Easy and low fat Healthy Chicken Salad Recipe that is a must for hot summer days, healthy lunches and quick dinner. Low in calories and sodium with Greek yogurt and a touch of mayo, this lightened up version retains all the flavor of a classic chicken salad.
We also love this avocado chicken salad and curry chicken salad!
Table of Contents
My goal with this healthy chicken salad was to keep it super simple, so we can pull it off any time. Cold salad with creamy texture, crunchy celery and red onion, this healthy salad recipe is flavorful, protein packed and tasty!
During our Southern California road trip I had chicken salad for quick lunch at Legoland. While an 8 ounces serving cost US $10 and made my teeth cringe from sodium, it was extremely satisfying in 115 degrees F heat. Of course, I kept thinking we can do better, of course.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- Authentic taste: Swapping plain Greek yogurt with just a touch of mayo for all mayonnaise makes this a healthier chicken salad that has authentic taste while at the same time easy on your waistline!
- Healthier: No guilt here as this salad only contains 145 calories and 11 grams of fat compared to 310 calories and 25 grams of fat in the original chicken salad per 1/2 cup serving! Also reduced sodium because we use homemade chicken.
- Fresh ingredients: Herbs such as parsley or dill add loads of flavor you would be missing if you used dried.
- Easy: By using leftover chicken like baked chicken breast or Instant Pot whole chicken, this chicken salad can be on the table in 15 minutes.
- Budget friendly: I omitted grapes as they tend to be a costly fruit and you can use whatever nuts you have on hand in your pantry!
Ingredients for Healthy Chicken Salad
You will need just a few simple ingredients to make this salad.
- Cooked chicken: You can use any leftover cooked chicken. If you have Instant Pot, cooking chicken in batches for weekly meal prep becomes a simple task. Follow this Instant Pot chicken breast recipe for fresh chicken, or this Instant Pot frozen chicken breast if you forgot to thaw chicken.
- Mayo and yogurt: Regular yogurt adds creaminess with less calories. I recommend to use more than 2% fat for better taste. And IMHO, a bit of mayo makes healthy chicken salad recipe real. Buy organic or avocado oil mayo and a little goes a long way.
- Celery and red onion: These veggies add crunch and flavor. White onion or green onions are OK too.
- Nuts: I used pecans and toasted them lightly on a skillet to add more crunch and flavor. You can use any nuts like cashews, almonds, pine nuts and walnuts.
- Seasonings: Dijon mustard or regular prepared mustard. Then any acid like white wine vinegar, red wine vinegar or lemon juice. Truly any! Salt and ground black pepper.
- Fresh herbs: Fresh parsley, fresh dill, fresh basil leaves or even fresh cilantro add a lot of flavor while making missing mayo unnoticeable.
Recipe Tip
Add red grapes or green grapes for a hint of sweetness, if they are on sale or you have them. As much as I love grapes I know they are expensive, so I did not include them as part of the recipe and I would like to keep this recipe simple.
How to Make Healthy Chicken Salad
Here is a quick overview how to make it step by step. Find full recipe card with measurements below.
- Cook chicken breasts if you don’t have leftovers already from meal prepping. Air fry chicken breast or make Instant Pot shredded chicken breast. If you love dark meat, you can use baked chicken thighs.
- Toast nuts in a small skillet on low-medium heat just until fragrant and brown-ish. You will smell them. Then cool a bit and chop.
- Combine all ingredients in a large bowl: Toasted pecans, chicken, celery, onion, parsley, yogurt, mayo, mustard, vinegar, salt and pepper. Stir gently to mix and adjust salt to taste, if necessary.
- Refrigerate for at least 2 hours as this salad tastes best cold.
Serving Recommendations
Prepare the best chicken salad in the world and serve it in one of our favorite ways. Sky is the limit!
- Healthy chicken salad sandwiches: Serve between slices of bread, Greek yogurt bagels or protein bagels with lettuce. My favorite bread is sprouted whole grain bread like Ezekiel.
- Over salad greens: On a bed of lettuce, spinach or kale leaves. Or add a scoop to spinach salad recipe or lettuce salad.
- Low carb: On Swiss chard leaves or any lettuce kind of like chicken lettuce wraps or try it will grilled romaine lettuce! Make a sandwich with a low carb almond flour Greek yogurt bagel.
- Whole grains: Serve with cooked quinoa or brown rice or in a whole grain tortilla.
- Soup and salad: A classic restaurant combination with lentil spinach soup.
- Cold pasta salads: As part of a picnic spread with healthy pasta salad or tomato pasta salad.
- With a vegetable platter: Fresh raw veggie such as carrots, peppers, snap peas, cucumber with healthy veggie dip or hummus.
How to Store
Refrigerate leftovers for up to 5 days. I like to place it in a glass container or bowl with tight plastic lid.
I have not tried freezing it but I don’t think creamy chicken salad freezes well. It has a lot of fresh veggies to go limp once thawed. But maybe because they are coated in mayo and yogurt… Let me know if you try. 🙂 We never have any leftovers to freeze.
FAQs
To make low fat chicken salad, I cut back mayo in half and add 1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt to make salad creamy, reduce saturated fat and calories. I recommend to use 2% and higher fat content yogurt because fat-free Greek yogurt lacks flavor and is flat.
You can and we did! We added a touch of mayo to the Greek yogurt to keep the authentic chicken salad taste. You can use all Greek yogurt, but you might miss that authentic taste.
You could use grilled chicken breast for this salad or you could just make our perfect formula grilled chicken salad with poppy seed dressing. Actually, just put both on your easy lunch list for this summer!
More Healthy Chicken Recipes to Try
- BBQ chicken salad
- Chicken egg salad
- Grilled chicken salad
- Thai chicken salad
- Asparagus stuffed chicken breast
Healthy Chicken Salad Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 pound cooked chicken cubed (3 cups)
- 3/4 cup celery stalks diced (3 large)
- 1/4 cup red onion finely chopped
- 1/4 cup parsley or dill finely chopped (optional)
- 1 cup pecans, almonds or cashews
- 1/2 cup plain yogurt 2+% fat
- 1/4 cup mayo I used avocado oil mayo
- 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
- 1 teaspoon any vinegar except balsamic
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- Ground black pepper to taste
Instructions
- In a small skillet, add pecans and toast on low-medium heat until fragrant and brown-ish, stirring often. Transfer to a cutting board, let cool a bit and chop coarsely.
- In a medium bowl, add toasted pecans, chicken, celery, onion, parsley, yogurt, mayo, mustard, vinegar, salt and pepper. Stir gently to mix and adjust salt to taste if necessary.
- Refrigerate for at least 2 hours as salad tastes best cold.
- Serve with greens, quinoa, brown rice or make a chicken salad sandwich with whole wheat bread.
Video
Notes
- Store: Refrigerate in an airtight container for up to 5 days. I have not tried freezing the salad and am not sure fresh veggies and herbs will hold up well to it.
- How to cook chicken for salad: Here is how to bake chicken breast. If you have Instant Pot, you can make Instant Pot frozen whole chicken or Instant Pot whole chicken and use breasts from it. Or just make Instant Pot chicken breast.
- Onions: White or green onion would work well in place of red.
- Sweet addition: Add sliced grapes or chopped apple if you wish. Grapes are pricey often, so I keep them out.
- Use any mayo: I use avocado oil mayo because it is healthier and we always have it on hand. Olive oil mayo or vegenaise work as well.
- Please do not use 0% yogurt: It tastes chalky and salad will taste flat. Plain regular or Greek yogurt with fat content 2% and higher work.
Wonderful dinner served on lettuce leaves. The toasted pecans were a welcome added taste.
Thank you so much for the positive feedback Judy! Have a great day!
I found this recipe yesterday and made it today. It is really delicious and great alternative to traditional chicken salad. Even my picky eating pre-teen liked it. The pecans were different for us and we will probably omit the next time, but other than that, it was great!
Glad this recipe was enjoyed by your family! And of course, adjust to your taste (pecans or not!)
I want to thank you for your delicious recipe for the healthy chicken salad!!!
I just made it with one of my homegrown. I’ll tell you what Ukrainian people really know how to cook! I had a neighbor that was from Ukraine. After several years of writing her to be husband that she met on a train. They finally married. He saved enough money to go and pick her up from Ukraine! That is how she became my neighbor. She was very talented cook and could bake cakes that looked like artwork. She worked hard in the yard. And built all kinds of sculptured things with plants and walkways out of stone. She made a room full of curtains. That again was amazing because they weren’t just any kind of curtains. So God bless Ukraine! God bless you for putting your recipe on there for the chicken salad. I just had it on some healthy bread!
Awe, thanks Debbie and what a great story! It is very true. Many Ukrainian women are women of all trades – they can cook, paint, saw, mend chickens and silicone windows lol. Life wasn’t easy so we had to learn it all. I am grateful to have gained many life skills during not so comfortable years of my young life. I cherish them, enjoy every day and hope to pass on many to my children. Now back to painting baseboards and caulking windows in our major reno haha. But I do enjoy my Canadian life now A LOT too hahahahahaha. It’s just so much easier!!! Glad you liked the salad!
I’m completely head over heels in love with this recipe. Well down on the talent. My word. The best I literally have ever had!!!!!
Haha thanks so much Nikki for your amazing review. Enjoy!!!
I am so happy I found this recipe! I can’t cook and I am tired of the same stuff when I try to cook. I am 24 years old, and these easy healthy recipes have been amazing! Not too many ingredients and everything comes out right. I just made this dish yesterday and it’s amazing! Thank you for this. Can’t wait to see what’s next!!
Yay. You are very welcome!!!
What do you mean by pale colour vinegar? I goggled it and no help :/
I’m not too savvy in the kitchen … still learning the lingo! But excited to try the recipe!
Any light colour vinegar will work. I mean any vinegar as long as it’s not balsamic. White, white wine, apple cider, rice or red wine vinegar. You are cute.:) I will change that so it’s not confusing.
This recipe is perfect, so yummy.
Discovered the recipe yesterday afternoon and ran to the store to grab chicken, yogurt and celery to make this. Let me say that this is the best recipe I have seen around the web.
Did not add pecans but loved the result anyway.
Glad the drive to to the store was worth it.:) So happy to hear you loved this healthy chicken salad recipe!
I made this using my Ninja, no nuts or salt and pepper added, so consistency is more like tuna salad. Add chunks of chicken, onion, and celery – mix and chop at the same time! mixed mayo, yogurt and other ingredients in a bowl till combined then mixed in the chicken, onion, celery from Ninja. Can also add the “sauce” to the Ninja and let it combine it all. I do not like yogurt but know I need to eat it – this recipe is great! Thank you for making me a little healthier! Husband suggested dried cranberries or cherries….I’ll be grabbing them on my next trip to the store.
Husband’s suggestion is a good one.:) Glad you liked it!
YUM! Great recipe, and love the pecans in it. I used your frozen chicken breasts in Instant Pot recipe to cook the chicken and then followed the salad recipe substituting yellow onion for red – my wonderful husband doesn’t like the red ones. It tastes.great and is now chilling for dinner when it will taste even better! Question – will this freeze well? Probably I should have halved the recipe since it is such a big batch…Thanks!
Hi Amy. So happy to hear! I haven’t tried but I think it will because there is mayo. Worth a shot. It keeps well in the fridge for days though, so lots of lunches?! LOL
Delicious healthy chicken salad I have been taking to work for the past 2 weeks.
Easy and delicious salad! Approved by my family☺️
Thank you!
You are welcome Kateryna!