This chicken salad with grapes and pecans livens up the classic with a few delicious add-ins. It is perfect for making ahead and eating all week!
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Chicken salad has long been one of my go-to lunches. It is incredibly versatile and makes for a delicious sandwich or a filling meal over greens, and it is perfect for days when I need lunch on the go. This chicken salad with grapes and pecans is my all-time favorite version of classic chicken salad. It’s not too heavy on the mayo, meaning we avoid the soggy, flavorless salad you so often get when you order out to eat, and we add a good bit of dijon mustard that lends some tanginess and tons of flavor. Dill gives the chicken salad a nice, fresh flavor while the grapes add a hint of sweetness and the pecans and celery add crunch. Every bite of this chicken salad gives you something new to love!
Ingredients for Chicken Salad with Grapes and Pecans
Here’s what you’ll need to make this delicious chicken salad!
- Chicken – the main ingredient, of course, is chicken! You can either cook up a few chicken breasts, grab a rotisserie chicken, or use up any leftover chicken you have lying around to make this chicken salad. We find that white meat works best here.
- Mayo – mayo is what binds this chicken salad together. We went lighter on the mayo for this recipe so you can still taste all of the flavors in the salad. If you’re a mayo-hater though, feel free to substitute Greek yogurt in its place!
- Dijon Mustard – this is the secret ingredient to making this chicken salad great. First, the use of dijon mustard allows you to use less mayo, and it adds a ton of flavor that separates it from your typical chicken salad recipe.
- Grapes – Red grapes help add just the right touch of sweetness to the recipe.
- Pecans – pecans give the chicken salad a bit of crunch and lend a nice toasted flavor.
- Celery – celery provides a bit of freshness and crunch to the salad.
- Dill – dill is a classic component of chicken salad for good reason! It helps give this recipe its classic flavor and freshens up the salad a bit.
How to Make
Making chicken salad truly couldn’t be any easier! Here’s what you’ll need to do:
- Shred or cube the chicken. First, you’ll want to shred or cube the chicken into bite-sized pieces.
- Chop the grapes and celery. Next, you’ll cut the grapes in half and slice the celery.
- Add everything to a bowl and mix it up. Once you’ve got your prep work done, you’ll simply add all of the ingredients to a large bowl and mix it together. Once it is mixed, taste the chicken salad for seasoning and add anything that is needed.
- Serve or store for later. From here, you can either serve immediately or store the chicken salad in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.
Variations To Chicken Salad With Grapes
Though this recipe is dynamite as written, there are several variations you can make to switch it up. Here are a few:
- Swap the Grapes for Dried Cherries or Cranberries – if dried cranberries or cherries are more your thing, feel free to swap them in for the grapes!
- Swap the Grapes for Apple – if you love apples more than grapes, swap in chopped apple (your favorite variety) in for the grapes. They both lend a really yummy crunch to the salad.
- Swap the Nuts – if you don’t like pecans, swap them for walnuts or almonds!
Frequently Asked Questions
It depends where you’re storing it! If you’re storing it in the refrigerator (which is, of course, the very best option), it’ll last for 4-5 days. If you’re serving it at a party and it’s sitting out at room temperature, we recommend not letting it sit for more than 2 hours. If you’re enjoying chicken salad at a picnic outside, we recommend bringing a cooler to keep outside heat off of your chicken salad for a long period of time.
We’d plan for about 4-8 ounces (or 1/4-1/2 pound) of chicken per person, so if you’re looking to serve chicken salad to 8 people, you’ll need about 2-4 pounds of chicken (depending on what else you’re serving).
We love serving chicken salad alongside mixed greens or a simple arugula salad, crackers, or plantain chips!
You can serve this chicken salad with grapes and pecans any way you’d like! When I am meal-prepping lunches for the week, I tend to prefer serving my chicken salad over mixed greens for a healthy veggie boost. However, you can also make a sandwich, and if you want to really take it to the next level, add on some avocado and swiss cheese. This chicken salad is also great eaten on its own or with crackers for a picnic!
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Chicken Salad with Grapes and Pecans
Ingredients
- 4 cups shredded chicken either from a rotisserie chicken or 1 ½ pounds cooked boneless, skinless chicken breast
- 2 stalks celery chopped
- ½ cup halved red grapes
- ½ cup chopped raw pecans
- 2/3 cup avocado oil mayonnaise
- ¼ cup Dijon mustard
- 1 teaspoon dried dill
- 1 teaspoon poppy seeds
- ½ teaspoon coarse sea salt
- ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
- Mixed greens for serving
Instructions
- Place all ingredients in a large bowl and mix until fully combined. Taste for seasoning and add additional salt and pepper as needed.
- Spoon over mixed greens and eat immediately or store in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.
Nutrition
Where is the fat (ingredients wise) coming from for the macros? Is that per serving?
The fat comes from the mayo and pecans, Kendra. Yes, per serving. You can try using an equal amount of plain Greek yogurt instead of mayo if you want to cut down on the fat a bit. We haven’t tried it in this specific recipe, but I think it’ll work well!
Thank you so much for the response! I love this recipe so much.. making it for my 2nd week in a row!! I am trying to learn more about macros so I was just curious to understand it.
Of course!! Glad you’re enjoying it!!
Congratulations to our giveaway winner, Bethany! An email has been sent with further instructions!
So delicious!!! I am picky about my chicken salad and this was wonderful! I used Greek yogurt instead of mayo and it was awesome!
Wahoo!! We’re glad you love it, Amy!
Love this recipe – awesome flavor and the added crunch of the nuts (I only had walnuts but still yummy) makes this a fav at our house:)
So great to hear, Bimy! We’re glad you love it!
Not sure why I’ve been intimidated by chicken salad – it was so very easy! Poached a couple chicken breasts in my instant pot, and whipped up this easy salad. I was surprised it was a hit with the kiddos. The tang of the mayo and dijon mix great with the sweetness of the grapes. Winner winner!
Yay! We’re so glad you loved it, Alexis!
This recipe is delicious and easy to make! I love chicken salad and the combination of the celery, grapes, pecans, dill, and dijon is amazing! It’s going to be a summer staple!
So glad you love it, Christina!!! Thanks for sharing this with us!
I made this yesterday for family who was visiting and we all loved it! Chicken salad with grapes and celery is something I crave in the summer, but it’s hard to find the right recipe. This will be my new go to! I loved the dill and dijon in it. Super glad I tripled the recipe, so we will have leftovers for a few days 🙂
Wahoo!! So glad it was a hit, Desirae! Thank you for sharing this with us!
Greek yogurt (because I’m a non-mayo person), cashews (because that’s what was in the cupboard) and spicy brown mustard gave me all my favorites in this tasty recipe!
So glad you loved it, Glenda! Thanks for sharing!!
This was so good! I did swap out cherries for the grapes since that was on sale at the store – but it totally worked. This will be on rotation for future lunches.
Yum! That sounds like a delicious swap! We’re glad you enjoyed it!
The whole family liked this recipe. I doubled the grapes because we love grapes and omitted the celery. I could eat this every week! My boys ate it in sandwiches and I used romaine lettuce wraps instead. Yuuuummm!
Yay! We’re so glad it was a hit with the whole family, Doreen! Thanks for sharing this with us!
This recipe is so good!! Perfect for an easy meal prep for lunches at work! Highly recommend!!
We’re so glad you love it as much as we do, Scotti!! Thanks for sharing this with us!
Very yummy! 1/4 cup of Dijon was a tad much for me – next time I’ll dial that back a little. But I just added a little more chicken and mayo to balance the flavor for my tastes. Also didn’t have celery so added celery salt…just need to rememberer to not to add the additional salt. Very simple and quick. My husband and I enjoyed it – will be making again!
So glad you guys enjoyed it, Colleen!
We love chicken salad so I was super excited to try this recipe! Using Avocado Mayo instead of real Mayo was something that I was interested in as well as the Dijon Mustard. The sodium level was just a wee bit too salty for our taste buds, at first bite. However, after a few hours in the fridge, everything mellowed, the dill is lovely, I used a Dijon that had less sodium than that which was recommended and will probably even move to a more intense Dijon for extra KICK. Thanks for another awesome recipe.
We’re so glad you loved it, Michele!
This recipe was so yummy!! I LOVED the crunchy sweetness of the grapes. I omitted the pecans and instead of mayo used Greek yogurt and it turned out amazing. I enjoyed it over a bed of lettuce!
So glad you loved it, Teresa!! Great swaps!
One of the best chicken salad recipes! I left out poppy seeds (just didn’t have) and it was still delicious!
We’re so glad you love this recipe as much as we do, Meagan!! Thanks for sharing this with us!