Chicken Waldorf Salad is tender chunks of chicken mixed with celery, grapes, apples, toasted walnuts, and mayonnaise. This delectable recipe is one of our favorite chicken salad recipes. You can serve it on a bed of spring greens, stuffed in a sun-ripened tomato, or stuffed in a whole wheat pita.
The Best Waldorf Chicken Salad
This refreshing and healthy Chicken Waldorf Salad with Grapes is perfect for a light lunch or a delicious side dish. This easy recipe is full of flavor and texture from juicy grapes, crisp apples, tender chicken, and crunchy nuts.
It is scrumptious, easy, quick to prepare, and fancy enough for company. This delectable salad comes together in about ten to fifteen minutes. This recipe calls for already-cooked rotisserie chicken, which you can purchase at almost any grocery store or club warehouse, such as Costco or Sam.
Ingredients Needed
- Apple: Granny Smith, Honeycrisp, or Fuji
- Lemon juice: fresh is always best
- Chicken: cooked rotisserie chicken or see below on how to poach the chicken
- Celery: for a little crunch and texture
- Grapes: just make sure they are seedless. I prefer red, but you can use green
- Nuts: walnuts, pecans, or pistachios
- Mayonnaise: I love Duke’s mayo
How do you make Chicken Waldorf Salad?
First, grab a large bowl for mixing. Cut the chicken, celery, and grapes. Toast the walnuts in the oven for about five to seven minutes. Cut the apples and toss with the lemon juice in the bowl. Add the chicken, celery, grapes, toasted walnuts, and mayo to the bowl and stir to combine. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve over leaf lettuce, a thin bed of spring greens, or with crackers.
Variations and Substitutions
- If you don’t like walnuts or have them on hand, use other nuts, such as toasted pecans or sliced or slivered toasted almonds.
- Are you looking for a lighter version of Chicken Waldorf Salad? Substitute half of the mayo with non-fat Greek yogurt.
- Do you want to dress it up even more? Add half a cup of dried cranberries or dried cherries.
- Do you want to sweeten it up a little bit? Add two tablespoons of honey.
- Want to make a wrap or a sandwich with the chicken salad? It is delicious on pumpernickel, rye, or European whole grain.
- You can substitute seedless green grapes for seedless red grapes.
- You can use any crisp apple like Granny Smith, Cripps Sweet, Fuji, Honeycrisp, or Gala.
Can you substitute poached chicken?
Yes, you most certainly can. Add a couple of boneless skinless chicken breasts to a pot, cover up halfway with chicken broth, and add parsley, a small stalk of celery, a little piece of onion, and a clove of garlic. Bring to a boil, then turn to simmer.
Simmer uncovered for 5 minutes. Remove from heat and cover for fifteen minutes. Now, remove the chicken breasts from the chicken broth, and you can cube or shred the chicken and use it in this salad and other salads.
This fantastic salad is easy, quick to fix, delectable and dependable. Put the ingredients on your shopping list today, and let me know what you think!
More Chicken Recipes
Chicken Waldorf Salad Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 Granny Smith apple cored peeled and diced
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- 2 cups chopped rotisserie chicken
- 2 stalks celery chopped
- 1 cup red seedless grapes halved
- ½ cup walnuts toasted and chopped
- ⅔ cup mayonnaise
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
Instructions
- In a bowl, combine the apple and lemon juice. Add chicken, celery, grapes, toasted walnuts and mayonnaise. Stir to combine. Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste.
- Serve on a bed of spring greens or leaf lettuce.
Notes
- Don’t like walnuts or have them on hand. Use other nuts like toasted pecans or sliced or slivered toasted almonds.
- Are you looking for a lighter version of Chicken Waldorf Salad? Substitute half of the mayo with non-fat Greek yogurt.
- Do you want to dress it up even a little more? Add one-half cup of dried cranberries or dried cherries.
- Do you want to sweeten it up a little bit? Add two tablespoons of honey.
- Want to make a wrap or a sandwich with the chicken salad? It is delicious on pumpernickel, rye, or European whole grain.
- You can substitute seedless green grapes for the seedless red grapes.
- You can use any kind of crisp apple like Granny Smith, Cripps Sweet, Fuji, Honeycrisp, or Gala.
- Store leftovers in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.
Nutrition
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Steph
Love this salad so much! I’ll be making it again when we have friend over for Memorial Day this weekend!
Krista
This is great for all our grilling nights! Great side dish for them!
Erin
I know for sure this would be a huge hit in my house!
Sammy
This was such a great side dish! My family loved the balance of the grapes with the walnuts!
Catalina
My favorite salad! I love all these flavors! It’s on my tonight dinner list!
Katerina
I absolutely LOVE this! It looks SO good!!
Rosa
I never heard of a waldorf salad before. I will definitely be giving this a try!
Elizabeth
This is a gorgeous sounding recipe! I’m a big fan of Waldorf Salad, but your addition of chicken makes it a perfect meal on its own. Yum!
Beth Pierce
Thanks Elizabeth! I hope you enjoy it!
Alexandra
Oh my goodness this sounds so incredibly good! I love Waldorf salad, and cannot believe I have never thought to put chicken in it! This will be changing very soon 🙂
Adriana
My moms was used to make this for us very often a winner in the weekly menu for sure and a classic for springtime meals. Loving all your pics, the salad looks fantastic.
Tisha
This chicken waldorf salad look delicious! Great for on a crackers a light lunch for sure!
Courtney
Omg can we say yum?!?! I just love making any kind of salad that involves chicken. Must make!!!
Gladys Nava
Oh wow! This recipe is something new for me. I am sure that the taste was really delicious. Will try this soon! Yumm yumm
Kalyan Panja
This recipe looks yummy. I would love to taste it.
Eryka
Yum this looks incredible! I’m definitely making this salad next week!
Pati
my mum makes a similar salad and it tastes delicious – i cannot wait to try yours