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.
OMG…I have never put a review for a recipe out here but just had to for this! Absolutely delicious…and I am a Chicken salad snob. I made a few alterations as I don’t like crunch or nuts in my salad but this was just amazing!
I am so happy to hear, Lori!
I LOVE this recipe. I make it about once a week since I discovered it. I use a rotisserie chicken. I think it’s the toasted pecans that really gives it such a delicious flavor. Thanks!
So glad you enjoy it!
Tried this recipe and didn’t change a thing! (Well I left out the nuts.) But anyway it was GREAT! And knowing it was healthier than usual made it taste even better. So glad I found your website.
So happy to hear!!!
Had this for lunch today. JUST. PLAIN. WOW. Skipped the pecans and used finely chopped walnuts instead. Absolutely fantastic!!
So glad you enjoyed it!
Very good!! I added apple and used pine nuts. Served it for lunch with a pasta salad and lettuce. Everyone loved it. Will definitely use this recipe again.
Yum! Sounds like everyone had a great lunch!
I’ve made a similar chicken salad for many years, although I will confess not quite as healthy because I do add grapes, and I also cashews. For the herbs, I am a big fan of French Tarragon and love the way it compliments the chicken. It can be overpowering so I would suggest if anybody is interested in trying it, to add a little at a time to get that sweet spot. I have had many compliments with it.
Thank you Mary!
I was just put on a low sodium diet. I didn’t have a lot of ingredients available so I made a better chicken salad than I normally would have. I had par boiled chicken chopped in very small pieces. I added garlic powder, black pepper, diced celery, minced onion, and a very small amount of mayo. It turned out better than expected!
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So glad this was able to fit into your lifestyle!
A really nice recipe that leans more savory (which is how I prefer it). You don’t even miss the mayo. I like to make this at the beginning of the week for quick lunches. I also used the recommended instant pot chicken recipe this week, and it was awesome too. This is such a great healthy but low-effort recipe.
So glad you are enjoying it!
AMAZING! I plan on making this on a weekly basis because it was so easy to make and yummy. I followed the recipe opting for parsley over dill. I did add grapes and OMG perfection. Thank you so much!
so glad you enjoyed it Courtney!
This recipe was super easy and very flavorful. I added dried cranberries and used walnuts. Lots of crunch.
So happy to hear and that sounds like wonderful additions!