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Healthy Curry Chicken Salad

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This Healthy Curry Chicken Salad recipe is quick and easy to make, and full of feel-good ingredients and mega-delicious flavor. It’s also naturally gluten-free and perfect for meal planning!

Just a few weeks before we moved to Barcelona, my friend, Maureen, got me totally hooked on Trader Joe’s curried chicken salad. Like, find-extra-excuses-to-swing-by-the-store-multiple-times-a-week-just-to-casually-throw-a-tub-in-my-basket kind of hooked. I freaking loved that stuff. And as delicious as our three months here have been, I’ve gotta admit, I’m still missing that dang chicken salad like crazy.

So I did what I should have done three months ago…and finally just made some for myself! And good grief, it was so easy.

And ridiculously good.

Granted, I did decide to make a few small changes once I peeked at the ingredient list online. Namely, including fresh grapes (my favorite in chicken salads) instead of raisins. Also, red onions in lieu of scallions (which are annoyingly hard to track down in Barcelona), Greek yogurt instead of mayo (always), and a generous squeeze of lemon juice to brighten the whole thing up. And the result?! Seriously one of the best chicken salads of my life.

Also, it only took about 15 minutes to make. And, if you’re trying to meal plan, it holds up perfectly all week if you’d like to serve it up in a sandwich, or roll it into a wrap, or serve it in lettuce cups. And it’s made with ingredients you can feel great about, especially at the start of a new year.

Let’s make some!

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Healthy Curry Chicken Salad

5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Star 4.7 from 12 reviews
  • Prep Time: 15 minutes
  • Total Time: 15 minutes
  • Yield: 4 -6 servings 1x

Description

This Healthy Curry Chicken Salad recipe is quick and easy to make, and full of feel-good ingredients and mega-delicious flavor.  It’s also naturally gluten-free and perfect for meal planning!


Ingredients

Scale

Chicken Salad Ingredients:

  • 1 pound boneless skinless chicken breasts, cooked and cubed
  • 1 cup grapes, halved
  • 1/2 cup roughly-chopped fresh cilantro, lightly-packed
  • 1/2 cup shredded carrots
  • 1/3 cup chopped toasted cashews
  • 1/4 cup finely-diced red onion
  • 1 batch Greek Yogurt Curry Sauce (see below)

Greek Yogurt Curry Sauce Ingredients:

  • 1 cup plain Greek yogurt
  • 1 tablespoon freshly-squeezed lemon juice
  • 1 tablespoon honey
  • 1 teaspoon garam masala
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
  • pinch each of salt and pepper

Instructions

To Make The Chicken Salad:

  1. Toss all ingredients together in a large bowl until combined.
  2. Serve immediately, or store in a sealed container for up to 4 days.

To Make The Greek Yogurt Curry Sauce:

  1. Whisk all ingredients together in a medium bowl until combined.  Taste, and season with extra salt, pepper, and/or lemon juice if needed.

Notes

Feel free to also add in a pinch of cayenne if you would like the curry to have more of a kick!

Inspired by the famous chicken salad at Trader Joe’s.

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33 comments on “Healthy Curry Chicken Salad”

  1. Ohhh this sounds great. Planning to make with chickpeas instead of chicken!

  2. I keep kosher so cannot use yogurt with chicken. I will substitute mayonaise for the yogurt unless you have another suggestion.

    • I’ve seen Greek-style yogurt made from coconut milk and other plant-based milks. I’ve used that in conjunction with green bell peppers to make an ersatz guacamole without avocados….which might also work since avocado flesh is creamy.

    • The lemon juice ruined this for me. The recipe didn’t need it, and the flavor overwhelmed everything else. I had to add a lot more salt, pepper, and garam masala to overcome it. I will make it again, but at least halve the lemon juice if not omit it completely.






  3. Hi Ali – if you can’t find scallions (what we Brits call Spring Onions!) and are making a cooked Asian dish (or you’ve got a few precious scallions but want to keep them for salads), finely shredded leeks make a really good substitute in any kind of stir-fry recipe, though they’re not good in a salad. I guess they are really a much larger version of nearly the same thing. Leeks tend to be easier to find than scallions in Europe in the winter, but we can usually still get scallions in Asian markets even when they are missing from the supermarket. I didn’t realise until recently that leeks are not so commonplace in a lot of parts of the US as they are here in Europe – we so take them for granted.

    The chicken salad looks delicious – especially good that it is not smothered in mayonnaise after the last few weeks of too many treats! I’m going to have to start making a list of all the things from your blog that I want to cook, and then stick it on the fridge door, so that I can start ticking things off.

  4. We used to have something similar to this all the time as kids during the summer, but my mom added diced Granny Smith apple to it as well, then served it up in lettuce cups. I ended up bringing the recipe to my college food service job it was always our fastest seller the weeks I made it as well. Can’t wait to try it with the cilantro – I never thought of adding that! Thanks, as always, for the great recipe!

  5. This sounds like everything I would want in a lunch! I love making chicken salad with Greek yogurt instead of mayo. But love the addition of the extra spices. I’ll definitely be trying this one out!

  6. Can not wait to make this! I’m doing Weight Watchers and this is only 3 points! Without the tortilla though. I will be having mine in a lettuce cup or on top of a fresh tomato during summer! Thank you!

  7. Ali, this sounds really great! Updated my shopping list already to make this tomorrow for the family.

  8. Ina Garten’s curried chicken salad is seriously so good — I highly suggest trying it some time. This one looks much less indulgent so I will definitely be giving it try soon!

  9. Just so you know, they stopped making the chicken salad at TJs, I loved it so much too! So you aren’t missing out ?. Can’t wait to try this recipe, thank you!!

  10. Could I make this dairy free? I’m on the whole 30 and everything else is a go. Any Greek Yogurt substitutes you would recommend?

    • If you make your own mayo you could make it whole30! I also think that there are a few whole30 mayo options available at places like whole foods

  11. Fellow KC friend here (I was your neighborhood neighbor over in Columbus park). I make a very similar recipe but with pecans and dried cranberries. I can not believe how much I love pecans in it!

    Loving your travels!!

  12. I only have curry spice on hand. Would I substitute 2 tsp of curry for the other spices?
    I cannot wait to try this! But I might throw in a few cashews as well.

  13. We made this last night and loved it!!! I subbed in regular curry powder since I did not have garam masala on hand, and it was delicious!






  14. Hi Ali! I’m from New Delhi (India) and we use garam masala in our everyday kitchen for lentils, all possible curries but never thought we could use them in a salad dressing. This sounds so good. Quick question: can we use regular yogurt? And then drain all water from it and use it instead of greek yoghurt? Can’t wait to try this. Also how did you cook the chicken? Was it done in the oven? Thanks!

  15. This recipe looks Amazing! Thanks for sharing. I will definitely be making this for our family

  16. Like the other reviewer, I am also on Weight Watchers. I’m happy to frequently find healthy, delicious recipes on your website that I can make as written, or tweak a little to use. Thanks!!

  17. Love! I doubled the recipe for work lunches for the bf and I this week. I used pre-grilled and ready chicken. The recipe was so easy and even more delicious! It’s hard to find recipes I look forward to eating during the week. This one is a definite keeper. Muchas gracias!






  18. I’ve been cooking for over 20 years and this is the first time I’ve felt the need to take the time to review a recipe. This. Is. Amazing. I just can’t believe how tasty it is and how incredibly healthy it is. I’ve been sharing this with all of my friends in the cold Upper Peninsula of Michigan hoping that these warm Indian spices paired with fresh produce will make our lunches taste cozy, fresh, and healthy all wrapped into one. Thanks so much, Ally. I love following your blog and experiences.






  19. A great meal, easy to make, full of flavor, not to heavy, just added 1/2 tsp Indian chilli powder






  20. This looks delish. I love curry and the way you paired it with these ingredients.

  21. Made this tonight! It was so easy and delicious. I love Indian flavors but most recipes require loads of ingredients – this one is simple & full of flavor. Does anyone know the nutrition facts / macro breakdown?






  22. Made this for lunches yesterday. Hubby texted mid-day to say how yummy it was. Daughter walked in the door from school and commented that it was great. (Neither of these things has ever happened!) I enjoyed it myself, so win, win, win! Made some substitutions based on what I had: used dried apricots instead of grapes, curry instead of garam masala and mayo instead of yogurt. Added pecans to some (avoided for my allergic son.) Yum-o! A keeper, for sure!






  23. How much curry? It is not in the recipe.

  24. okay. i’ve caved. i’m 16 years old and i never leave reviews since, yknow, it seems like such an old person thing to do, but i LOVE this recipe! its my go to whenever we have no dinner idea at home and some stray chicken breast and greek yoghurt. i add sweetcorn to my recipe as a wee modification, and it surely fills out 5 – 6 wraps! the whole family enjoys this, even my younger brother, who like all kids is icky about vegetables. i even made it in my home economics class as a low sodium meal. wholeheartedly, i recommend this recipe :)






  25. Can anyone recommend a good greek yogurt? I tried to make this with some today and the taste was extremely bitter, I ended up using mayo instead but I would love a lower calorie version






  26. Made this recipe with leftover chicken tonight. The flavours were really good! I liked that the sauce was yogurt based and enjoyed the spices. I will definitely make again for lunches. Thank you!






  27. Those dang Costco chickens are so huge and I always pluck off the legs. So used your recipe to use up those “big breasts!”. I couldn’t find my garam masala so just used good heaping of my Japanese curry powder and bit of cinnamon, coriander and cayenne for lunch. Used walnuts. Perfectly delicious. Rest of the chicken goes to my pup. Thanks for the easy tasty recipe.






  28. Great Recipe, I used smoked chichen breasts (60 mins at 225 degrees on the charcoal grill) subbed toasted pistachios for the cashews, did not use cilantro as I did not have any but will try the cilantro next time and added extra cayenne pepper. Very good thank you for the recipe!