Recipe

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If you like chicken salad, you'll love this healthy recipe with a little kick! It's perfect for lunch over a bed of field greens, with crackers or in a sandwich.

This healthy Southern Chicken Salad recipe is the perfect combination of chicken, chopped celery, and seasonings with a touch of mayo.

healthy southern chicken salad in a lunchbox with crackers, celery, and sliced apples.

Traditional Southern Chicken Salad

Chicken salad is a near and dear recipe to the South. Traditionally, it’s made with leftover shredded chicken, celery, and pickle relish in a creamy mayo-based dressing. Some versions include slivered almonds, walnuts, chopped apples, and even grapes.

Since I am NOT a fan of fruit or nuts mixed with chicken salad, I leave those out and use less mayonnaise for a healthier version of Southern Chicken Salad. No worries, it still has that perfect texture that’s easy to spread.

Ingredients

Make this salad with shredded chicken, whether it’s leftovers or rotisserie chicken (read more about how to cook chicken for chicken salad). Then, you’ll need celery, lemon juice, and mayonnaise, which can be swapped for Greek yogurt for fewer calories, or make cottage cheese chicken salad for added protein. Finally: salt, pepper, and Creole seasoning (or your favorite).

How to Make Healthy Chicken Salad

Here's how to make this healthy chicken salad in a food processor, plus a video recipe on the recipe card:

Pulse.
Give the chicken a pulse to roughly chop and get a thick, smooth texture. We aren't going to pureé the chicken.
Make the dressing.
Whisk together the lemon juice, mayonnaise, salt, pepper, and Creole seasoning until smooth.
Combine.
Combine the chopped chicken with the dressing and the chopped celery.

How to Store Homemade Chicken Salad

Transfer the chicken salad to an airtight container, seal, and refrigerate. Homemade chicken salad is good for up to 4 days in the fridge. It’s one of the biggest reasons I use this recipe to make healthy lunches for the office and school.

Healthy Ways to Serve Chicken Salad

Some delicious ways to serve this Southern Chicken Salad are over crackers, with fresh veggies, in a wrap, between bread and lettuce, in a lettuce cup, stuffed in the center of an avocado, or over a bed of lettuce and tomatoes. Want a spicy kick? Try my spicy chicken salad next!

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Healthy Chicken Salad Recipe

Servings: 6

Prep Time: 10

Total Time: 10

If you like chicken salad, you'll love this healthy recipe with a little kick! It's perfect for lunch over a bed of field greens, with crackers or in a sandwich.

4.92 from 47 votes

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Watch how it’s made:

Ingredients

1 whole roasted chicken, meat off
½ cup finely chopped celery⁣
1 lemon, juiced⁣
⅓-1/2 cup mayonnaise⁣
¼ teaspoon salt⁣
½ teaspoon pepper⁣
1 teaspoon Creole Seasoning⁣

Instructions

Chop the chicken:

Put chicken meat in a food processor and pulse a few times to roughly chop. Continue pulsing for about 30 seconds until the chicken is finely chopped. If you turn "on" the food processor, your chicken will become a "paste" instead; use the pulse method until it's very finely chopped.

Combine:

⁣In a bowl, combine lemon juice, mayonnaise, salt, pepper, and Creole seasoning. Blend well.⁣
⁣Toss chicken into the bowl, combine a few times with a spatula and add finely chopped celery.⁣