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Lightened-Up Chicken Salad

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Lightened-Up Chicken Salad Recipe -- made with Greek yogurt and all of the classic ingredients we all love! | gimmesomeoven.com

I have this habit of forgetting about grapes.

As in, I have this habit of forgetting that grapes exist.

Do you ever do that with foods? Like, totally go for months without eating or seeing a certain food anywhere, and then suddenly it pops up on a random cheese platter and you realize that — oh my gosh — I totally forgot about grapes! And about how much I freaking love grapes!?

This exact scenario just might have happened to me while we were in New Zealand. And ever since we arrived home, I have been on a mission to make up for all of this lost time that apparently lapsed with me and grapes. Which means that I may have over-purchased a bit. And that my fridge may been transformed into a virtual vineyard. And I may now be racking my brain for all sorts of different ways to use these puppies up.

So my random throwback craving of the week has now turned into today’s new blog post. That’s right. Skip the mayo and toss in some Greek yogurt. But other than that, it’s the classic chicken salad that we will forever and always love.

How To Make A Lightened Up Chicken Salad | 1-Minute Video

Lightened-Up Chicken Salad Recipe -- made with Greek yogurt and all of the classic ingredients we all love! | gimmesomeoven.com

I’ll admit — I probably haven’t had a classic chicken salad in about 10 years. But after whipping up this recipe, I’m convinced that it only gets better with age. And when lightened up with some Greek yogurt in lieu of mayo, I’m convinced it may be even better than the original. ;)

To make it, just chop up a bunch of cooked chicken (I used a rotisserie), celery, grapes, shallot, walnuts, dried cranberries, Greek yogurt, and lots of salt and pepper. (Next time I totally want to add in an avocado too!)

Lightened-Up Chicken Salad Recipe -- made with Greek yogurt and all of the classic ingredients we all love! | gimmesomeoven.com

Toss it all together until everything is evenly coated with the Greek yogurt…Lightened-Up Chicken Salad Recipe -- made with Greek yogurt and all of the classic ingredients we all love! | gimmesomeoven.com

…and then within minutes, your lightened-up chicken salad will be ready to enjoy. Serve it up on some sandwich bread with lettuce, serve it in an avocado shell, serve it on a simple bed of arugula, serve it with an extra side of grapes (that you’re desperately trying to use up)…you know, you decide. ;)  However you serve it, I hope you love it as much as I did.

Cheers!

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Lightened-Up Chicken Salad

5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Star 4.8 from 6 reviews
  • Prep Time: 12 minutes
  • Total Time: 12 minutes
  • Yield: 6 -8 servings 1x

Description

This Lightened-Up Chicken Salad recipe is made with healthier Greek yogurt and many of the other classic ingredients we all love!


Ingredients

Scale
  • 4 cups diced cooked chicken
  • 1 cup chopped celery
  • 1 cup plain low-fat Greek yogurt
  • 1 cup seedless grapes, halved
  • 1 small shallot, peeled and finely-diced
  • 1/2 cup toasted walnuts
  • 1/3 cup dried cranberries or cherries
  • 1 teaspoon worchestershire sauce
  • 1/2 teaspoon freshly-cracked black pepper
  • 1/4 teaspoon Kosher salt

Instructions

  1. Add all ingredients to a large bowl, and toss until combined and evenly-coated.
  2. Serve immediately, or refrigerate in a sealed container for up to 3 days.

Notes

Recipe slightly adapted from Add A Pinch.

Lightened-Up Chicken Salad Recipe -- made with Greek yogurt and all of the classic ingredients we all love! | gimmesomeoven.com

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51 comments on “Lightened-Up Chicken Salad”

  1. I think I forget about random foods a lot, too (can’t remember any examples now of course) but luckily there’s food blogs to help me remember! This looks totally delicious, and I think it would indeed be even better with some avocado. Yumm!

    • Thank you Vivian — we hope you enjoy it (and we think the avocado would be a super yummy addition)! :)

  2. Greek Yogurt is my favorite way to make things ‘lighter’. I use it in chicken salad a lot. Love the pop of color the grapes give it. Fabulous!

  3. Just like your mother makes except I add a squirt of Dijon mustard

  4. Beautiful sandwich (I’ll have to try your mom’s Dijon add too)! 

  5. You really can use greek yogurt for just about everything.. 

    Sounds like the perfect thing to have on hand as we move into the warmer months! 

  6. This looks super yummy and fresh, perfect for the nicer weather that’s just around the corner :-)  I’m a grape fan myself, but I also love my mayo… I eat Greek yogurt daily however and always have it on hand.  I’m thinking maybe I could cheat by using *mostly* Greek yogurt and subbing 1/4 cup with good-quality mayo.  Thanks for putting Spring and fresh eating back into my head!

  7. This looks delicious and just in time for spring!

  8. Ooh, I love a classic recipe.  I haven’t had chicken salad in ages but this looks worth a try.  Thanks for not using mayo – ew!

  9. I’ve never thought of using Worcestershire sauce in chicken salad.  I’ll have to try it!

  10. Yum! I love chicken salad with a lot of chunks like this! (that sounds a little gross, but you know what I mean haha)

    -Jen

  11. I love chicken salad and lighting it up means lunch is planned for today. Thanks for the guilt-free recipe!

  12. Looks great and I think it’s what I’m going to make for dinner tonight!

  13. Be sure to let people know there is Worchestershire sauce in this.  Anyone with a seafood allergy should not eat this, Worchestershire has anchovies in it.

    • Thanks for this reminder Nancy — we will include a note in the recipe!

  14. You have the best recipes!!!!

  15. How about nutrition facts on this chicken salad. 

    • Hi Carol! We’re sorry but we are unsure of the nutrition facts/amount of calories in this recipe. We currently are not publishing nutrition facts on the site, as the nutrition calculators available are not 100% accurate, and we never want to publish anything that might be misleading. However, a lot of our readers love the My Fitness Pal nutrition calculator, so feel free to try that for an estimate. We hope that helps!

    • We’re sorry but we are unsure of the nutrition facts/amount of calories in this recipe. We currently are not publishing nutrition facts on the site, as the nutrition calculators available are not 100% accurate, and we never want to publish anything that might be misleading. However, a lot of our readers love the My Fitness Pal nutrition calculator, so feel free to try that for an estimate. We hope that helps!

  16. Looks like a great take to work lunch recipe, thanks for the idea!

  17. I forget about grapes too, unless they’re right in front of me and when I saw them in this, I knew it was an inspired recipe, prefer not to use mayo anyway, great idea using Greek yogurt, thank you for this!

  18. Thanks for sharing your recipe! It looks super! I was wondering what brand of Greek yogurt you use????

    • You’re very welcome, Liz, we hope you enjoy! And we like Trader Joe’s and Fage! :)

  19. You’ve always posted tempting photos. I will make this recipe for my children






  20. Are the dried cranberries/cherries sweetened? If not where do you purchase unsweetened?

    • Hi Mary! They are not unsweetened, but you can find them online if you just do a Google search for unsweetened dried cranberries/cherries.

  21. This is looking an awesome recipe, I must try it in coming days.






  22. One of my favorite lunches. Love the Greek yogurt switch.

  23. Can’t wait to try this. I have made it before but, not with grapes or yogurt. Sounds wonderful…Thank you.

  24. I’ve totally done that with certain foods. I forget about them and then see them in the grocery store and then I think, “Oh, yeah!” This salad looks delicious. I like grapes in my chicken salad!

  25. I adore a classic recipe. I haven’t had chicken salad in ages however this looks worth a try. Thanks for not using mayo

  26. wow, very delicious, it looks like a burger but using bread and fruit. must try !!

  27. Easy and delicious.






  28. I think this might be the first chicken salad I’ve ever made. Surely not, but I can’t recall any other instance… Anyway. I needed to use up a whole chicken I’d made in the slow cooker, and this definitely put most of it to use! I went with plain almond yogurt (2 5.3 oz. cups worked perfectly) so I could potentially share this with my boyfriend, and it tastes great! It’s a little sweet (another recipe I saw recently pointed out that non-dairy yogurts are typically more sweet) so I experimented with sprinkling some salt (and eventually seasoned salt I made for something else) on top and that really helped balance things out. More worchestershire sauce, some capers, or maybe even pickles might be useful, too? I dunno. I am not that clever or adventurous enough with food to trust anything other than salt at this point… lol Anyway, this was really good. I piled it into whole grain + flax flatbread wraps with some lettuce and some onions that cooked with the chicken. It makes so much and is such a convenient after work snack/meal! Not to mention it gives me some more fruit and vegetable in my diet, which I am sorely lacking. lol Thank you for the recipe!






  29. I’ve made this a lot in the past and just came to get the ingredients again and they seem to be missing!

    • I was just going to comment the same thing! I’m craving this recipe but I can’t remember the ingredients. Anyone that can help?

    • Same thing happened to me. Until Ali and team are able to fix the post, hopefully this will do:

      4 cups diced cooked chicken
      1 cup chopped celery
      1 cup plain low-fat Greek yogurt
      1 cup seedless grapes, halved
      1 small shallot, peeled and finely-diced
      1/2 cup toasted walnuts
      1/3 cup dried cranberries or cherries
      1 teaspoon worchestershire sauce
      1/2 teaspoon freshly-cracked black pepper
      1/4 teaspoon Kosher salt

  30. Saw it today and made it cause it looked so good! Thank you…






  31. I forgot the grapes, too. So I used chopped apple with the skin on. Also, I tend to use half greek yogurt and half lite mayo.

    I love your recipes!