Creamy shredded chicken with sweet dried cranberries, crunchy celery, and chopped pecan in every bite. Simple to make and healthy, this tasty chicken salad can be a quick afternoon snack or meal.
Yup! That’s right! I have another quick and easy recipe for you! And if you’re on a gluten free diet, this will be totally perfect for you too =)
This chicken salad really only requires six ingredients: chicken, mayonnaise, pecan, dried cranberries, celery, and bread or crackers. And all you need is a bowl, fork, and measuring cups. No cooking required. It’s that easy. So go ahead and give it a try.
There’s so much flavor in this simple recipe. The dried cranberries give the salad a slight sweetness, the stalk of celery chopped into bits adds some crunch, and the pecans add a slight nuttiness. Although the mayo isn’t exactly healthy, there’s not too much of it, and it does help make the salad creamy. You’ll love eating this salad whether as a snack with crackers or a meal with bread.
As I’ve said before, I’m not on a gluten free diet, but I’ve noticed that many of my readers are. So beginning with the last post, if a recipe is gluten free, I’ll categorize it as gluten free. I hope it will help make searching for recipes easier =)
First, shred the chicken. You can use leftover Rotisserie chicken or canned chicken. I actually used canned chicken from Costco since I didn’t have leftover chicken. Make sure to shred it.
Add about 1/3 cup mayo and mix so that the chicken is evenly covered with mayo. I used Best Foods mayo, which clearly states on the back panel that it’s gluten free.
Add in dried cranberries, chopped celery, and chopped pecans. Then mix thoroughly until all the ingredients are evenly incorporated.
You can serve this chicken salad with gluten free crackers as a snack. I’m not on a gluten free diet so I used Ritz crackers.
Or you can make it into a sandwich using Glutino bread, or any other gluten free bread. I used Glutino white bread since I still had some left from my Baked Egg Topped with Asparagus on Toast post.
Or cut them into fourths to create festive tea sandwiches. Yes, I know. It’s messy. lol. But it’s still so very good.
Place the chicken salad or sandwiches in the refrigerator for about a half hour so that they can become cold.
Serve cold. Enjoy!
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I’ve never tried it with pecans, but I’ve done it with almonds and cranberries. It’s very good that way too. I’ve also added apples and I like that too. You can also use raisins and/or dried cherries in it. If you can’t eat the bread, just put it on a bunch of lettuce. I eat it that way a lot.
I actually sometimes just eat the salad by itself. And I love almonds and apples. I think any type of nuts and fruits make salads taste so much more. And you don’t have to use as much dressing.
This sounds great! I’ve put grapes in chicken salad but never cranberries. Why? I can’t imagine, it sounds like the perfect combo. Can’t wait to try this.
I hope you’ll like it, Tilly! I love dried cranberries in my salads. They add that extra sweetness and texture.
Can’t wait to give it a try….The picture looks so good -I think it should be framed!
Aww. Thank you so much! I hope you’ll like the recipe!
It’s difficult to find a chk salad recipe that include just the ingreds I like–you win! Thx for sharing 😉 I want to try it soon!
I hope you’ll like it!