This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure policy.
This healthy Cranberry Walnut Chicken Salad is the perfect switch up from your classic chicken salad recipe. It’s sweet, savory, and with the perfect crunch! Gluten-free and paleo-friendly, and a perfect, kid-friendly chicken salad!
Chicken Salad with Cranberries and Walnuts
Lately I am all about simple lunches and the mix of flavors in this Cranberry Walnut Chicken Salad is just perfect! It reminds me of the version I ordered at this little coffee shop I used to go to when I was teaching. There is something about the simplicity of this salad that I love, yet it’s still pretty complex with it’s sweet, savory, and crunchy flavors.
Chicken salad is great because it can be made with fresh chicken, or leftover or rotisserie chicken. I often will make a big batch of shredded chicken in my Instant Pot and use it throughout the week for dinners and lunches, and it’s perfect for this chicken salad too.
Ingredients Needed
- Cooked Diced Chicken
- Mayo
- Dried Cranberries
- Walnuts
- Coconut Sugar
- Dijon Mustard
- Lemon Juice
- Salt and Pepper
Substitutions
Chicken: This recipe is best with leftover chicken or rotisserie chicken, if you have it, leftover turkey! It makes a great leftover Thanksgiving sandwich, too!
Cranberries: You can swap in raisins.
Coconut Sugar: This can be omitted altogether or can be swapped with honey.
Lemon Juice: This can be swapped with any other vinegar, but in particular, apple cider vinegar would work well here.
Ways to Serve Chicken Salad
Chicken salad is so versatile and there are so many different ways to serve it. Here are some of my favorites:
- Make it classic with a sandwich! Add some lettuce and cucumber if you’re feeling fancy.
- Wrap it up! There are luckily now a lot of gluten-free wraps, or you could try using a gluten-free tortilla, like Siete brands. Just make sure to heat it up before you attempt to wrap it.
- Serve it over a bed of lettuce. Any lettuce would work here ranging from classic romaine to baby kale or spinach.
- Or wrap it up with lettuce! Check out our post all about making Lettuce Wraps.
- Put it in an avocado! This flavor combo will be pretty awesome.
- Serve it with crunchy crackers. There are lots of gluten-free brands, and also some seed-based or cheese crackers for low carb.
- Stuff it in a scooped out cucumber. Scoop the seeds out of the cucumber and stuff in the chicken salad! We’d recommend a traditional cucumber here, which tend to be larger than the European or greenhouse cucumbers.
- Or just eat it! It’s that good.
How to Store It
Store chicken salad in an air-tight container in the refrigerator. Depending on how old your leftover chicken (or turkey) was to start, homemade chicken salad stays good for 3 to 5 days in the refrigerator! If you used freshly cooked chicken, it will last more about 5 days in the refrigerator.
Want other chicken salad recipes? Try these:
Cranberry Walnut Chicken Salad
Ingredients
- 1 lb. about 2 cups cooked boneless chicken breast, diced (see note)
- 1/3-1/2 cup mayonnaise store-bought our homemade
- 1/2 cup dried cranberries
- 1/2 cup walnuts chopped
- 1 tablespoon coconut palm sugar
- 2 teaspoons dijon mustard
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon fine sea salt
- ½ teaspoon ground black pepper
Instructions
- Add all ingredients to a medium bowl. Stir to combine. Taste and adjust seasoning.
- Serve as desired (see different options in post) and store any leftovers in a container for up to 5 days.
loved chicken salad So tasty
Where do you get your dried crans? I’ve looked high and low for no sugar added and all I can ever find is 1/2 sugar or low sugar. HMMMM.
Check these out! https://www.stevespaleogoods.com/mobile/Product.aspx?id=38054#PhotoSwipe1395663864956