissant. I love to lightly toast the bread.
- Serve it with crackers for snacking.
- Spoon it over greens or into lettuce leaves to make lettuce wraps.
Storing Leftovers
Refrigerator: Store chicken salad in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days. Stir before serving.
Freezer: Prepared chicken salad doesn’t freeze well however, to prep ahead, dice the chicken and freeze it it. When ready to make the salad, combine the thawed chicken with the remaining ingredients below for a quick lunch!
More Favorite Sandwiches
This chicken salad recipe is a favorite lunch or light dinner. Here are more easy sandwiches that top our list!
Equipment
Ingredients
- 2 cups cooked chopped chicken or shredded chicken
- ½ cup mayonnaise
- 1 rib celery diced
- 1 green onion thinly sliced
- 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
- ¼ teaspoon seasoned salt more to taste
- ⅛ teaspoon black pepper or to taste
- 1 teaspoon chopped fresh dill or ¼ teaspoon dried dill, optional
Instructions
- In a medium bowl, add chicken, mayonnaise, celery, green onion, mustard, salt, pepper, and dill if using. Mix well to combine.
- Taste and season with additional salt and pepper if desired.
- Serve as a sandwich or over salad.
Video
Notes
- 1 cup chopped red grapes or 1 cup chopped peeled apple
- 2 tablespoons chopped nuts (pecans or almonds)
Nutrition Information
Nutrition information provided is an estimate and will vary based on cooking methods and brands of ingredients used.
Course Salad
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Simple and delicious! Thanks for the recipe.
I made this chicken salad. Added a bit more celery and more Mayo. Sure that was just to taste. Love it!!!!
Anyone try this with Swanson canned chicken breast? Want to make this but pressed for time and can’t cut up rotisserie chicken.
Hi Latonya, other readers have tried this recipe with canned chicken and it has worked out well. I would recommend reducing the salt since canned chicken is saltier than cooked chicken.
Canned chicken breast works fine. Just drain it. But it is also pricier than leftover or cooked chicken. You can pretty much do anything you want with chicken salad. Sorry for late response.
Delicious. I didn’t have fresh chicken breast so instead I used 2 cans of Hormel chicken in water. The family loves the recipe. It’s a repeat for certain!
Delicious chicken salad. I didn’t have dill so I put in some dried tarragon. Wow!, it was so flavorful. I’ll have to try dill next time. Thank you.
Easy and tasty! Even for a guy!
Thank you for the wonderful easy to make recipes!
I’ve made this my go to chicken salad! Easy to make and flavorful.
This receipt is as close to what I remember as a youth. The only difference is my mom used pickle relish but dill works for me.
Great recipe! I’m lessening my carbs and came across your chicken salad recipe. I added a few boiled eggs to the mix, was light on the onion & walla… it’s a solid foundational recipe for my weekly rotation. Thanks a ton!
Is “walla” the American version of voila / voilà?? So cute!
Great recipe for classic chicken salad. I omitted the Dijon because I was out but still delicious! Served on sandwiches with salted, sliced tomatoes and dill pickles! Yum!
Glad you enjoyed it, Deremy!
Delicious and less than 10 minutes to put together. I had about 6 pieces of leftover takeout fried chicken that I didn’t know what to do with. Removed coating and bones, and voila, a great way to turn takeout into another delicious anytime meal. Everyone loved it!
Thank you for sharing this recipe. It was so good!! I made it for Christmas and put it on mini croissants. Everyone loved them. I followed the recipe exactly, except for doubling it, and it was perfect. Initially I thought there was too much seasoned salt, but after it set for several hours it was perfect. And you were right it doesn’t get watery after setting for several hours like some chicken salads will. This is my go to chicken salad!
Served on mini croissants would be so yummy, Jenny! Glad you enjoyed this recipe as much as we do.
TO ELIMATE “WATERY” MAYO BASED SALADS, ADD 1 TABLESPOON MELTED BUTTER OR MARGERINE AND STIR INTO YOUR MIXTURE. ONCE COLD, THE BUTTER SEIZES UP ALL THE WATER. I DO THIS FOR EGG SALAD OR TUNA SALAD ETC. TRY IT,,, IT WORKS
This recipe is perfect and does not get watery so why are you offering unnecessary advice that sounds rather disgusting?
We loved the recipe, Lynn Fisher. It’s not watery and your suggestion doesn’t sound good at all.
Also, never use all CAPS on emails and always use spell check.
Great recipe…no need for butter or margarine since it is not watery.
Hi Lynn, your right about the margerine, that is the way Martha Stewart does it for the same reason. Don’t pay any attention to the below comments. If you like to type in all caps by all means type in all caps. lol Some people are chronic complainers. Have a wonderful day.
Vi, after a day or two in the fridge, you will be thanking her for the tip not ripping her!
I know what you mean by “watery”, my tuna salad does it, no matter how much I drain it. I’ll try your technique the next time. Thank you!
Made this for a Christmas appetizer. My family loved it. Giving 5 stars. Will be making this again.
Best chicken salad ever. I’ve made plenty for hubbies lunches. Added 2 boiled chicken eggs. Yumms. Thank you.
This was a total hit at an impromptu family lunch on potato rolls, paired with dill pickles. I added a bit more mayo though, along with some celery seeds. Loved the flavors after it set for an hour and a half.
I made this for my Christmas party. I followed the recipe but tripled it and prepared it the day before in order to save time and it says it keeps in the frig for a week. When I took it out, it was so runny I must have drained almost a cup of liquid and that was before I added the grapes! I put them on croissants but even with lettuce, they got all soggy. Any suggestions of what I did wrong? The chicken salad tasted okay but the consistency was awful and unappetizing because it was so runny.
Oh no, I am sorry that happened, Vivian. The only thing I can think if maybe your chicken was too juicy! Which sounds crazy, since juicy chicken is delicious but if your chicken was overly moist the liquid could cause the salad mixture to become slightly soggy.
I add some chopped green bell pepper also to give it a little pop. Plus I had some sweet relish.
I used 1 large canned chicken. So I halved everything and put it on white bread with tomato for the kids lunches. They loved it! My super picky eater even took a few bites.
As stated, this is a perfect, basic, chicken salad recipe. You can eat as is or add apples, grapes, almonds, etc. SO good! Thanks for sharing this awesome recipe!
no recipe yet so no comment!!!
Hi Cindi, you can view the full recipe by scrolling towards the bottom of the post or by using the “jump to recipe” button at the top of the post. Hope that helps!