Make this easy Spicy Chicken Salad recipe in 10 minutes and use it for sandwiches, on top of fresh lettuce, or with crackers.
Chicken Salad with a Spicy Kick
My original healthy chicken salad recipe just got an upgrade to satisfy the spicy team's cravings: this epic spicy chicken salad is packed with flavor and a little heat thanks to Creole seasoning and hot sauce.
Creole (aka Cajun) seasoning is a staple in the South that we use to season everything. If it isn’t available at your grocery store, you can always make your own Creole seasoning blend.
Ingredients
You can make this salad with baked or poached chicken, rotisserie chicken, or any shredded chicken you have. Check out how to cook chicken for chicken salad, or make a canned chicken salad. Then, you’ll add celery for crunchiness, lemon, mayonnaise (or full-fat Greek yogurt), salt, pepper, Creole seasoning, and hot sauce.
How to Make Spicy Chicken Salad
Chop the chicken in the food processor. You want it finely chopped, not a "chicken paste," so pulse without turning it "on." You can have a visual in the video below. Combine lemon juice, mayonnaise, seasonings, and hot sauce in a bowl. Add the chopped chicken and celery, and toss to combine.
How to Serve Spicy Chicken Salad
I like to serve this spicy chicken salad recipe in all the classic ways as I do with these five chicken salad ideas, but that’s not all. This spicy chicken salad goes great with all things crunchy, like baby carrots, on top of crackers, or with tortilla chips. And what about serving this salad in a warm croissant? Epic.
Spicy Chicken Salad
Watch how it’s made:
Ingredients
- 1 whole roasted chicken, meat off
- ½ cup celery, finely chopped
- 1 lemon, juiced
- ⅓ to ½ cup mayonnaise
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon pepper
- 1 teaspoon Creole Seasoning
- 2 dashes of hot sauce
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.
Make the salad:
- In a bowl, combine lemon juice, mayonnaise, salt, pepper, creole seasoning, and hot sauce. Blend well.
- Toss chicken into the bowl, combine a few times with a spatula and add finely chopped celery.
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Mary Ann says
Ok, so I made this spicy chicken salad to fill sandwiches and everyone loved it so much!! I needed to come back and thank you for the recipe!
Pamela H Cadd says
Laura, can you give us a measurement for the chicken? I like to use packaged rotisserie chicken as a convenient starter for this kind of recipe, but I don’t know how much would equal one chicken.
I cook with my 15-year-old granddaughter, and when she was in fourth grade we started using your recipes to pack her school lunches. We use the Paprika app, and when we put one of your recipes in, we always add “Laura’s” to the title (“Laura’s Spicy Chicken Salad”) to indicate that this will be a reliable favorite.
Laura Fuentes says
Thank you so much Pam! 1 whole rotisserie chicken tends to yield about 4 cups of chicken, depending on the size of the chicken (as you know, they can vary from Costco/Sam’s club sized chickens to a traditional grocery store!). For this recipe, 4 cups of cooked chicken (breasts, thighs, mixed) is all you need. Thank you for making my recipes. You warmed my heart with “Laura’s” in your app. <3
Mary says
I LOVE this recipe, I do this salad at list twice a week for lunch. Thanks Laura is really good!!!