Recipes for my favourite chicken salads!

I adore chicken salads. I usually have a chicken salad for dinner a few times a week because with the different variations I make I don’t get bored of them. It’s also a really easy thing to fall back on if I’m cooking something for my family that I can’t or don’t want to eat for dinner. I love that they are so easily changed and it’s great that you can change them up at any time to use ingredients that have come into season. A summer chicken salad can look very different to a winter chicken salad.

I thought I would share my recipes for my two current favourite chicken salads. One with warm chicken and one with cold chicken. The salad base is basically identical but keep in mind you can change it up as you like to suit your tastes! Both of these recipes are for one serving but it’s always a great idea to make more to feed your family as well and to make some for lunches for a couple of days too. I have served both of these on side plates, that’s why they take up the whole plate!

My cold chicken salad:

Ingredients

80 grams of cooked, cold roast chicken torn into small pieces

1/3 Iceberg lettuce leaf

2cm wide piece of cucumber, skin removed and cut into little cubes

2 strips of red capsicum

2 strips of yellow capsicum

3 pieces of tinned, sliced beetroot cut into small bits

10-20 grams grated edam cheese

1 tbsp Best Foods light mayo

Method

Finely slice the lettuce, cut all of the other vegetables into small pieces and pop it all on your plate. If you have bigger bits of cooked chicken tear it up and place it on top with your grated cheese. Add the dollop of mayo on the top and you’re done!

My cold chicken salad

My warm chicken salad:

Ingredients

100 grams raw, diced chicken. I usually use breast but use what cut you prefer.

1 tsp Cajun chicken seasoning

1 tbsp Olive oil

1 tbsp Avocado and Garlic dressing

1/3 Iceberg lettuce leaf

2cm wide piece of cucumber, skin removed and cut into little cubes

2 strips of red capsicum

2 strips of yellow capsicum

10-20 grams grated edam cheese

1 heaped teaspoon beetroot hummus

1 heaped teaspoon lite sour cream

Method

Pre-heat a frying pan and then when it’s hot chuck in your chicken, Cajun seasoning and olive oil. Stir it occasionally. While that’s cooking finely slice the lettuce and cut the other vegetables into small pieces. Combine on your plate once they’re chopped. Add the cheese. Once the chicken is cooked (chop a couple of pieces in half and they will be white the whole way through) turn off the frying pan and add the avocado and garlic dressing. Stir it through the chicken. Add the chicken to the top of the salad and top with your hummus and sour cream.

My warm chicken salad

As you can see I’m on a huge beetroot bender at the moment. I go through stages where I freaking love something and I eat a ton of it. Then I get bored and I’m over it. My body is struggling with tomatoes at the moment that’s why they are omitted and as you may know carrots and I aren’t friends otherwise I’d have some grated carrot in there too. I’m not a huge onion fan either but if you are a few bits of red onion would go nicely in either of these salads as well. I tend to put mayo, hummus, sour cream or some sort of dressing with salads so they are a little bit lubricated and go down okay. If I don’t I tend to have trouble getting them down and it’s no fun. We are all different in this respect though so you do you!

Are you glad I shared my chicken salad secrets? Will you make and try one of these salads before summer is up? Comment below and let me know which one appeals to you the most!