A crunchy and creamy salad packed with fresh ingredients, dressed in a tangy mustard dressing, this Healthy California Chicken Salad Recipe with Grapes is truly delicious!
Perfect for gatherings, family dinners, or even your lunchbox, great as a main course on its own, in sandwiches, or as a side dish, this mouthwatering California Chicken Salad makes for a great meal and is sure to impress!
Best California Chicken Salad with Grapes – California Dream on a Plate
This salad is without question one of my favorite salad recipes. With a great texture, combining crunchy celery, toasted walnuts, delicious grilled chicken breast, and sweet, juicy red grapes, with a tangy and creamy dressing, this salad is bursting with freshness and healthy ingredients!
Why you will love this California Chicken Salad with Grapes Recipe
This California Chicken Salad recipe is a very easy salad to make and once you chop all of your ingredients the only thing left to do is to give them a good toss! But besides being easy, it is also an impressive dish that you will be proud to serve!
The salad is packed with healthy ingredients, full of freshness, flavor and color, which makes it appealing not only for adults, but also for children.
The salad is also very versatile, and just with a few tweaks you can customize it to suit your needs or occasion. You can serve it with grilled, poached, pan-seared, or rotisserie chicken, you can replace the walnuts for whatever nuts you prefer, or play with the dressing to your liking, adding more or less mayonnaise, sour cream or yoghurt. You can serve this dish on a bed of greens or as it is with some parsley on top. This salad can also be enjoyed as a main dish, as a side dish or in sandwiches, and is perfect for à la carte meals or for buffets during parties or special occasions.
How long can this California Chicken Salad with Grapes be stored
If you have any leftover California chicken salad, you can store it in the fridge in an airtight container, for up to 4 days.
If you want to freeze your chicken salad, you can either place it in an airtight container or in a zipped bag, pushing as much air out as you can. Store it in the freezer for up to 3 months.
Ingredients needed
- Toasted walnuts (or pecan nuts)
- Cooked skinless chicken breasts (grilled, baked, poached, pan-seared – to taste; or rotisserie whole chicken)
- Celery
- Red seedless grapes (or green seedless grapes)
- Full-fat Greek yogurt (3.5% or more)
- Sour cream
- Olive oil
- Mayonnaise
- Dijon mustard
- Chia seeds (or poppy seeds)
- Salt
- Pepper
Equipment needed
- Large salad bowl (for salad ingredients)
- Small bowl (for dressing)
- Cutting board
- Knife
- Whisk
- Grill pan (sheet pan, frying pan)
How to make this California Chicken Salad with Grapes
(for the exact measurements, please see the recipe card below)
Step 1 – Toast walnuts
Toast the walnuts (or pecan nuts) then chop them.
Step 2 – Prepare celery and grapes
Wash the celery stalks and chop them. Wash the grapes and halve them.
Step 3 – Combine salad ingredients
In a large bowl, add the chicken breast, the chopped celery, the halved grapes and combine all the ingredients.
Step 4 – Prepare dressing
In a small bowl, combine all the dressing ingredients and mix well.
Step 5 – Pour dressing over salad
Pour the dressing over the chicken salad and combine well. Season to taste.
Healthy California Chicken Salad Recipe with Grapes
Ingredients
Salad
- 3 cups chicken breast (cooked as you prefer: grilled, poached, baked, pan-seared; or rotisserie chicken)
- 2 stalks celery
- ½ cup red grapes (or white grapes)
- ½ cup walnuts (or more)
- parsley for decoration
Dressing
- ¼ cup mayonnaise
- ½ cup Greek yogurt (1 small 130 g yogurt)
- 1 tbsp sour cream
- 1 tsp chia seeds (or poppy seeds)
- 3-4 tsp mustard
- 2 tsp apple cider vinegar
- ½ cup pomegranate seeds
- ¼ tsp salt (or to taste)
- ½ tsp freshly ground black pepper (or to taste)
Instructions
- Toast your walnuts (or pecan nuts) in a dry pan on medium heat for 5 minutes, keeping an eye so they do not burn, until they start to be fragrant (you can also bake them for 5 minutes at 400F or 200C). Then coarsely chop them (you want to feel that crunch and nutty goodness!)
- Wash the celery stalks, cut them in half lengthwise if needed, and chop them. Wash the grapes and halve or quarter them, depending on size.
- In a large bowl, add 3 cups of cooked chicken breast cut into small pieces (or shredded). Then add the chopped celery, the halved grapes and combine all the ingredients well.
- In a small bowl, combine all of the dressing ingredients until everything is well-mixed and smooth.
- Pour the dressing over your chicken mix in the big bowl, and combine well to fully coat all of the ingredients.
- Season to taste with salt and lots of freshly ground black pepper.
- You can serve this classic chicken salad as it is, at room temperature, but the best way is to refrigerate it for at least 30 minutes or, even better, overnight. This will allow all of the flavors to perfectly combine and compliment each other.
CARMEN’S TIPS:
– Make sure your ingredients have cooled completely before assembling the salad. Otherwise, the dressing will become watery and the ingredients will not be properly coated.
– You can use whatever chicken you like: grilled, poached, baked, pan-seared, rotisserie chicken (skinless and deboned), or leftover chicken. To poach the chicken, cook for 20 minutes, then let cool completely.
– For a touch of saltiness, you can add some Feta cheese crumbles, which makes for a great combination with the sweetness of the grapes.
– For more creaminess, you can add some avocado slices
– You can adjust the ingredient amounts in the dressing to your taste – you can add more creamy mayonnaise, or more mustard for a more potent tangy flavor, or more sour cream for more richness.
– You can substitute the apple cider vinegar with any vinegar or lemon juice.
Frequently Asked Questions
How can I serve this California Chicken Salad?
My favorite ways to serve this salad are: on its own as a main course, with green salad, in a sandwich (depending on the occasion, you can use regular/ multigrain/ sourdough bread, toasted bagels, pita bread, croissants), on toasted bread slices, or in a tortilla wrap.
For parties and gatherings, you can serve it on platters with pita chips or crackers, on a bed of salad leaves, or toasted baguette slices as good options for appetizers.
Which type of cooked chicken is the most delicious for this California Chicken Salad?
This depends on everyone’s taste. I prefer my chicken salad with grilled chicken breast, as it adds a bit of crunchiness, which I like, but if you are in a hurry, the rotisserie chicken works best. However, you cannot go wrong with any of the cooking methods. No matter which method you choose (baked, poached, grilled, pan-seared or rotisserie) the result will be the same – a delicious California Chicken Salad! Just make sure, before you bake, pan-sear, or grill your chicken, you season it with salt and pepper and oil it. For the poaching, add some salt in the water, and when the chicken is ready, sprinkle with some black pepper.
What substitutes work best for this California Chicken Salad?
Celery – if you don’t like celery, you can substitute it with finely diced apples or slices of red onion, for that crunchy texture.
Red grapes – you can substitute the juicy grapes with slices of mandarin oranges. Also, sweet cherry tomatoes would make for a great substitute (of course, with a slight twist on the taste, yet, still delicious).
Walnuts – you can substitute these with toasted pecans, almonds, or pine nuts. All of these would work great.