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A healthier take on a traditional chicken salad sandwich. I make mine with just a hint of mayonnaise, sour cream, and healthy greek yogurt. It’s rich and creamy without all the added calories!
Light and healthier chicken salad sandwiches? Yes, please.
Fresh diced apples, grapes, rotisserie chicken, celery, dried cranberries, and walnuts – simple ingredients all a come together to make this chicken salad sandwich AMAZING! The sweetness from the grapes, the crunch for the walnuts, and the creamy dressing jus bring this whole thing together.
Calling all those looking for healthy lunches that are high protein and easy to meal prep – this one is for you!
Actually, today’s recipe is one that I think everyone will love. It’s a traditional chicken salad sandwich with a much healthier spin. I’m using greek yogurt with a hint of mayonnaise or sour cream to keep that creamy texture without all the calories from a mayonnaise ladened salad.
This is the kind of meal you crave on hot summer days when you just want some cold and refreshing. I’m all about meals like this chicken salad sandwich, refreshing cucumber and shrimp salad, and basically anything cold that can be eaten straight from the refrigerator.
Ingredients for healthy chicken salad recipe
- Plain Greek Yogurt: adds protein to the chicken salad and works beautifully as the dressing.
- Mayo or Sour Cream: you’ll need just a dollop to help bring all the greek yogurt a bit of richness.
- Lemon Juice: adds tang and cuts through the rich dressing to give healthy chicken salad a balanced flavor.
- Mild Curry Powder: is my secret ingredient to adding tons of flavor.
- Seasonings: you’ll also need other seasonings like garlic powder, kosher salt, and black pepper. All pretty standard ingredients
- Leftover Chicken Breast: cooking chicken isn’t difficult, you can poach it, roast your own chicken (I’ll leave directions in the recipe card), or use a store-bought or homemade rotisserie chicken. Use this nifty tool to shred the chicken, pop it into a food processor and pulse, dice the chicken, or you can use a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment to break into shreds.
- Celery: finely minced up so that you get a little bit of crunch in each bite
- Red Onion: I use red onion for this recipe, but white onion works too if that’s what you have on hand
- Apple: I use red apples, but if you typically prefer Granny Smith apples, feel free to make the swaps you like!
- Grapes: both red grapes or green grapes work here
- Walnuts: add the perfect amount of crunch. Feel free to swap this for almonds, cashews, or even pecans if you’re preparing this for someone with a walnut allergy.
- Dried Cranberries: add a sweet and tart flavor, dried cherries would be equally delicious
- For serving: you can use homemade no knead bread, croissants, whole grain bread, lettuce wraps, high protein bagels, crackers, tortillas, hollowed bell pepper, or how ever you enjoy your chicken salad.
Recipe Variations
- add fresh herbs like fresh dill, fresh parsley, cilantro or green onions to give this a unique flavor
- you can add cheese, like I do for my jalapeno chicken salad recipe
- kick up the fiber by making avocado chicken salad. Swap some of the greek yogurt for a mashed up avocado
- go dairy-free by swapping the greek yogurt for coconut yogurt. I will say if you go the coconut yogurt route, you might want to do50:50 yogurt and mayo to make sure there’s ample amount of fat and flavor
- swap the curry powder for dijon mustard to give this a traditional chicken salad flavor
Healthier Chicken Salad Sandwich
Ingredients
DRESSING:
- 1 cup greek yogurt
- 2 tablespoons mayonnaise or sour cream (I use one of each)
- 2 teaspoon lemon juice
- 1-2 teaspoons mild curry powder I used 2, optional
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
SALAD:
- 4 cups shredded chicken or diced (see notes)
- ½ cup celery diced or sliced
- ¼ cup red onions or shallots, minced
- 1 apple chopped
- 1 cup grapes red or green, halved
- ¼ cup walnuts roughly chopped
- ¼ cup dried cranberries
- whole wheat bread crackers, croissants, lettuce wraps, tortillas, for sandwiches
Instructions
- DRESSING: In a medium bowl, whisk together the greek yogurt, mayonnaise, sour cream, and lemon juice until smooth. Season with the curry powder, garlic powder, and salt and pepper. Taste and adjust the seasonings to your liking.
- SALAD: If serving immediately, toss the salad ingredients together in a bowl and drizzle with the prepared dressing stir to combine.
- SERVE: Place the prepared chicken salad in an airtight container in the fridge until ready to serve.Serve on a bed of lettuce, croissants, with crackers, or however you typically like to serve your chicken salad recipe.
Notes
- Serve this later: toss the apples in an additional teaspoon of lemon juice, then combine the salad ingredients, cover, and refrigerate. I like to keep the salad ingredients and dressing separate until ready to serve to prevent the veggies/fruit/nuts/bread from getting soggy.
- Dressing amount: I like my salad nice and dressed if you prefer a lightly dressed salad, you could even get away with just ¾ cup of greek yogurt and a tablespoon of mayo or sour cream.
- Roasting Chicken: Start with 1 ¾ pounds bone-in, skin-on chicken breasts. Preheat oven to 425ºF. Wipe chicken with paper towels. Drizzle with avocado oil, sprinkle 2-3 teaspoons kosher salt on both sides. Place chicken on baking sheet, roast for 25-35 minutes or until the thickest part reads 165ºF. Remove from oven and let cool to room temp.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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I love chicken salad. It is deftinely a sandwich that needs to be experimented with. I prefer mine with cranberries. Yours looks really good, though!