curried chicken salad for a quick and easy recipe (2024)

Curried Chicken Salad is a tasty twist to your traditional chicken salad with exotic curry spices, sweet golden raisins, and crunchy cashews!

CURRIED CHICKEN SALAD

This Curried Chicken Salad will be one of the easiest meals you ever make! Perfect for lunch prep or an easy dinner when you want to eat clean, but don’t want to make a true effort in the kitchen. Looking at you, Monday.

Curry and turmeric spices are still pretty new to me; Jason’s the real curry lover at Casa de Crews. It’s because of him we ever had these spices in our cabinet to begin with, but it’s because of me that we eat curry flavors more regularly these days. So really it’s a team effort around here.

WHAT KIND OF CHICKEN TO USE

What I love most about any easy chicken salad recipe is that you can use any kind of chicken you want. To make Curried Chicken Salad, you simply need 2-cups of chicken that’s roughly chopped, shredded or pulled.

• rotisserie chicken (you can easily make at home with this recipe!)
• shredded chicken breast or thigh made in your slow-cooker or pressure cooker
• grilled chicken breast that’s been cooled
• leftover pulled chicken from a BBQ without sauce
• even canned chicken will do in a pinch

When I have time, I’ll usually grill 1-2lbs of chicken breast or thighs to have on hand to toss into salads or quick bowls throughout the week. You can easily follow the same prep when making a batch of Curried Chicken Salad at home.

I love a ton of texture and crunch in my chicken salad recipe, so not only does this Curried Chicken Salad call for crunchy cashews (which is pretty common garnish when enjoying curry in general), but crisp and crunchy celery is a must as well!

Similar curry chicken salad recipes call for honey or sugar, but between the golden raisins and celery – which is naturally sweet and crisp as-is, I don’t add anything extra. If you’re strictly keto, you can omit the golden raisins altogether, but feel free to keep the celery in.

HOW TO MAKE A CURRY DRESSING

The Curry Dressing is what pulls this chicken salad together. It’s packed with loads of exotic flavors and would be perfect for a Curried Potato Salad, or tossed with chickpeas, or tuna as well.

To keep this whole30 and dairy-free, I make this dressing using homemade mayo or store-bought compliant mayonnaise (such as Primal Kitchen or Sir Kensington’s). The Curry Dressing can be made ahead of time as well.

If you can tolerate dairy, a generous dollop of Greek yogurt is a nice addition – especially because Greek yogurt is found in a lot of curry recipes, but the recipe card below calls for mayonnaise only. Make this Curried Chicken Salad you own though!

HOW TO SERVE CURRIED CHICKEN SALAD

My favorite way to enjoy this Curried Chicken Salad during the work week is as-is. A generous scoop in your favorite lunch container, and you’re good to go.

But when time permits, I love to serve this chicken salad any of the following ways

• in a lettuce wrap with bibb lettuce (also called butter lettuce)
• wrapped in a collard green or tortilla
• with your favorite crackers
• as a sandwich (the most obvious)

If you’re making this Curried Chicken Salad for a party – such as a baby or bridal shower or even book club, you can serve this chicken salad over toast or crostinis, a croissant or bagel for a fun twist.

other easy salad recipes

• apple tarragon chicken salad
• buffalo tuna-stuffed avocado
• chopped chicken antipasto salad

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