Chicken salad is so nostalgic to me. When I was a kid, my mom used to make it all the time. Granted, I was a mostly mayo based chicken-salad-chick growing up. I’ve come a long way since then.

It just reminds me of sitting the floor of my room watching Saturday morning shows on Nickelodeon (you kids today don’t know how great Nick was back in the day, I’m not saying I’m old – the 90’s and early 2000’s just feels like forever ago), having some lunch, and getting ready to go in the pool.

As an adult I like to play with my food a little more than I did when I was a kid. I used to like chicken salad or tuna salad with just mayo and a little salt and pepper. (I know NOT ENOUGH STUFF! There was obviously something wrong with me.) Now I like to add all sorts of textures and tasted to my chicken salad, and I love it on a nice grainy bread like Health Nut from Orowheat.

This chicken salad recipe has both mayo and Greek yogurt. I find that the Greek yogurt kind of cuts the saltiness of the mayo, and lets the other ingredients in the salad shine for a minute. It’s a good thing too, because this salad is packed with awesome stuff like celery, cranberries, and sunflower kernels!

For this crunchy salad, you’ll need:

cooked (or rotisserie) coarsely chopped chicken
mayonnaise
plain Greek yogurt
dried cranberries
sunflower kernels
chili powder
kosher salt and fresh cracked black pepper

If you don’t have sunflower kernels around your house, any other sort of small seed will work. You could also add nuts (a little waldorf salad eske), nuts like walnuts, chopped pecans, or almonds also go well with chicken salad. I like the sunflower kernels in this because it is a nice light flavor that adds just a hint of saltiness to offset the sweet dried cranberries.

What type of chicken should I use for this?

I like to make shredded chicken fairly often around my house, for use in many different things. If you make a pretty neutral tasting batch and store in it an air tight container in the fridge, it can live many lives.

I make mine by putting about 3 chicken breasts in my pressure cooker, adding a cup of chicken broth, cumin, paprika, chili powder, salt, pepper, onion, and garlic powder and letting it cook for about 30 minutes on the poultry setting. This makes about 6 – 8 servings of shredded chicken. A pressure cooker is an awesome way to get restaurant quality shredded chicken at home!

For this, I keep at least one breast whole when I pull it out of the pressure cooker and chop it pretty coarsely. The larger pieces of chicken make for a nice bite!

Ways to Use Chicken Salad

Chicken salad is such a versatile dish! You can use it on:

the obvious, chicken salad sandwiches
in salads
for party pinwheels
or honestly just eat a big bowl of it

It’s packed with protein, and depending on how you make it, it may also be relatively low in fat. This particular salad, I’d put in the middle because it does have mayonnaise in it. If you’re a pretty strict dieter, and want to steer away from any form of mayonnaise just sub it for more Greek yogurt.

There really aren’t step by step directions for this particular recipe, it’s an easy one! Just throw all the ingredients together, stir, and you’re all set!

If you try this recipe out, don’t forget to post a rating and comment!

I’d love to see your pictures on Instagram too! Tag @a_toastedcrumb!