Quick healthy chicken salad. An easy to make lower calorie salad. A perfect dinner for busy weeknights and ideal for lunchboxes too!
Folks, my aim with this healthy chicken salad recipe is to prove that it's easy to create a quick healthy filling salad for lunch or dinner.
There is no need to overwhelm your salad with lots of unhealthy calorific mayonnaise either. Just to make it tasty and creamy.
You can make your own healthy homemade dressing with just a little lower calorie mayonnaise and fat free Greek yogurt combined.
Then what you've got is a delicious, cold and creamy tasting, flavour packed meal!
This healthy salad comes together with very little effort at all.
I feel that for those of us who have had extra meals to prepare over the last few months, will be very happy with this recipe.
There's very little washing up here either. Just the knives you have used to chop the salad and the bowls you've used to mix those ingredients.
Plus the only cooking required for this recipe is to toast the cashew nuts. Even then that dry saucepan isn't going to require much washing up!
For the chicken I use pre-cooked shop bought baked chicken chunks.
You can normally find these in the cold meat section. Or you could use any leftover cooked chicken.
If you don't have or don't like cashew nuts then you could use pecan nuts instead.
You could leave out the nuts altogether but I think they add a lovely flavour to the salad.
Feel free to add / substitute the salad veggies I've used with others you may need to use up or have to hand.
Prior to serving put in the fridge for at least 1 - 2 hours. Make sure you stir it well before transferring to plates too.
Why This Is A Healthy Chicken Salad
- A lower calorie home made dressing helps to keep the calories low in this healthy chicken salad to only 375 per serving. This is compared to shop bought chicken salad with mayonnaise which can be as high as 750 calories in some major UK supermarkets.
- You'll get 78% of your daily recommended protein requirment from the chicken.
- It's low in fats too. There are only 19g of fat and 4g saturated fat here.
- This chicken salad is a great way to ensure you get a good helping of vegetables towards your recommended "5 a day" serving.
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Other Popular Chicken Salad Recipes You Might Also Like
- Chicken Caesar salad is made healthier here with wholemeal croutons and a lower calorie dressing. It’s basically the same taste as the delicious original, you just wont be counting the impact of the calories with this version!
- Chicken walnut and blue cheese salad has loads of flavour and a wonderful crunch too. It’s perfect for a quick and easy lunch or weeknight dinner option!
- Leftover roast chicken salad is a great way to use up any leftover chicken. This delicious and easy to make salad is perfect for an easy weeknight dinner or packed lunch!
- Couscous chicken salad. This is a quick, easy to make, delicious healthy salad which is perfect as a warm dinner salad or cold packed lunch!
Quick Healthy Chicken Salad Recipe
I recommend serving your healthy chicken salad as a packed lunch or with some pitta breads for dinner.
You could also serve it as a filling for chicken sandwiches or with some wholegrain rice.
I’d love to hear what you think of my recipe in the comments below and please do rate my recipe 5* if you like it! 🙂
Quick Healthy Chicken Salad Recipe
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Equipment
Ingredients
- 70 g cashew nuts
- 500 g cooked chicken chopped
- 3 spring onions chopped
- 1 celery stalk chopped
- 10 cherry tomatoes quartered
- 100 g cucumber diced
- 50 g shredded iceberg lettuce
- 150 g 0% fat Greek yogurt
- 50 g low fat mayonnaise
- 2 teaspoon Dijon mustard
- 1 teaspoon red wine vinegar
- Freshly ground salt and pepper
Instructions
- Dry fry the cashew nuts in a large frying pan until golden and lay aside to cool.
- In a large mixing bowl combine the cooked chicken with the spring onions, celery, cherry tomatoes, cucumber and iceberg lettuce.
- In a small Pyrex bowl combine the yogurt, mayonnaise, mustard, and vinegar. Season to taste with the salt and pepper.
- Combine the yogurt dressing with the chicken mixture, add the cooled nuts and stir everything together to combine.
- Serve cold as packed lunches or for dinner with some pitta breads.
Ben | Havocinthekitchen
A chicken salad yielding 750 calories?! That's just ridiculous! (And you're right these salads are always drenched in a heavy mayo dressing camouflaging all the flavours and textures.) This chicken salad looks and sounds wonderful; love the addition of cashews! This makes me thinking that I want to slightly transform this idea by omitting the veggies and including grapes instead - that would be amazing too!
Neil
Thanks Ben. Yeah the cashews give this chicken salad a lovely crunch. Grapes would be great with it too, I agree! 🙂
David @ Spiced
I'm with ya on salads that are heavy in mayo. They're just not appetizing. All too often, storebought versions of chicken/pasta/potato salad feel like they are at least half-mayo. This version sounds delicious, and I love that you made it lower calorie, too. I prefer my chicken salad on lightly toasted bread - the kind with tons of seeds in it! Hope you have a great weekend ahead, my friend!
Neil
Serving this chicken salad on lightly toasted bread sounds like a great idea David. I particularly like the thought of serving it on some nice toasted rye bread. Yum!
mimi rippee
Nice! I love everything about this summer salad! Refreshing and flavorful!
Neil
Thanks Mimi! Yeah it's a lovely summer salad. It's just a shame that the summer hasn't actually been that great to go with it. LOL
Ron
What's not to like about a good chicken salad. But, then you go and cut those calories almost in half. Great idea to blend the low cal mayo with greek yogurt. I've had chicken salad with just yogurt and no mayo and it was lacking. My COVID belly thanks you...
Neil
Yeah I agree with you there Ron, chicken salad just with yogurt isn't great. But add a little lower fat mayo in and you get near enough the real deal with less calories! 🙂
sherry
i love chicken salad. this looks great. i'm not fond of tomatoes but i guess a few won't hurt:)
Neil
Thanks Sherry. I'm sure you could leave out the tomatoes or even substitute them with something else, like grapes as Ben suggested above. They would work fine!
Laura
Neil - I love all the fresh veg and the cashews in this salad! It really makes it feel and taste like. full meal! I agree there are so many excellent ways to lighten up a creamy salad dressing and you've done a beautiful job with this one! So appetizing!
Neil
I'm glad you like it Laura, thank you! There's nothing better than being able to actually taste all the ingredients in a salad rather than them being drowned out with all the salad cream!
Dianne
OMG I made this chicken salad and it was amazing. I love the roasted cashews in it. I tasted all of the ingredients in it because I put just the chicken salad over a bed of lettuce. I’m sure it would be great on a sandwich as well. Neil this is yet another of your recipes on my list for 80/20.
Neil
Thanks again Dianne for trying out another of my recipes and taking the time to comment and rate it. I really appreciate that. I like your idea of this being great on a sandwich as well. I'm going to try that myself next time I make this! 😀