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Classic Chicken Salad

Averie Sunshine

4.75 from 20 votes

Updated: Apr 09, 2026

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🍗🥗 This Classic Chicken Salad Recipe is FAST, EASY, and a tried and true family FAVORITE! Creamy, tangy, and herbaceous, it’s great for sandwiches, paired with crackers, served over a bed of lettuce, or just enjoyed with a fork.

The BEST Classic Chicken Salad Recipe

I love experimenting with different takes on traditional recipes, like my sesame orange chicken salad, chicken orzo salad, and chicken Caesar pasta salad. However, when it comes to classics, this chicken salad recipe is at the top of my list.

• My tried-and-true recipe is fast, easy, and a family favorite! Make it for your next picnic, potluck, graduation party, barbecue, backyard get-together, or game day party!
• This creamy chicken salad with just a touch of crunch is so fast and easy. Seriously, this is a 10-minute, stir it all together, in one big bowl kind of recipe. The best kind.
• Prepare a big batch to keep in the refrigerator for a quick meal prep option everyone will love.

This is a new favorite salad in our household! My parents and kids loved the way the chicken tasted and will be using this more.

Jenny

Ingredients You’ll Need

This easy chicken salad recipe takes advantage of extremely common fridge and pantry staples. To make the best chicken salad for sandwiches, you’ll need: 

• Shredded chicken: Shredded poached chicken is what I use to make chicken salad for chicken salad sandwiches. Alternatively, store-bought rotisserie chicken is always a fast and easy option. You could probably use leftover oven-baked or even grilled chicken if you happen to have a lot on hand and are trying to use it up, though it will have a much more distinct flavor
• Celery
• Mayonnaise and sour cream: You can use lite or reduced-fat versions of both mayo and sour cream, noting your chicken salad won’t have quite the creamy factor. Plant-based mayos, such as avocado mayo and dairy-free sour cream, are also fine if you’re trying to avoid dairy. Or, trying using Greek yogurt
• Pecans: Substitute chopped walnuts or slivered almonds if preferred. Or, omit the nuts completely
• Dijon mustard: Yellow mustard will work in a pinch
• Light brown sugar: This doesn’t make the salad overly sweet. It just balances the flavors
• Lemon juice and zest
• Herbs and spices: Fresh dill, salt, pepper, and optional red pepper flakes

Note: Scroll down to the recipe card section of the post for the ingredients with amounts included and for more complete directions.

How to Make Classic Chicken Salad

Follow these super straightforward steps for the best chicken salad recipe:

1. Shred homemade poached chicken breast or shred rotisserie chicken and add it to a large bowl.
2. Chop all the remaining ingredients, add them to the bowl, and stir.
3. Cover and chill it until you’re ready to serve. Enjoy!

Note: If you do plan to make your chicken salad in advance, one tip is not to add the celery until closer to the time you plan to serve it.

How to Serve Classic Chicken Salad

I prefer to serve my chicken salad on bread, toast, croissants, or dinner rolls for a sandwich-style meal. Other great ways to serve chicken salad include:

• In butter lettuce, as I do for my Chicken Lettuce Wraps
• Try chicken salad in hollowed-out zucchini boats
• Add it to your favorite small Hawaiian bread, as I do for Ham and Cheese Sliders
• Make a charcuterie board and add the chicken salad to crackers or crudites
• Or if you’re watching your carbs, just eat it with a fork! 

Add a few sides like vanilla pudding fruit salad, German potato salad, herb-roasted carrots, or tomato basil soup, and you can’t go wrong!

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4.75 from 20 votes

Classic Chicken Salad Recipe

By Averie Sunshine

🍗🥗 This classic chicken salad recipe is great for sandwiches, on crackers, over a bed of lettuce, or just dig in with a fork! You can't go wrong with this FAST and EASY and chicken salad that's a tried and true FAMILY FAVORITE! 

Prep Time: 10 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 0 minutes minutes

Total Time: 10 minutes minutes

Servings: 8 servings

Equipment

• 1 Large Bowl

Ingredients 

• ▢ 2 cups cooked chicken, shredded (store bought rotisserie or homemade poached)
• ▢ ½ cup chopped celery
• ▢ ½ cup mayonnaise
• ▢ ¼ cup sour cream
• ▢ ¼ cup pecans, toasted if desired*
• ▢ 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
• ▢ 1 tablespoon light brown sugar**
• ▢ 1 tablespoon lemon zest
• ▢ 1 tablespoon fresh squeezed lemon juice
• ▢ 1 tablespoon fresh drilled, minced (or use 1/2 to 1 teaspoon dried dill)
• ▢ 1 teaspoon salt, or to taste
• ▢ ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, or to taste
• ▢ ½ teaspoon red pepper flakes, optional but recommended***
• ▢ Croissants, bread, toast, buns, rolls, crackers, etc., as desired for serving

Instructions 

• To a large bowl, add the shredded rotisserie or poached chicken. You can also dice it as well as used leftover baked or grilled chicken depending on the flavor and if it will mix well for this recipe.
• Add all the remaining ingredients, stir to combine, and taste. If necessary, make any flavor adjustments such as additional salt and pepper, a bit more celery, more chicken if you have it, etc.
• Cover and refrigerate to chill for at least 1 hour before serving as desired. Chicken salad will keep airtight in the fridge for up to 5 days.

Notes

*Use chopped walnuts, slivered almonds, or omit the nuts if preferred.

** While brown sugar may seem like an odd choice here, it balances the acidity and sourness from the lemon zest and juice. You can try it first without it, but the chicken salad may be a bit bitter and so you'll likely end up adding it at the end after doing a quick taste test.

***The red pepper flakes don't make the chicken salad sandwiches spicy. Rather than add interest and extra flavor but you can omit them, if desired.

Nutrition

Serving: 1serving, Calories: 283cal, Carbohydrates: 13g, Protein: 11g, Fat: 21g, Saturated Fat: 5g, Polyunsaturated Fat: 15g, Cholesterol: 47mg, Sodium: 541mg, Fiber: 1g, Sugar: 4g

Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.

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