This recipe was previous titled “Skinny Chicken Salad” but many years have passed since I first shared it and I no longer like recipes with the word skinny in the title! This is simply a great, nourishing, flavorful chicken salad that’s heavy on flavor and protein and lighter in mayo than other similar recipes. It’s got tons of crunch with chopped apple, celery, and almonds, and It’s one of my favorite things to meal prep. Bonus: my kids love it, too! Try it in a lettuce wrap, with crackers, in a wrap, or on a sandwich.
Ingredients Needed
- Cooked Chicken Breast- rotisserie chicken works great!
- Celery
- Green onions
- Apple – Choose a sweet apple that’s extra crisp, like Honeycrisp. You could also sub grapes, sliced in half
- Mayo – light mayo or regular if you prefer
- Sour Cream or Greek Yogurt
- Curry powder
- Red wine vinegar
- Toasted sliced almonds
- Salt and Pepper
- Optional: Chopped fresh parsley, cilantro, or other herb
I love a lot of crunch in my chicken salad, so there must, must be celery in there,
along with green onions for flavor. Another must.
I also need a little sweetness. Red grapes are always great in chicken salad, so you can certainly use those, but I choose to use a sweet apple. It not only adds crunch and sweetness, but also has a much more favorable nutritional profile than the grapes. Apple (leave that skin on!) will add fiber, and they’re also very low on the glycemic index.
I also love the color of the red apple in there. Just make sure you’re choosing a variety that is both sweet and crisp. Honey Crisp, Fuji, Gala, Braeburn, and Pink Lady are all faves of mine.
For the “sauce” we’re not doing anything crazy here- I’m staying with traditional flavors of mayo and sour cream. There are a lot of options out there for lower-calorie mayonnaise and I would not recommend all of them. Honestly, a little bit of a bad mayo can totally ruin a recipe. One of my favorites is this Best Foods Light (Or Hellemans’s on the East side of the country) – I always just remember the lid color because there’s so many options! I also like this one, made with olive oil. It’s great for recipes like this, and on sandwiches, etc. The only thing I absolutely will not make with low fat/light mayo is ranch dressing. It just isn’t worth it!
Along with a tablespoon of the light mayo, add a tablespoon of light sour cream or greek yogurt. For the seasoning, I keep it simple with kosher salt and fresh ground pepper (to taste) and curry powder for flavor. I also put in just a tiny bit of red wine vinegar (honestly any kind of vinegar is fine- white wine, rice vinegar, even balsamic) because I think it’s benefited from a little acidity. But if you don’t have vinegar, it’s no biggie.
Another optional is fresh parsley or cilantro. I usually have some in my fridge so I toss it in there. Fresh herbs brighten everything. No prob if you don’t have any.
Then just mix it up. If you have time to think ahead, I think the flavor is significantly improved by an hour or so sit in the fridge. So this is a great one to make in the am (or even the night before) and take to work, or just have it ready to go at home when hunger strikes. Right before serving, stir in a few toasted almonds.
This is a good-sized salad. It’s enough that you can eat it plain and still be filled up, or you can put it on a piece of whole grain bread, wrap it in a tortilla, or pop it in a pita.
Light and Healthy Chicken Salad
Ingredients
- 4 ounces cooked chicken breast about one cup diced or shredded
- ¼ cup finely diced celery
- 2 tablespoons sliced green onion
- ¼ cup diced apple choose a sweet, crisp apple
- 1 tablespoon light mayo or regular if you prefer
- 1 tablespoon light sour cream or Greek yogurt or regular if you prefer
- 1 tablespoon fresh herbs optional, such as parsley, cilantro or tarragon
- ⅛ teaspoon curry powder
- ¼ teaspoon red wine vinegar
- 1 tablespoon toasted sliced almonds
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Combine all ingredients except almonds and stir to combine. If possible, chill for an hour or so before eating.
- Before serving, mix in almonds.
- Eat in a lettuce wrap, on whole grain bread, in a wrap, or in a pita.
Notes
Nutrition
Questions & Reviews
Made this at lunchtime while my kids ate, had a salad, let this refrigerate for a couple hours and had it for a snack in a small pita because I couldn’t wait until tomorrow. It was so yummy! I put some spinach leaves in the pita as well for some green. I hate Greek yogurt by itself so this was perfect. I was following a meal plan last winter that had a recipe for chicken salad and it was so healthy yet so awful that I could only choke down one bite. This recipe is flavorful and crunchy AND healthy. So thank you! I’m loving the lunch for one recipes. They motivate me to eat healthier and I know they will be yummy coming from you.
I’m so glad you liked it! I love it when people make our recipes the same day we post them and leave good feedback 🙂
I love chicken salad and this looks amazing!
I will occasionally substitute some hummus for part of the mayo in my chicken salad – I put it in deviled eggs too! But that’s just because I think egg yolk is gross 🙂
amen!! I think food (especially good food) is one of life’s greatest pleasures and life is too short not to enjoy eating everything. (in moderation, of course) Yes, you can have bread- just not the whole loaf. You can have chocolate cake too- just not the entire cake. You can even have dairy!! In fact, you probably should. I think diets that totally eliminate a certain food group are not only unrealistic, but not healthy, Unless you have a true allergy to something. Thank you for your post! More people need to hear this!
You look amazing, BTW! Do you think I could just use Greek Yogurt and nix the mayo?
Oh, just read some of the comments. They answered my question. Next time I’ll scan those first. 😉
Super yummy! I am eating this for lunch right now. Thank you!
Great post. The key to a high calorie diet is “good food choices”. If you put junk in, you feel like junk and your body will look like it too. I only drink whole milk and I’m considered the healthiest of my friends. Low calorie doesn’t always mean good for you. Those 100 calorie snack bags are just sabotaging people. I’m so excited to see how you approach healthy eating. 🙂 well done.
I’ve wanted to try the “eat smaller meals, more often” diet method, but how do you make it work with your family? Like, do you make separate meals for their breakfast, lunch, and dinner?
We don’t really eat Breakfast or lunch together as a family (like, in the morning, kids eat cereal, and I eat after I get them off to school anyway) and for lunch I make easy stuff for my toddlers so I can whip something up just for me, so that’s no biggie. So dinner is the meal where this comes into play and I’m adamantly against having to cook an entirely different meal for myself than I do for my family! So I find ways to adapt so everyone is happy. Often I’ll make something like grilled chicken and veggies, and while my husband and I have ours over quinoa, I’ll boil some pasta for the kiddos. Or if we do tacos, My husband and I will have ours on a salad and the kids can eat on chips. I’ll go into more detail when I write a post about this, but easy adaptations like that make it so everyone is happy!
I love that-I started doing the same thing and it certainly makes for more success when you don’t feel like you’re a) starving yourself in front of your kids and b) not a short order cook.
I think these posts are great! So often people go on diets, that only last so long, instead of adopting a healthy lifestyle and relationship with food. I’ve been looking for fast, easy salad recipes, and my husband and I have already enjoyed your Thai Chicken Salad earlier this week. We’ll be whipping this recipe up too for sure. No doubt that you will inspire many people with your personal stories and great recipes. Good for you!
Hi, Sara! Another recipe for me to be super excited about! I seriously loved this post – moderation in all things. I’m so shocked how many people think the answer is to eliminate sugar or carbs (or whatever it may be). It is not healthy, not sustainable and I’m unable (unwilling) to do it. There is no such thing as a magic pill! Eat right and exercise, thats the key. Thank you for the reminder as well that it’s so important to eat – fuel the body with healthy food. It pays off in the end. You’re so awesome! Keep the yummy, healthy recipes coming!
PS I made your Healthy Thai Chicken Salad for lunch last week for me and my hubby. It was SO delicious!