Our favorite chicken salad recipe is creamy, packed with fresh herbs, and gets even better after a little time in the fridge. It’s, hands-down, one of our most made lunches around here.
It’s a great week when we have a batch of this easy chicken salad in our fridge. I love it for lunches throughout the week. We pile it onto bread for sandwiches, scoop it up with crackers, or just eat it straight from the bowl.
This chicken salad recipe comes from our friend Chef Richard. He made it for us once at lunch, and honestly, I haven’t looked at other chicken salads the same way since. The creamy dressing is loaded with herbs, just the way we like it. If you want a bit more crunch, try our creamy chicken salad with almonds and raisins, too.
Key Ingredients
- Chicken: This salad is ideal with rotisserie chicken or leftover chicken. I especially love using the tender chicken you get after making a batch of our homemade chicken broth. If you don’t have any cooked chicken on hand, this poached chicken recipe only takes 20 minutes or use for an Asian twist, try the poached chicken in our Chinese chicken salad (it actually works really well here).
- Celery and Green Onions: We both love some crunch in our salad. Celery is perfect and holds its crunch as the salad sits in the fridge. Onions are popular in chicken salad, but we use green onions, which are a bit milder.
- Creamy Salad Dressing: As this chicken sits with the dressing, it soaks in all the flavor, so you want to add a lot of goodies to the dressing. The base is mayo, although we have provided tips for swapping in Greek yogurt below. Then we stir in dry mustard powder, paprika, and a generous mix of fresh herbs. Dill, tarragon, parsley, and chives are my top picks.
Find the full recipe with measurements below.
How to Make Chicken Salad
Tip 1: Make the dressing first. So that all the dressing ingredients are mixed, add them to a mixing bowl and stir them together, then fold in your chicken, celery, and green onions. When I make this, I let some of the chicken break apart, which really helps the dressing coat every piece.
Tip 2: Let the salad sit. As the salad sits, it gets better and better, which is why this is one of the best make-ahead recipes out there. I love making a batch and then storing it in the fridge for lunches throughout the week. As it sits, the chicken absorbs all the delicious flavor from the herbs and dressing.
Serving Suggestions
This salad makes the best chicken salad sandwiches. Use your favorite bread (I love sourdough or focaccia), then add some crunch with lettuce, pickled red onions, and sliced cucumbers. If you aren’t into the bread, try a wrap with a large flour tortilla or our easy flatbread.
Lettuce cups are fun (kind of like these hummus lettuce wraps), or you can spoon it over your favorite salad (it’s great with Greek salad or greens with our lemon vinaigrette). A few readers have even suggested filling hollowed-out tomatoes, bell peppers, cucumbers, or avocado halves with it.
More Salad Recipes
- Chicken Salad with Almonds
- Thai Chicken Salad
- Chicken Caprese Salad
- Tuna Salad
- Shrimp Salad
- Smashed Chickpea Salad
Best Chicken Salad We've Made
- PREP
- TOTAL
We love how this easy chicken salad gets better and better as it rests. The chicken soaks up the creamy herbed dressing, making this one of our most reliable make-ahead lunches. You can serve it on top of salads, stuffed into lettuce cups, or tucked into sandwiches. Enjoy it right away, or if you have the time, refrigerate the salad for at least an hour to allow the flavors to mingle.
You Will Need
7 tablespoons (100 g) mayonnaise (try homemade mayonnaise)
¼ teaspoon Coleman’s dry mustard powder
⅛ teaspoon sweet paprika
1 tablespoon chopped fresh dill
1 tablespoon chopped fresh tarragon
1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley
1 tablespoon chopped fresh chives
¼ teaspoon fine sea salt, more to taste
⅛ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
3 ½ cups cubed cooked chicken (from about 1 ½ pounds cooked meat or 1 rotisserie chicken)
2 green onions, white and light green parts only
1 stalk celery, finely chopped (about ½ cup)
Directions
1In a medium bowl, mix the mayonnaise, mustard powder, paprika, dill, tarragon, parsley, chives, salt, and pepper. Fold in the chicken, celery, and green onion until the chicken breaks up slightly and is coated.
2Pack the salad into a resealable container. Press a piece of parchment paper directly on the surface of the salad, then close with the lid. Refrigerate the salad for at least 1 hour to allow the flavors to mingle. The salad will keep for up to 4 days, covered and refrigerated.
Adam and Joanne's Tips
- Cooked chicken: Use rotisserie chicken or try one of our chicken recipes, such as poached chicken, roast chicken, or make this chicken broth recipe, which leaves plenty of tender meat for this salad.
- For a lighter salad, swap the mayonnaise for light mayonnaise, plain yogurt, or Greek yogurt.
- Substitute 1 teaspoon of prepared Dijon mustard for the mustard powder.
- The nutrition facts below are estimates.
I have a question. I have made homemade chicken salad many times but I have never heard of adding mustard powder, dijon, tarragon, or chives. How much of a difference do each of these make? The ingredient I am the most curious about is mustard of some type. I have some VERY picky eaters in my family who don’t like mustard. I want to make sure I’m not the only one eating it because I’m not really picky. Thank you,Tracy
Great question, Tracy. The mustard doesn’t make the chicken salad taste like mustard. It just adds a little brightness that most people don’t notice. Tarragon and chives add mild freshness, but you can skip any of them for picky eaters. The recipe still works really well without them.
Delicious Recipes and Oh So Helpful Tops. LOVE This. Thank You.
You are so welcome! We have so happy you enjoyed the recipe 🙂
Hi Jenica, I love how you customized the recipe to fit your tastes and what you had on hand! Leaving out the celery and using celery seed is a smart swap, and the pecans and rice vinegar sound like fantastic additions for extra flavor and texture. And that idea about adding a diced apple is brilliant! It would definitely bring that sweetness and crunch you mentioned. If you try it sometime, let me know how it turns out! I’m always excited to hear about people’s creative twists on recipes.
This is absolutely the best chicken salad I have ever tried! I didn’t have all fresh herbs so I used the dried but it was perfect.
I subbed dried herbs as I did not have fresh. I also added half tsp ground celery seed. This was a delicious! And a big hit! Thank you for sharing your recipe!!