Chicken salad with grapes and almonds
The classic picnic chicken salad: tender poached chicken, sweet grapes and crunchy celery in a lemony Dijon mayonnaise dressing, with toasted almonds folded in at the last moment. Scoop it into lettuce leaves, and keep the rest for lunch.
- Time
- 33 min (15 prep + 18 cook)
- Servings
- 4
- Per serving
- 455 kcal
- Protein
- 43 g
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 lb boneless skinless breasts chicken breast
- 1/2 tsp salt, plus a good pinch for the poaching water
Dressing
- 5 tbsp avocado-oil mayonnaise, or olive-oil mayo; no seed oils or added sugar
- 2 tbsp lemon juice
- 1 tbsp Dijon mustard
- 2 tbsp fresh dill, chopped, or tarragon
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
- 1 1/3 cups red seedless grapes, halved
- 3 stalks celery, thinly sliced
- 2 green onions, thinly sliced
- 1/3 cup chopped almonds, toasted
To serve
- 1 head, leaves separated butterhead lettuce
Steps
- Put the chicken in a pot, cover with cold water by 1 inch, add a good pinch of salt and bring just to a boil. Turn the heat to low, cover and simmer gently for 10–14 minutes, until 165°F in the thickest part. Lift the chicken out, cool for 5 minutes and shred or chop it.
- In a large bowl, whisk the mayonnaise, lemon juice, Dijon, dill, salt and pepper together.
- Add the chicken, grapes, celery and green onion and fold together. Taste for lemon and salt.
- Fold in the almonds just before serving so they stay crunchy, and spoon the salad into lettuce leaves. It keeps 3 days in the fridge: store the almonds and lettuce apart.
Good to know
Can I use a rotisserie chicken?
Yes, about 500 g (1 lb 2 oz) of skinless meat, which takes the recipe down to 15 minutes. Many shop-roasted chickens are seasoned with sugar or soy, so check the label. It is a little richer than poached breast, at about 46 instead of 54.
Alternative
Per
- Calories
- 161
- Protein
- (38%)
- 15 g
- Fat
- (49%)
- 9 g
- Carbohydrates
- (13%)
- 6 g
- of which sugar
- 4 g
- Fiber
- 1 g
- Sodium
- 202 mg
More meals
Computed from the ingredients with our published formula, not yet kitchen-tested. How
As written, 1820 kcal goes into the pot and 1314 g of ingredients comes out as about 1130 g of food: 161 kcal per 100 g. Cooking moves water and energy density is the score's biggest lever, so the dish is scored as cooked, not as an average of its parts. Every ingredient links to its food page, with the same data and score. The label's percentages are each macronutrient's share of the calories. The full formula.