This creamy southern style chicken salad is a great sandwich filler. Made with lean chicken breast, and without mayonnaise, it's a lean and healthy chicken salad with excellent flavors.
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I love to make this chicken salad for sandwiches, or as an easy salad for a picnic or summer buffet. As it's made with Greek yogurt instead of mayonnaise, it's also healthier than most chicken salads, without sacrificing any flavor.
🥘 Ingredients
To make this recipe you will need diced or shredded cooked chicken, Greek yogurt, boiled eggs, celery, onion, salt, pepper and lemon juice.
Other ingredients can also be added if you wish. Some people like to add diced pickled cucumbers, Dijon mustard or other spices to their chicken salads, and you can definitely try them if you like these.
🔪 Instructions
First, you'll have to prepare your cooked chicken. You can use a shredded rotisserie chicken, any leftover cooked chicken, or you can make poached chicken breasts.
Combine shredded or diced chicken in a bowl along with finely diced celery, hard-boiled eggs and red onion, Greek yogurt, lemon juice, salt and pepper. Stir to combine.
Serve the chicken salad in sandwiches or any other dishes. If you're not using it immediately, you should move the southern style chicken salad to the refrigerator for storage.
🐓 Chicken
Any cooked chicken will work for this recipe, however plain chicken tastes the best. You can buy cooked chicken or rotisserie chicken in most supermarkets, or you can use any leftover cooked chicken.
Alternatively, you can cook plain chicken breasts in an Instant pot or slow cooker, or make poached chicken breasts on the stove top.
I prefer to use chicken breasts in chicken salads, as they are really lean and absorb the flavors from the other ingredients well. Skinless and boneless chicken thigh fillets also work great.
💭 Top tips
Here are my best tips to make the perfect chicken salad:
- Don't be afraid to change up the ingredients to suit your preferences.
- Use leftover chicken if you have any. If you're cooking chicken for the purpose of using it in this recipe, make sure to let it cool down first.
🥗 Serving suggestions
This chicken salad is perfect to serve in sandwiches, baguettes, wraps or sliders. You can also serve it as a side dish at a picnic, potluck or BBQ meal.
If you wish, you can pair it with some crunchy salad vegetables such as lettuce, cucumbers or sliced celery. The textures work really well together!
🍲 Leftovers
Leftover southern style chicken salad stores really well in an airtight container in a refrigerator for up to 2 days. Serve the leftovers cold as required.
Avoid storing any salad that's been exposed to high temperatures or strong sun for extended amounts of time, as the leftovers may develop bad bacteria.
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📋 Frequently asked questions
If your chicken salad ends up runny or watery, you can add some finely chopped hard boiled eggs. You can also try refrigerating it, as this will help the yogurt firm up.
Absolutely. Make sure to remove any skins and bones from the cooked chicken before adding it to the salad.
Recipe
Southern Style Chicken Salad
Ingredients
Instructions
- First, you’ll have to prepare your cooked chicken. You can use a shredded rotisserie chicken, any leftover cooked chicken, or you can make poached chicken breasts.
- Combine shredded or diced chicken in a bowl along with finely diced celery and red onion, diced hard boiled eggs, Greek yogurt, lemon juice, salt and pepper. Stir to combine.
- Serve the chicken salad in sandwiches or any other dishes. If you’re not using it immediately, you should move the southern style chicken salad to the refrigerator for storage.
Claire
Made this with leftover rotisserie chicken, and it came out great.