For convenience and ease, make your next chicken salad with rotisserie chicken from the market. No need to season or roast it, because the store does it for you. This rotisserie chicken salad recipe is not your average one either. It’s a curry chicken salad with apples, raisins and crunchy peanuts tossed in a creamy curry, turmeric dressing that’s lightened up with greek yogurt.
Chicken salad seems like a very old-school dish to me. I remember my grandmother, Myne, slow roasting chicken breasts for hers. Because of that step, it took a little time, but the convenience of a ready-cooked rotisserie chicken, makes this classic dish an “anytime” food. I like that. This curried chicken salad with rotisserie chicken has its roots in the classic preparation. It’s simple but with a few twists.
Table of Contents
- 1 Ingredients for curried chicken salad recipe
- 2 To assemble chicken salad with rotisserie chicken
- 3 Curry dressing for chicken salad
- 4 Don’t over dress the chicken salad
- 5 Get nutty
- 6 A dirty little secret
- 7 Keeps in the fridge
- 8 Curried Chicken Salad with Rotisserie Chicken
- 9 Pin “Curried Chicken Salad with Rotisserie Chicken” for later!
Ingredients for curried chicken salad recipe
- Rotisserie Chicken (about 3 cups from the breasts)
- Celery
- Red Bell Pepper
- Red Onion
- Scallions
- Golden Raisins
- Granny Smith Apple
- Roasted Salted Peanuts
- Fresh Cilantro
A good chicken salad should have finely diced onions and celery, not big chunks, but a small enough cut that all you notice is a little flavor and crunch. Diced apple and red bell pepper (cut the same size as the celery and onion) and golden raisins add sweet little nuggets that make this curried chicken salad infinitely more interesting.
To assemble chicken salad with rotisserie chicken
- Remove the breasts from the cooked chicken.
- Discard the skin and pull the meat from the bones.
- Pull the chicken breast meat apart into shreds with your clean hands and transfer to a bowl.
- Chop the celery, onions, bell pepper and scallions into small dice (about the same size for all). Transfer to the bowl with the chicken.
- Peel and chop the apple to the same size dice as the vegetables.
- Add the golden raisins.
- Toss to combine.
To make the curry dressing friendlier for bathing suit season, I swapped out most of the mayonnaise for nonfat greek yogurt. (Hey, I can use all the help I can get.)
Curry dressing for chicken salad
- Greek Yogurt
- Mayonnaise
- Honey
- Curry Powder
- Turmeric
- Salt
- Pepper
The dressing is 3 parts yogurt to 1 part mayonnaise and gives the curried rotisserie chicken salad a creamy, luscious binder to the meat and vegetables.
Don’t over dress the chicken salad
The key to the curry dressing is not to over-do it. I usually add about half of the dressing to toss with the chicken salad. If it still needs more, add it a spoonful at a time. You want the salad to be coated, but not goopy or wet.
Get nutty
You might also enjoy a little extra crunch in the form of nuts. I used salted and roasted peanuts, but to be honest, you can use any type of nuts you have on hand. It would be delicious with chopped cashews or almonds.
A dirty little secret
You know those big brazil nuts that make up at least half of those Mixed Nut combos? Nobody eats those nuts, right? (In my house — I usually end up with a full cup leftover at the bottom of the container). Well, if you chop them up and add them to the curried chicken salad — and don’t tell a soul — they’ll think you’ve added macadamia nuts. I’ve had so many people go ga-ga because they thought I’d splurged on macadamias. Nope. {This is “circle of trust” stuff, people.}
Keeps in the fridge
Anyway, this curried chicken salad with rotisserie chicken is ready in about 25 minutes (less if you’re a fast chopper!) and it keeps for several days in the fridge, so brown-bagging at 7:30 a.m. just got a whole lot easier. If you are planning on making this for weekday lunches — I’d advise not adding the nuts until the morning you’re packing the lunch. That way the nuts remain crunchy.
More easy chicken recipes:
- How To Make Rotisserie Chicken At Home
- Spinach & Mushroom Stuffed Chicken Breasts
- Lemony Leftover Chicken and Farro Salad
- Grilled Chicken Thighs with Spice Rub
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Curried Chicken Salad with Rotisserie Chicken
INGREDIENTS:
For the Dressing
- ¾ cup nonfat greek yogurt
- ¼ cup mayonnaise
- 5 teaspoons curry powder (can use sweet, hot or madras)
- ¼ teaspoon turmeric
- 1 tablespoon honey
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
- dash black pepper
For Chicken Salad
- 3 cups rotisserie chicken meat shredded
- ½ red bell pepper diced
- 2 stalks celery diced
- ¼ cup red onion minced
- 4 scallions thinly sliced
- ¼ cup golden raisins (can use regular raisins)
- 1 apple peeled, seeded and finely diced
- ⅓ cup roasted, salted peanuts
- ¼ cup cilantro roughly chopped
DIRECTIONS:
- In a small bowl combine all the ingredients for the dressing and stir until well combined. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, combine the ingredients for the salad and and toss to combine. Add about half of the dressing mixture and fold it into the salad. Add more dressing as needed. It should be moist, but not soupy.
- Refrigerate until ready to serve. Great on sandwiches, tucked into a pita pocket or a bed of lettuce.
NUTRITION:
Pin “Curried Chicken Salad with Rotisserie Chicken” for later!
Now that summer grilling season is here, salads will be a staple for the next several months. This looks delicious. Curry and chicken are such a great flavour profile. Perfect to take on picnics too.
My husband is literally addicted to rotisserie chicken, we buy one every week, so I’m thrilled to have this recipe to shake things up a bit!
My husband is the same way, Sue! Let me know how he likes this!
This is such a delicious salad – my mouth watered just reading through the ingredients! And thank YOU for the non-fat greek yogurt! 😉
You’re welcome for the nonfat greek yogurt! We’ve all got to watch it during the summer, right?
Now, this is a good looking salad!! 🙂
Thank you, Silvia – tastes even better!
Chicken salad is a classic and I love the addition of curry flavor. I also love how quick this recipe is, looks delicious.