Chicken Waldorf Salad
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Published Apr 27, 2020, Updated Jul 21, 2023
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This healthy chicken Waldorf salad uses grilled chicken and a light dressing that blends mayo with Greek yogurt! Great for sandwiches, wraps and salads.
I’ve been on a roll with chicken salad recipes lately!
I created this tasty Greek yogurt chicken salad, a curry chicken salad and even an almond butter chicken salad. Now it’s time for a chicken Waldorf salad.
Classic Waldorf salad is so tasty, but the one thing it’s missing is protein… that’s where this chicken Waldorf salad comes in.
The grilled chicken adds a ton of protein, making it great as a filling for wraps, sandwiches or even as a salad topping.
And it’s made with just a few simple ingredients (many that you likely already have at home!) and comes together in no time at all.
Here’s What You Need:
Most Waldorf chicken salads include grapes, but I decided to omit them to keep the sugar content a bit lower for this salad. If you’re a grape lover, you can totally add grapes in! Maybe start with 1/4 cup chopped grapes and use a bit less apple chunks.
- grilled chicken – I prefer grilled chicken for this recipe but you could do shredded chicken or chopped roasted chicken.
- celery
- red onion
- apple – You can use whatever variety of apple you have on hand. I used a sweet Honeycrisp apple for this recipe.
- walnuts
- mayonnaise
- Greek yogurt – I like plain, full-fat Greek yogurt for this recipe!
- dijon mustard
- lemon juice
- sea salt and black pepper
How to Grill Chicken for This Salad
The key to making sure this salad has a lot of flavor is seasoning and grilling your chicken. You don’t have to use any special seasoning. Salt and pepper do the trick. That said, if you want to amp up the flavor you can use my recipe for grilled apple cider vinegar chicken!
And for the grilling, you can use an outdoor grill or a grill pan for indoor grilling.
For 2 cups of grilled chicken you’ll want to season 2 chicken breasts liberally with salt and pepper.
Prepare grill for high-heat cooking or spray a grill pan with cooking spray (I like avocado oil spray) and heat it over medium-high heat. Cook the chicken on the grill rack directly over heat for 6-10 minutes, turning once after 4-5 minutes. Or cook it in the grill pan for about 7-10 minutes, turning once. Chicken is done cooking when it’s white throughout and has an internal temp of 160°F. Remove chicken breasts from heat. Once cool enough to handle, you can chop it up for the salad.
How to Serve Waldorf Salad
My favorite thing about this salad is how many different ways you can serve it up!
- Eat as is – it’s definitely a complete meal on it’s own.
- Over a bed of greens – I am a volume eater so I love starting with a base of greens and topping it with this salad.
- Lettuce cups – scoop into a lettuce leaf for a crunchy and fresh wrap. Romaine, butter or iceberg lettuce works great for this.
- In a wrap – scoop into a whole grain wrap and add some greens for a little extra crunch and you have a satisfying wrap!
- On toast/as a sandwich – I love this as both an open faced sandwich on toasted bread or as more of a traditional chicken salad sandwich.
- With crackers or tortilla chips – if you want to serve this salad as a dip with crackers or chips, I recommend dicing the chicken into smaller chunks.
How to Store Waldorf Chicken Salad
I recommend storing leftovers in an airtight container for 3-5 days in the refrigerator. Unfortunately chicken salad doesn’t freeze well so if you meal prep this salad plan to eat it within 3-5 days of making!
More Salad Recipes
- Classic Broccoli Salad
- Greek Salad
- Mandarin Orange Chicken Salad
- Grilled Chicken Caesar Salad
- Curried Avocado Egg Salad
- Healthy Taco Salad
- Tuna Salad
- Turkey Salad
Popular Chicken Recipes
- Slow Cooker Shredded Chicken
- Chicken Enchiladas
- Chicken Fajita Soup
- Slow Cooker Teriyaki Chicken
- Kung Pao Chicken
Chicken Waldorf Salad
Ingredients
- 2 cups chopped grilled chicken breast
- 1 medium apple, diced
- 2 stalks celery, diced
- ¼ cup diced red onion
- 2 Tablespoons chopped walnuts, toasted, if you’d like
- ¼ cup mayonnaise
- ¼ cup plain Greek yogurt
- 1 Tablespoon lemon juice
- 1 ½ teaspoons dijon mustard
- sea salt and black pepper, to taste
- fresh thyme, for garnish (optional)
Instructions
- Grill chicken: See notes in post above for how to grill the chicken if you haven’t done so already. Let cool, chop chicken into chunks and measure out two cups.
- Mix together: Add chicken, diced apple, celery, onion and walnuts in a large bowl. In a small bowl whisk together the mayonnaise, yogurt, lemon juice and mustard until combined.
- Toss with dressing: Add dressing to the bowl with the chicken mixture and toss until everything is well combined. Top with fresh thyme, if using.
- Serve: Serve salad as is, in a wrap, sandwich or as a topping for salad.
- Store: Store leftovers in an airtight container for 3-5 days in the refrigerator. Unfortunately chicken salad doesn’t freeze well so if you meal prep this salad plan to eat it within 3-5 days of making!
Notes
- Add grapes: If you’re a grape lover, you can totally add grapes in! Maybe start with 1/4 cup chopped grapes and use a bit less apple chunks.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
It was perfect the first time. I learn so much from you as well! Keep it up great post.
Hey Brittany,
This turned out amazing! Thank you so much for sharing. Loved making it 🙂
Ahh yay!! That makes me so happy to hear, Abigail. I’m so glad you enjoyed this recipe. Thanks for trying it and for coming back to leave a comment and star rating. I so appreciate it!
Made this last night for a light supper. It was the best chicken salad I have had. The addition of apples is everything.
Ahh that makes me so happy to hear, Deb!! I’m so glad you enjoyed this salad. Thanks for trying my recipe and for coming back to leave a comment + star rating. I so appreciate it. <3
I really love all the ingredients in this and especially that you grilled the chicken; I think i gives the overall dish a much more appealing flavor.
Yes, I love the grilled chicken in this salad recipe. It’s so delicious! 🙂
Hey Brittany! I would love to make this recipe! I’m currently breastfeeding and my daughter has a milk protein allergy so I can’t have Greek yogurt. I’m wondering if you have any suggestions for a substitute in this recipe?!
P.s I love your baked oatmeal muffin cups. I add brewers yeast and extra ground flax seed to give them some extra milk-making power, haha
Hey Cori – You could use all mayo instead of the Greek yogurt! Let me know if you try it and how the salad turns out for you. And yay! I’m so glad you’re loving the baked oatmeal cups. Good idea to add brewers yeast to them! Have you tried my lactation cookies or lactation bites yet? Those are great options to help with supply too. 🙂
Great Informative Recipe. I like it. I’ll try to make this at home.
SwadeAdday
Tried this one today! It was sooo good, thank you for the recipe. I also added romaine lettuce just for more crunch and this salad is already one of my favorites!
Ahh yay!! That makes me so happy to hear, Elona. Thanks so much for trying this recipe and for coming back to leave a comment + star rating. It means the world to me. <3
The salad is absolutely a must to try! I didn’t use mayo, because I usually do not have it at home, just tried more yougurt and mustard – and the taste is still amazing. The thyme idea is great (I never tried it in the salads and it turned out nice). Thanks!
Ahh yay!! I’m so glad you enjoyed this salad, Natalie. Thanks for sharing the substitutions you made and for coming back to leave a comment + star rating. It’s super helpful for other readers, so I appreciate it!
This is a delicious salad. I made it with grilled apple cider vinegar chicken breasts. This was very good by itself and also in a wrap with mixed greens.
So glad you enjoyed this salad, Jen!! Thanks for trying it and for coming back to leave a comment + star rating. I so appreciate it. 🙂
Yum! Super easy to make and perfect for summer!
My husband and I are trying to eat healthier, this Chicken Waldorf Salad is awesome! We will be making this often, thanks!
I’m so glad you and your husband enjoyed this recipe, Mandi! Thanks so much for trying it and coming back to leave a review. I really appreciate it!
Interesting Piece of work. Thanks!
excellent post thank you for sharing
Love this salad. I did not use walnuts. I really like the combination of mayo and greek yogurt.
Yay! I am so glad you are loving this salad, Alma. Thank you for giving it a try and sharing your review + star rating, it truly means so much to me!