The Best Curried Chicken Salad You’ll Ever Eat
Remember that guy who owns the gym who forced us to do an 8 week meal plan that I hated? He took my potato chips away from me? I called him an asshole. That guy.
I take it back
He’s a nice guy, that guy.
Mainly because along with the recipes I hated with all my heart, he also introduced me to a few that I love in equal but opposite proportions. The No Cook Hippie Cookie is one such recipe. And this Curried Chicken Salad is another.
The first time I made it, I dreamed about it for the next 3 days. The same way I dream about french fries and having a big toe that isn’t plagued with a bunion.
I actually keep grilled chicken cooked and ready to go in the freezer just so I can make this whenever the mood strikes me.
It’s kind of strange I’ve taken such a liking to this particular recipe because I’m not a huge fan of curry. In fact, I’ve quartered the amount of curry than the original recipe called for. I like a hint of curry not a full swing, hit me in the face with a shovelful of it. A hint.
I serve the chicken salad cold on a leaf of romaine lettuce like a leafy pita.
I got into this habit after the asshole nice guy from the gym, limited our carbs and we couldn’t eat this chicken salad on any form of bread. If we have it for dinner, we eat it with a side of some grilled red peppers and asparagus. Whatever vegetables you have on hand will do. (Just in case you were too stupid or drunk or feeble minded to figure that bit out.)
Curried Chicken Salad
Ingredients
1 grilled chicken breast (chopped)
1 stalk celery (chopped)
½ a red apple (diced small)
¼ cup toasted pecans (chopped)
¼ cup raisins
¼ cup mayonnaise (to start)
¼ tsp. curry powder
¼ tsp. cayenne pepper
Salt & Pepper to taste
- Gather your ingredients Martha Stewart-style. Get everything ready to go.
- Grab the bowl you miraculously found for $2 at a garage sale on a fishing trip. Dump your chicken in.
- Add your diced apple and celery.
- Add the raisins and toasted pecans. To toast nuts just chop them and dump them in a cast iron skillet (or similar) over medium heat until they start to barely brown.
- Add the curry, cayenne and mayonnaise.
- Mix everything together. If the mixture seems too dry for your liking add mayonnaise until it’s as creamy as you want it.
- Add salt & pepper. You know. To taste.
- Serve and enjoy.
Now before you go squinching your nose up at the fact that I wrap the chicken salad in a lettuce leaf as opposed to a pita or bread, I have to say, in the lettuce’s defence, that the crunch it has makes up for the lack of carbs. I honestly prefer it this way now.
Honestly. The crispness of the lettuce against the creaminess of the mayonnaise is wonderfully delicious. The flavours of the salad are all very distinct. The slight hints of curry and cayenne pepper are met with the odd sweet burst of apple and raisin. Add in the freshness of the celery and the crunch of the toasted pecans and you have the perfect Curried Chicken Salad.
Sweet dreams.
amy
I don’t quite believe you yet, but your writing is so good, I think I might have to try the lettuce wrap :)
Karen
Amy – It’s true! It’s true, it’s true, it’s true! And I love a big hunk of bread, trust me. ~ karen
amy
trusting…going to try it out today :)
rachel
i’m not trying to incite an argument or anything…i really am just curious about your answer. i absolutely love your blog and your attitude and your humor and your art of doing stuff. so here’s my question…do you wrestle with having chickens as pets, as well as eating chickens? i mean, i know you’re not eating your own chickens, but i’m just curious what you think about this. full disclosure…i am a happy vegetarian, but i don’t care what people around me choose to eat. i just love the discussion.
Karen
Rachel – My neighbours just asked me this very question today. And yes. It does make me ponder. However, I don’t believe in the argument that some use which is, if you’re going to eat it, you should be able to kill it. No thanks. I drive a car but certainly don’t have what it takes to build one. These chickens are exactly what you said. Pets. I have saved more animals than I can count. I raise butterflies from egg, spent 3 months and many dollars saving my pond fish and love every animal that walks the earth. But for now, I still eat them and am happy to do so. Once you make friends with animals like chipmunks and chickens though, it does give you an appreciation for the fact that all animals, even something as tiny as a chipmunk has a personality. So in answer to your question, there’s a slight wrestle, but I’m still a full fledged meat eater and don’t see that changing in the immediate future. Immediately. I don’t think. :) ~ karen
Centsational Girl
“The crispness of the lettuce against the creaminess of the mayonnaise is wonderfully delicious. The flavours of the salad are all very distinct. The slight hints of curry and cayenne pepper are met with the odd sweet burst of apple and raisin. Add in the freshness of the celery and the crunch of the toasted pecans and you have the perfect Curried Chicken Salad.”
You could write for a food magazine, and this looks delicious! I would totally make it with lettuce too, you know, to justify my extra mayo which I’m sure to add, but would you still love me if I left out the raisins? Or could I use dried cranberries? Would that disrupt the entire physics of the universe and this salad recipe if I were to substitute them cause I really like cranberries. A lot.
And this recipe.
xo
Kate
Karen
Kate – It never occurred to me to use dried cranberries. Probably because I was being led down a path of good eating, which has, in all probability caused my brain to shrink. YES add cranberries!! Good thinkin’. ~ karen
Alissa
BRILLIANT, Kate! I do not like raisins and was wondering if I could leave them out without disrupting the delicate balance of “the best curried chicken salad you’ll ever eat”. The subbing in cranberries idea is – to reiterate – brilliant. :)
Karen
Yeah, whatever. “Kate’s so great”. What about me? Kate. Kate, kate, kate. OOO! Did you see? She did mini cherry pies with cherries from her own tree today! http://www.centsationalgirl.com/2011/06/mini-cherry-almond-pies/ ~ karen
SK Farm Girl
I covet, covet, covet your $2.00, found-on-fishing-trip-bowl! I know it’s a sin to covet thy neighbour’s bowl, but if that’s the only sin I commit, I’m doing pretty good – eh? Can’t wait to try your delish-sounding salad! Give the chickens a “peck” for me :)
Karen
SK Farm Girl – Thanks! Oh .. and one of my chickens is turning into a real peckerhead. Must have tried to randomly bite my arm 10 times last night. And not in a cute way! ~ karen
Julie shinnick
omg I love love love that bowl!
Will try this one when the weather warms up! Glad you have archives!
Perfecting Pru
I love how you did the bowls all Martha Stewart-ish. I wouldn’t have the patience – but it did look pretty. And I’m trying this recipe at the weekend. Food from a gym guy that’s healthy and tasty? It must be a miracle!
Jen
This looks delicious. Minus the raisins. Raisins alone? Yummy. Raisins jumping in on food and baked goods?!? EW!
I’m def gonna make this….minus the raisins.
Karen
Jen – Try what Centsational Girl is going to do … dried cranberries. If you want, that is. :) ~ karen
Holly
What is weird is that I woke up thinking about making a curry sauce for a vegetable mixture, and then I find that you wrote this(I don’t always wake up thinking of food). I will have to try this! I’m always looking for a good chicken salad! And I love lettuce wraps!
Sharon
This looks delicious! Just curious how many servings this would make? Just so I’m not tempted to eat the whole bowl when I do make it!
Thanks Karen!
Karen
Sharon – Think of this as one serving with a bit left over. Basically count on a little less than one chicken breast per person. 3 chicken breasts would probably serve 4 people, but to be safe use the one piece of chicken per person rule. Any leftovers can be used for lunch! ~ karen
susan
I’m going to try that recipe…sounds delicious..I get my burger on lettuce instead of a bun at In N Out burger….protein burger they call it…don’t miss the bun a bit!
myhonestanswer
You make it sound so good! But I must admit, I’m still suspicious of the lettuce leaf. Plus, knowing me, I’ll buy an entire lettuce just to use one leaf, then it will end up going brown and slimy in the refrigerator. Any tips for stopping that?
Karen
Yes. Eat more salad. ~ karen
Elise
I found a recipe similar to this one, and it’s soooo yummy! I am not really a fan of mayo so I used a recipe that called for Greek yogurt instead. OMG Delish!
Diane@InMyOwnStyle
I ususlly buy this at my local Whole Foods, but it is EXPENSIVE – like 18 bucks for a small container. I have tried making it on my own, but it never tastes as good. I am going to try yours. Thanks
My best- Diane
Lydia
I love that the bowl is even the signature Martha “robins egg blue” color! You are so Martha :-)
My aunt had a working dairy farm with chickens, and we had to collect the eggs. I got pecked in the forearm so many times I still have scars, and once chased out by an ornery rooster. So I eat chicken with GUSTO :-)
Megan
Will definitely try this — and have been making a similar version with ripe nectarines. Last night I was out of those, so I improvised with some apples and threw in some bacon. (Why not?) I love bread but am a grain-free eater — and can honestly say I prefer it on lettuce or over mixed greens. Unbelievably good.
susan w
Lovely salad lovely bowl lovely prose.
I use mayo and yogurt in equal parts and add a bit of chutney to the dressing. Hmmm I haven’t made chicken salad in a long time…
Off to look for chicken to grill(or one sitting in the store rotisserie…)
Thanks for the inspiration as always
sandra
I made a huge bowl of Chicked Salad two nights ago that is very similar to yours except … I made my own olive oil mayo, added two kinds of apples (grannies and gala), chopped red and green onions, and a whole bunch of red grapes. I serve with cashews sprinkled on top. Perfect meal for those of us with celiac or other dietary issues. Who needs bread?
Liz S.
I am imagining this in a half of a red pepper instead of a lettuce leaf. YUM!
Anna
Liz, that sounds amazing! I might just go halfsies by splitting the recipe between lettuce leaves and red peppers.
B.J.M
Yum. This looks great.
I was going to say how much I loved the bowl and here you go and mention it anyway. Aint that somethin’?
Karen
B.J.M. – Hah! Yes, leave it to me to mention how great something I own is, LOL. ~ karen
Cheryl
At one of my recent “sans forks” dinner parties, one of my good friends brought an appetizer dip which consisted of goat cheese and onion and roasted red peppers – I forget all the ingredients but it was blissful, and she paired it with little tiny frilly lettuce leaves instead of crackers. It was one of the first things to be completely consumed by the guests. Yum yum yum.
Karen
Cheryl – I do an dinner salad (main meal) similar to that. Maybe up put the recipe up next week. It’s GREAT. So long as you love goat’s cheese and roasted red peppers, that is. ~ karen
Tracey
I must go and grill chicken so we can have this today!
I am a fan of the lettuce wrap–once you go green you never go back.
Laurie
wait… seriously you can freeze already cooked chicken? Mind Blown.
Mindy
I’m a fan of lettuce wraps. Well, depending on what’s inside, but this sounds tasty and I’m adding it my to-do list. (I shall consume a loaf of bread on the side in your honor)
Taylor
I love chicken salad. All this talk of cranberries made me think of my favorite one, which is the Trader Joe’s Wine Country Chicken Salad, so I just googled around to see if I could find a recipe and guess what!
http://www.startribune.com/lifestyle/taste/recipes/24196989.html
That page also includes the apricot chicken salad, which is pretty good too. Looks like I have some serious chicken salad testing to do :)
Diane
Gee, coulda used THAT for the ‘ex’ party !
jen
I’m a HUGE fan of curry chicken salad! This looks delish. This may not be everyones cup of tea but I do the same with tuna sometimes. Add walnuts and granny smith apples or Tuscan peppers and almonds. I hate a bland tuna.
Shauna
quite simply, this sounds delicious. Going into the recipe repertoire.
Evalyn
I make a chicken curry salad very close to this receipe. Sometimes I add grapes – dried cranberries work well – the tiniest bit of chopped onion is good – I sometimes add cooked rice for a full-meal-deal. I never, however, used it in a sandwich, but I will be trying the lettuce leaf version very soon.
Donna O.
I’m running home to make this on this 95 degree day. I just happen to have some chicken leftover from last night. My family recently fell in love with lettuce wraps with ground turkey, cilantro, peanuts & a few other choice ingredients. I think they’ll be swoonin’ over this one too.
Karen
Donna – It’s a 95 degree day here too! Perhaps you’re around Toronto. Anyhow … with all the people talking about making this tonight I wanna make it too! Even though we just had it Monday. :( ~ karen
Centsational Girl
You may not add raisins to my cherry pie, capiche?
:)
Karen
Well, since you said “capiche”, clearly you’re a long standing member of some sort of organized crime unit. I will therefore heed your “advice” and not add raisins to your cherry pie recipe. Yours in servitude – Karen
Charissa
I love the idea of adding curry to chicken salad…sounds absolutely divine. Thanks for the inspiration!
Btw, I love your mantra on the side…if you don’t know it, you’ll find a way to figure it out. So cute!
Lauren
I have a recipe identical to this with one small addition. It calls for green/red grapes. Delicious. The grapes, like the apples, makes this a very refreshing meal. Great for a hot day.
marilyn
i am totally making this salad sans the apples and with the cranberries yummy!
Karen
Marilyn – The fella says either you make it with apples or you don’t make it at all. Um. I’m O.K. with however you want to make it. I just won’t tell him. ~ karen
Meg
<3 Curried Chicken Salad!! You should try it with golden raisins, that's how my mom always made it and it's delicious!!! Also, I adore your prep plates. They look perfect for scooping things in to bowls :)
Stephanie
I do grapes instead of raisins and add sliced green onions. One of my all time favorite things to eat!!
Sigh.
Nicole
Awesome. I am so making it this weekend.
amy walters, aDESIGNdock
LOVE curry…esp. curried chicken. I must try this ;)
sarah
made this for dinner last night—totally awesome!! I’m going to be making it all summer :)
Karen
Sarah – I know! I love it too. :) I’m glad it worked out for you! ~ karen
Rebecca
Holy Crap, that is good stuff!!!
Karen
Rebecca – I take it you made the recipe. It takes all the control I have not to make it every single day. :) ~ karen
Chancy
Made this salad this weekend. Ohmygod is it the best curried chicken salad ever! You weren’t kidding.
Karen
I know! (I try to only post no-fail, this is FANTASTIC recipes I’ve either found or developed) The Sweet Potato fries are probably the most complicated! ~ karen
Caseyj
Wow, gonna make this. Do you think there is a good subsitute for the pecans? My house is on a strict no-pecans-walnuts-or-cashews menu plan. Would almonds work?
Also, I think you should check out Hungry Girl’s Greek Chicken Salad recipe. It uses mainly yogurt plus a tad of mayo for the creamy-ness (but you don’t have to), then adds chicken, cucumbers, grape tomatoes, olives, feta or goat cheese and some seasoning. It’s divine.
Karen
Caseyj – I think you could use any nut you like. Personally if I couldn’t use pecans, I’d go with walnuts. But you can’t. After that I’d go with toasted pine nuts. When in doubt, always go with toasted pine nuts. Almonds are a good choice too. Either chop them up yourself or buy the sliced ones. Now I’m off to look at Hungry Girl’s chicken recipe! One can never have enough chicken recipes. ~ karen!
Stella
Looks amazing! I love eating with a lettuce wrap! So tasty!
fuff
okay so i’m “that” person with the weird allergy. i sense that the apples are integral for this recipe and i’m really really really wanting to make it BUT…i’m deathly allergic to raw apples (insert sad face here). i might try it without but i’m trying to brainstorm a suitable alternative in the meantime. any brilliant ideas?
Karen
Fuff – It’s really the crispness and crunch of the apple that’s integral. Plus the bit of colour is nice. If you’re looking to substitute I’d probably try pear. Otherwise, just leave the apple out and add a bit more celery. :) ~ karen
Kristy
Omgsh! This looks amazing! We will be having this at our house this weekend! And I love the lettuce as an alternative to bread! :9
Karen
Kristy – The lettuce makes it wayyyyy better for a hot, summer night. Like tonight. Or tomorrow night. Or the next 90 nights or so. ~ karen
cred
Okay! I tried it… I love it!
I had to change a bit (not b/c I don’t trust you but b/c I made this when it popped up as “you might also like” under today’s post and I didn’t have everything I needed):
My kid ate the last apple so mine was sans apple (but I know the crunch & sweetness would be perfect).
I was going to sub cranberries b/c I only eat raisins in waldorf-ish salads so I didn’t have any on hand. But apparently I’m out of crans, too. At this point, I was going to give up but recalled some raisins I dried 3 wks ago from some Ontario concord grapes- not as plump & chewy as Cali raisins but oh so grapey.
I only had some mesclun mix from the garden so I put the chick salad over the loose greens & it was delicious.
Time to get my butt to the orchard as I’ve been intending for the last month- need to try this with apples.
beth stockwell
Loved this BUT the cayenne totally ruined it! I can’t believe how much the cayenne overpowered it. I would 100% suggest to LEAVE OUT THE CAYENNE. And I also added more curry powder and some turmeric.
Karen
Beth – I have to disagree. I really don’t think the cayenne ruins the salad. In fact I think it adds to it. That’s why I’ve included it as an ingredient, LOL. I had to go back and look at the recipe to make sure it was correct and it is … 1/4 of a teaspoon of cayenne pepper really isn’t very much. BUT if you don’t like cayenne, or can’t handle the cayenne then by all means leave out the cayenne! ~ karen
Abra
I love curried chicken salad and this recipe didn’t disappoint! The only addition I made was some chopped onion and I omitted the celery and cayenne because I was out. So delicious! Thanks for a yummy meal inspiration…my six year old loved it too and even asked to try curry powder on its own. He’s my adventurous eater like his mama! :)
Karen
Abra – I’m so glad! Actually, now that I’m reminded of it, I may just have some for dinner tomorrow night! ~ karen
Seul
My daughter requested this for her birthday dinner. She ate seconds, and packed some for lunch the next day– thanks for sharing the recipe, this one’s going in the book. *grins* Do I put it under Karen’s curry chicken salad, or That asshole’s chicken salad?
Karen
Hahahah! Omg that made me laugh. Ahem … well … I *did* make a few changes to it, but it is in truth the Asshole’s recipe. How ’bout Asshole Karen’s Curry Chicken Salad? ~ k!
GL
Where did you get those fantastic white rectangular servers? They look amazing!
Karen
GL – Thanks! Yeah, they’re fun. Great for putting out a few olives and cheese. Sadly, I can’t remember where I got them. Homesense (Homegoods) I think. They’re “Tannex”. http://store.tannex.ca/ I just looked it up and they appear to be like a restaurant/wholesale online store. And WOW do they have some great stuff! ~ karen
Janel
How many servings does this make I could eat the whole bowl!
Karen
Janel – Well then, clearly … it serves one. :) ~ karen
Hollie @ I'm Busy Procrastinating
Karen, I have saved this recipe since last summer and finally made it yesterday. YUM-MEE! Because I don’t have an asshole from a gym to order me around, I ate mine on croissants. But next time maybe I’ll do the leafy greens, because this stuff is so good, I could just eat it out of the bowl. I happened to have golden raisins on hand, rather than regular, and they were the perfect sweetness to offset the curry. Thanks for sharing!
Karen
Thanks for letting me know Hollie! Isn’t it *good*?! I just eat it out of the bowl. Honestly. It’s my preferred method. ~ karen!
Sadi
Sooo yummy! I doubled the curry, and used canned chicken from Costco!!!
Annette
I’m eating this now and can’t get enough… I don’t even bother with the lettuce. It’s straight out of the bowl! lol I’ll be making this regularly! YUMMY!!! Thanks for sharing the recipe.
Karen
You’re welcome Annette! That’s my favourite way to eat it too. Right outta the bowl. ~ karen
Diana Rosenal
Curry Chicken Salad
Alexis
It may already be in the comments, but about how many ounces of chicken would you say you use?
Thanks
Karen
HI Alexis – I’m really not sure how many ounces it would be. You don’t have to be terribly finicky with the measurements. I used 1 large chicken breast. When I double the recipe I’ll use 2 large or 3 small chicken breasts. If it seems too dry after you’ve mixed it all up, just throw in another dollop of mayonnaise. ~ karen!