This Chicken Salad is an easy recipe that comes together to make an amazing chicken salad sandwich. Make it to bring to a picnic or just have it for an easy weeknight meal.
This Chicken Salad with grapes is great all year, but especially for summer picnics! This recipe has my heart. I love the sweetness the grapes bring to this savory recipe. Their crunch pairs perfectly with that of the celery.
Your family will love this recipe now for easy lunches and even more so come the fall when school picks back up again.
Loved your chicken salad….never used grapes before but it will be a must from now on! Thank you!
Chicken Salad Ingredients
- Cooked Shredded Chicken: You will need three cups, which is a pound of raw chicken cooked. See the note in the recipe card about different options for shredded chicken. Another great idea is to keep frozen shredded chicken on hand.
- Grapes: This is the ingredient that usually throws people for a loop, but it adds such a perfect texture and sweetness to the recipe.
- Red Onion: I love red onions in salads because they bring a subtle sweetness with their onion taste.
- Celery: The celery in this recipe adds the perfect crunch.
- Mayonnaise: We are using mayo as the base of our chicken salad dressing. You should feel free to use light mayo. It cuts some calories without sacrificing taste or texture.
- Lemon Juice: A little lemon juice goes a long way in this recipe to add sense of freshness.
- Salt: As with all recipes, you may want to start with just a little salt and add more once you taste the dressing.
- Garlic Powder
- Onion Powder
- Black Pepper
How to Make Chicken Salad
I like to make this recipe in three steps. I mix together the main ingredients, then I make the dressing. Be sure to taste the dressing and add more salt and pepper to taste. Then mix it all together!
What to Serve Chicken Salad On
My favorite way to eat this is on a nice soft buttery croissant. But it is delicious on any bread or bun for an amazing chicken salad sandwich. It would also be great in a wrap.
If you want to make this a lower carb recipe, you could eat this in endive or Bib Lettuce cups like in my Chicken Lettuce Wraps. This is also great just eaten with a fork or on a bed of salad greens.
Variations
- Add nuts. If your family likes nuts in their chicken salad, I would recommend adding in 1/4 cup of almond slices.
- Pesto Chicken Salad: Adding pesto, and swapping in roasted red peppers and cherry tomatoes makes for a great twist.
- Buffalo Chicken Salad: Adding some buffalo sauce to the dressing and taking out the grapes is a great way to do this salad. I love eating it in lettuce cups.
- Add some curry. Tossing in a little curry powder, adding some sliced almonds, and then serving them in a pita pocket makes the perfect curry chicken salad.
- Make a BLT Spin. I love adding bacon and tomatoes to this recipe and taking out the grapes. Then I serve on a croissant with bread or in lettuce cups to make a great BLT chicken salad.
Serving Size
This recipe makes 4 cups. What you see pictured is about 1/2 a cup of chicken salad to make a chicken salad sandwich. I would plan for about 8 sandwiches for this recipe.
Storing
Chicken Salad can be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for 3 to 5 days. That being said, if it was left outside more than 2 hours at a picnic, it should be tossed.
If you make this chicken salad recipe or any of my other recipes, leave me a comment and let me know what you think!
Chicken Salad
Ingredients
- 3 cups cooked chicken chopped (see notes in the post for how to cook shredded chicken)
- 1 cup red grapes cut in half
- 1/2 small red onion diced small
- 2 stalks celery diced
- 1/2 cup mayonnaise (I used light)
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
Instructions
- In a large bowl combine the cooked chicken, red grapes, red onion, and celery.3 cups cooked chicken, 1 cup red grapes, 1/2 small red onion, 2 stalks celery
- In a small bowl whisk together the mayonnaise, lemon juice, salt, garlic powder, onion powder, and black pepper. Taste and add more salt and pepper to taste being careful to start out with just a little.1/2 cup mayonnaise, 1 tablespoon lemon juice, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder, 1/2 teaspoon onion powder, 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
- Stir the dressing into the main ingredients.
- Serve right away or store in an airtight container for 3 to 5 days. Please note that if this salad sits out for more than 2 hours, the leftovers should be thrown away.
Recipe Video
Notes
- Stovetop: Place it in a sauce pan with enough wanter to cover it. Bring the water to a boil and cook for 7 to 10 minutes or until the chicken registers 165 degrees with an instant read thermometer.
- Instant Pot Chicken: Add 1 cup of water to the bottom of an Instant Pot. Add wire rack and place chicken on top. Set Instant Pot to manual, high pressure, 8 minutes. At the end of the cook time, vent to release the steam.
- Rotisserie Chicken: Buying a rotisserie chicken is a great quick way to make this recipe. I like to buy several at Costco, shred and freeze them. You can see my instructions here: How to Freeze Chicken.
Sue says
I use Old Bay seasoning instead of garlic. Yummy. Sometimes i use krab (with a K) instead of chicken. Old Bay is great.
Yes! That sounds really similar to my Crab Salad.
carlos says
I am vegetarian
You can find all my vegetarian recipes here: Vegetarian Recipes.
Lorraine says
This recipe is basically the same as what I’ve done for years, except the grapes and lemon juice. I have been using craisins for the sweet kick I needed and use creamy horseradish sauce and less mayo. I will use grapes next time and I know that will be enjoyable.. Thanks for something new I can do to my chicken salad!!
I hope you enjoy it!
Jackie says
Can canned chicken work for this recipe?
Any shredded chicken will work for this recipe.
Elaine Pacholek says
Thank you, Lisa — great recipe! I just made 36 chicken salad mini croissants for a teacher appreciation lunch at our local small preK-12 school, multiplied your recipe by 4 and it worked out perfectly, using two large rotisserie chickens.
Elaine! You are my hero! That is quite the task, but teachers so deserve the love. I’m so glad this worked on a large scale!
Dorothy Linton says
I have made every recipe you have.love all. Keep sending them
I’m so happy to hear that you are enjoying them!
Fiona says
Very balanced and yummy! Used apple cause had it on hand. Will make again. Thx!
I’m so glad that you liked it!
Edith says
I love this recipe. I have made it for my family and for friends also for church covered dish lunches. Rave reviews and nothing left to bring home. Had to start caring copies of the recipt with me. Thanks Lisa.
Ahhh, this makes my day, Edith! Thank you for taking the time to come and let me know.
Lill says
This would be excellent to use as a filling for stuffed tomatoes.Lill
You are so right! It really would!
Jodi says
Just because I’m the one who mostly does the dishes, make the dressing first, mix, add the chicken, celery, grapes and onion and then stir it up!