Rotisserie Chicken Salad Recipe (Fruity & Nutty)

Chicken salad has become one of our go-to lunches these days.

Often during the week when we are in a rush, we drop by Kroger and pick up a rotisserie chicken.

This is when we wind up making rotisserie chicken salad out of the leftovers.

Chicken rotisserie salad is such a versatile dish. You can add ingredients and remove ingredients to your liking.

If you are in a hurry or short on goodies you can throw in the chicken, mayo, some spices, and mix.

If you have time and ingredients you can get a bit more fancy with your chicken salad and add in some nuts, grapes and sour cream.

The options are truly endless which is what makes it such a great meal.

What goes in chicken rotisserie salad

Rotisserie chicken

We generally pick up a chicken from the grocery store and then tear off pieces to make our salad.

However, you can also cook your own chicken at home pretty easily.

We will sometimes roast a chicken at home and then make the salad.

Nuts 

We love the crunch that nuts add to the salad. We tend to lean towards crushed pecans. The nutty flavor of pecans compliments the chicken well.

However, we have been known to use walnuts if we are out of pecans. 

Grapes

If we have grapes on hand they always find their way in our chicken salad.

The key with grapes is to be sure and slice them into smaller pieces.

Mayo

Mayonnaise is a primary ingredient in flavoring our salad and making it creamy.

Sour cream

This is our secret ingredient that people are always trying to figure out when they are eating our chicken salad.

It adds a hint of tartness to the salad and enhances it quite a bit

Mustard

Perhaps it is because we are in the south but a chicken salad isn’t complete without mustard. We prefer dijon mustard.

It adds a depth of flavor that we just love.

Onion

Green onion is our onion of choice for this recipe. It has enough flavor without being overpowering. 

Spices

Rotisserie chicken salads aren’t complete without those additional spices. We love garlic powder and paprika.

We don’t overdo the spices because a lot of these chickens come pre-flavored and we don’t want to compete.

We are just enhancing the flavor with our spice combo here. 

Tips on making the salad

• When picking the chicken off of the bone be especially careful that you don’t add any gristle to your bowl. Chicken gristle is quite unpleasant to bite into when eating a chicken salad sandwich.
• We prefer to mostly use the white meat of the chicken when making our rotisserie salad. This is purely a preference so feel free to mix and match the dark meat as your tastebuds desire.
• We believe that this chicken salad is best if it is allowed to chill overnight before serving. This allows for the flavors to meld. If you do chill it be sure to give it a stir before you serve it.

How to store chicken salad

Your chicken salad will last in the fridge for between 3 to 5 days. The trick is to keep it in an airtight container.

To keep the chicken salad fresh longer don’t allow it to come to room temperature.

When you are ready for a serving, pull the container out of the fridge, spoon out your serving, close the lid and return the container to the fridge immediately.  

Can you freeze chicken salad

No, chicken salad doesn’t freeze well. We recommend that you freeze the shredded or chunked chicken pieces.

Then when you are ready to make the salad, defrost the chicken in the refrigerator. Once it is defrosted make the chicken salad then.