Cranberry Pecan Chicken Salad
This simple Cranberry Pecan Chicken Salad is a healthier, light mayo, lower fat recipe than so many other chicken salad recipes that are swimming in mayo. In just 10 minutes you’ll make the best chicken salad with cranberries and pecans and celery to pack into a sandwich with this semolina bread or pita pockets. Or go light with just a bit of lettuce.
Read on for all the tips and tricks for making an easy cranberry chicken salad. Or grab your nuts, hit that Jump to Recipe button, and let’s make a cranberry pecan chicken salad!
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Ingredients
Making chicken salad with pecans and dried cranberries is the perfect way to use up leftovers from these juicy cast iron chicken breasts, Dutch oven pulled chicken, or rotisserie chicken. Of course no one will fault you if you cook up some chicken specifically to make this recipe!
Please don’t skip the part where you toast the pecans. Toasted pecans are crispier and nuttier and worth the effort, whether you’re using them in this cranberry chicken salad, to top a feta and kale salad, or baking them into a Thanksgiving turkey meatloaf or sweet treat.
Please see the recipe card below for complete information on ingredients and quantities.
Variations and substitutions
There are lots of ways you can vary cranberry pecan chicken salad:
- Sub in walnuts for a cranberry walnut chicken salad, or use chopped almonds, hazelnuts, or pine nuts.
- Sub dehydrated cherry tomatoes, chopped grapes, or apples for the cranberries.
- Take your chicken salad to the Mediterranean with olives, capers, pine nuts, and a bit of lemon juice.
- Make a “Chinese” chicken salad with thinly sliced cabbage, carrots, and slivered almonds.
Recipe tips and tricks
This cranberry chicken salad recipe is incredibly easy to make. Simply chop cooked chicken into cubes of the size you prefer. Add in the cranberries, toasted pecans, and celery.
Tip from the wise quacker: the easiest way to toast nuts is to put them in a small pan in a hot oven for five minutes or so until they start to smell “toasty.” You can also toast them on the stove top, but be careful they don’t burn.
Stir your cranberry pecan chicken salad together with mayonnaise, salt, and pepper. I’m all about light on the mayo in chicken salad – you need only enough to hold everything together.
Serve immediately or store in an air-tight container in the refrigerator.
How to serve chicken salad
Serve this chicken salad with cranberries and pecans as a sandwich with a pita pocket, challah roll, or one of these sandwich breads spread with a cranberry sauce from dried cranberries. You can also grab a tortilla and make a chicken salad wrap.
Serve with:
- Fresh fruit, raw carrot salad, or lightly steamed green beans or other green vegetables
- A salad like a simple green side, rocket and pear salad, or rainbow salad bowl.
- Roasted or mashed sweet potatoes or butternut squash.
- A slice of leek and squash quiche.
Recipe FAQs
Nuts and nut oils go rancid over time. Stored nuts at cool room temperature for a month or two, up to a year if stored in the refrigerator, and even longer in the freezer.
The USDA says that you should keep cooked chicken in the refrigerator for no more than three or four days.
Once the chicken salad has been combined, it shouldn’t be frozen. If you want to save this recipe for later, you can freeze the cooked chicken breast for several months.
Related chicken recipes
Check out the best chicken recipes from the Ugly Duckling Bakery archives like:
Love this recipe? Please leave a 5-heart 💜💜💜💜💜 rating in the recipe card below. Let me know how much you loved it, or any problems you had, in the comments section further down.
Recipe
Cranberry Pecan Chicken Salad
Ingredients
- 1 cooked chicken breast cubed, about 1.5 cups
- ¼ cup dried cranberries chopped
- ¼ cup pecans, walnuts, or other nuts toasted and chopped
- 1 celery stalk chopped fine
- 1 tablespoon mayonnaise plus more if desired
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
Instructions
- Put the chopped chicken, cranberries, nuts, and celery into a medium bowl.1 cooked chicken breast, ¼ cup dried cranberries, ¼ cup pecans, walnuts, or other nuts, 1 celery stalk
- Add the mayonnaise, salt, and pepper and adjust seasonings to taste.1 tablespoon mayonnaise, ½ teaspoon salt, ¼ teaspoon black pepper
- Serve immediately or store in the refrigerator for up to three days
Notes
- Just like humans, chicken breasts come in a variety of sizes. The chicken breasts we buy are often large – about 8 to 10 ounces – so please adjust accordingly.
- Check out this cast iron chicken breast recipe to learn how to make perfectly cooked chicken breasts every time.
- Toasting the pecans makes them crispy and brings out their nutty flavor. You’ll need about one-half cup of nuts for one quarter cup of chopped nuts.
- This cranberry chicken salad recipe recipe calls for a small amount of mayonnaise just to hold the ingredients together. Feel free to increase the amount if you like a chicken salad full of mayo.
- Serve as a sandwich, in a pita, or with just a bit of lettuce on the side.
Nutrition
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