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This curry chicken salad recipe with celery, onion and raisins is super flavorful and comes together fast using shredded chicken. It’s an awesome salad to meal prep for lunches throughout the week.
If you’re looking for a delicious and budget friendly lunch idea, this curry chicken salad is for you! I love eating this on toasted bread, on top of a lettuce salad or in a wrap. It’s perfect to meal prep for the week ahead, to bring on an outdoor adventure or picnic or for a backyard dinner.
Quite a few people have been asking about budget friendly recipes and while I don’t share the cost breakdown of my recipes a lot of them are budget friendly! This recipe fits the bill.
When I’m looking for a budget friendly, quick and easy option, chicken salad always make the list. A couple other budget friendly salads that come to mind are this caprese pasta salad, my curried chickpea salad, avocado egg salad and this sweet potato tuna salad… they’re all super budget friendly.
The first step is to cook your chicken and shred it. I know some chicken salads use chunks of meat, but I prefer it shredded. For the shredded chicken you can totally pick up a rotisserie chicken and use that. Just buy a plain rotisserie chicken and shred the meat while it’s still warm. Trust me, it’s much easier to get the meat off the bone when it’s warm compared to when it has been in the fridge.
Another super easy way to make shredded chicken is to cook boneless, skinless chicken in your slow cooker. This is what I do all the time and it is seriously so easy. I need to do a full blog post on this but here’s the basic recipe for slow cooker shredded chicken:
Once you have the shredded chicken, the hard part is done and all you have to do is stir together your seasonings.
For curry chicken salad one of the key ingredients is curry powder, of course. This is what gives the chicken salad all the delicious curry flavor. Most curry powders are a blend of turmeric, chili powder, ground coriander, ground cumin, ground ginger and pepper. Different brands each taste a little different so find one you like and stick with it. I’m a big fan of Simply Organic curry powder.
Once you have your mayo, apple cider vinegar, curry powder, pepper and salt stirred together in a large bowl. Just add the shredded chicken, celery, raisins and red onion. Toss until combined and you’re done! You can enjoy the salad right away or if you prefer you can place it in the fridge to chill before serving.
Store your homemade chicken salad in an airtight container for 3-5 days in the refrigerator. Unfortunately chicken salad doesn’t freeze well so if you meal prep chicken salad plan to eat it within 3-5 days of making!
Yes! I personally love that it is naturally balanced in fat, fiber and protein.
I think chicken salad can get a bad rap because it has mayonnaise. Mayonnaise is high in calories and fat, but a little bit goes a long way. I like using avocado or olive oil based mayos and look for brands made with organic eggs and without added sugar. My personal favorite is Primal Kitchen’s avocado oil mayo.
If you make this curried chicken salad, please be sure to leave a comment and star rating below letting me know how it turns out. Your feedback is so helpful for the EBF team and other EBF readers.
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This was super easy and unbelievably delicious. I used a rotisserie chicken and avocado mayo. Served over a bed of spring salad. My husband is vegetarian so I’m going to try it using smashed chickpeas instead of the chicken. I coarsely chopped raw cashews which I think adds a great texture to the salad.
Yay!! So pumped this curry chicken salad was a hit, Paul! Thanks so much for trying it out and coming back to leave a review. It means so much to me!
Fantastic recipe. Great for lunch wraps!
Yay!! So glad you enjoyed this recipe, Jess! Thanks so much for the review 🙂
In an effort to eat a more wide variety of foods instead of the same lunch everyday, I decided to give this a try and it’s wonderful! I don’t like eating a heavy lunch because it makes me tired for the rest of the day, and this was light and energizing!
Yay! So glad this recipe was a hit, Kristen! Thanks for the review 🙂
Absolutely delicious! I love how the curry kicks the flavor up a notch while still tasting like chicken salad. My husband even requested it again!
Woo!! So glad you loved this salad, Kaitlin. Thanks for coming back to leave a review. I so appreciate it. 🙂
I loved this recipe, you never disappoint! I used black grapes and sliced almonds because that’s what I had on hand and it was still super yummy. Would Greek yogurt work well as a replacement for mayo to make it lighter?
So glad you loved it, Katlyn! And yes, I love using Greek yogurt as a sub for mayo in my tuna or chicken salads. 🙂 Let me know how it turns out if you try it!