This Cranberry Chicken Salad is easy to prepare and will help you save money by making it at home. Growing up, chicken salad for our sandwiches was just canned chicken breast mixed with mayonnaise and a little black pepper. (Tuna salad was prepared the same way.) As an adult buying lunches from the nearby coffee shop or sandwich shop a short walk from my office, I learned that chicken salad could be more.
Don’t get me wrong, I happily enjoy a basic chicken salad sandwich when tight on cash or in a rush. For some additional change, adding celery and cranberries is a nice change and makes you feel less agonizing to watch inflation drive up prices everywhere.
Why this chicken salad recipe is so great
I love recipes where you don’t get tired of eating the same thing every week, or even every day. Besides being tasty, it’s versatile. This is not just chicken salad for sandwiches. You can also eat it in a wrap, on crackers, on a green salad, with raw veggie sticks, on toast, and the list goes on.
This version of Cranberry Chicken Salad is also a little healthier by using some Greek yogurt to lighten up the light mayonnaise used. You boost your protein intake with low-fat or zero fat Greek yogurt while keeping the
creaminess that a good chicken salad should have. The best part of this healthy version is that the light mayonnaise is so flavorful that you don’t even taste the Greek yogurt! My son, who will only touch Greek yogurt if it’smixed with lots of fruit, can’t detect any tanginess that he normally dislikes in a yogurt.
Lastly, you can use leftover rotisserie chicken breast or canned chicken for this recipe. Canned chicken makes for a convenient, quick, and affordable chicken salad meal. Keeping canned chicken on hand means you can put this easy recipe together in about 10 minutes. You really do need to try this!
Chicken Breast Health Benefits
Chicken breast is a great source of protein and low in fat and saturated fat. Eating this lean meat can help to prevent high risks of cardiovascular disease and diabetes. It’s also a cheaper and leaner cut of protein compared to beef and other red meat, so a lot of people naturally want to eat more chicken breast.
As many of you probably know, chicken breast can easily get dry and to many it is not tasty on its own. No matter how healthy a food is, no one is going to eat it if it doesn’t taste good! Thus, a chicken salad recipe with yogurt helps to combat using too much mayo and adding too much fat to make it delicious and keep people coming back for more.
Recipe swaps
Not a fan of cranberries? Use grapes cut in half or in quarters and mix that into the salad. Pecans are not your favorite nut? Use chopped walnuts, almonds, or macadamia nuts instead. Even cashews would work. Basically, most chopped nuts will work in this salad. Use what you already have in your pantry.
Some of you may detest celery. I did, too. Celery is often in stews, soups, and other dishes that are simmered for a while. Thus, I wanted more ways to use up the celery bunch without a lot of
cooking. I have finally found a way to love raw celery, and I hope you try this recipe to get over your celery fears, too. (If not, try some diced jicama for another light, crunchy texture.)
If you enjoy this recipe, take a look at these other meal prep-friendly recipes:
Creamy Cranberry Chicken Salad
Equipment
- 1 medium bowl
- 1 large cutting board
- 1 chef's knife
- 1 Large bowl
- measuring cups and spoons
Ingredients
- ⅓ cup dried cranberries
- ½ cup hot water
- 12 ounces cooked chicken breast chopped (about 1 ½ cups)
- 1 celery stalk finely diced
- ⅓ cup light mayonnaise
- ⅓ cup Greek yogurt
- ¼ cup pecans toasted (optional)
- ¼ tsp ground black pepper
- ¼ tsp salt (optional)
Instructions
- Place dried cranberries in a medium bowl and pour hot water over them. Let cranberries soak for 8 to 10 minutes to rehydrate. Drain water from cranberries and dry them with a paper towel. Set aside.
- While soaking the cranberries, chop chicken and celery, and place into a large bowl.
- Add light mayonnaise, Greek yogurt, cranberries, ground black pepper, and salt (if using). Using a fork, shred the chicken while mixing the ingredients until well combined and everything is evenly distributed.
- Serve as a sandwich filling, in a wrap, as a salad topping, with crackers, or as a dip for your favorite raw vegetables.
