Spring Chicken Salad with Strawberries and Dijon Mustard
Growing up, I was not too fond of chicken salad. Mother always added so much mayo. You couldn’t taste anything but mayo when eating her chicken salad. So, it was years into my adult life before I could bring myself even to try making it. When I finally did, I went for something completely different than what my mother made, and my Spring Chicken Salad was born.
Loaded with fresh strawberries, basil, and Dijon mustard elevates my Spring Chicken Salad to a whole new level. The mixture of tangy, sweet, and crunch is elegant enough to impress guests, while easy enough, you can whip up a batch after work.
Making It Easy with Roasted Chicken
Today, I’m so in love with it; I’ll roast chickens to make it. But if you don’t have time to roast up a chicken, pop into your local store for a rotisserie chicken. I always LOVED Costco for this purpose. Fortunately, grilled chicken is a thing here in Portugal, so I can still pop by my local store to pick up one when in a hurry when work has kept me busy.
To get rid of the heavy mayo flavor I hated in my mother’s recipe; I use a Greek yogurt and mayo mix. It lightens up the dish and makes it a heck of a lot healthier.
Spring Chicken Salad Ingredient Substitutes
This recipe is also easy to change up with whatever ingredients you have on hand. Don’t like strawberries? Add apples, carrots, dried cherries, or cranberries, or even orange slices. Use whatever fresh herbs you have on hand. The same goes for the nuts – don’t like walnuts – toss in pecans, peanuts, or hazelnuts.
Spring Chicken Salad is fancy enough to serve at dinner parties but is also perfect for those on a budget. And it’s a damn clever way to use up leftover chicken or get a healthy meal on the table for lunch with little effort when you use an already roasted chicken.
You can also eat it with crackers or small toasts or on a bed of baby greens if you’re cutting back on carbs. Even kids love it wrapped in a soft roll, wrap, or on toasted bread.
Spring Chicken Salad
Ingredients
- 4 Cups Roasted Chicken, chopped perfect for leftover rotisserie chicken
- ¾ Cup Strawberries, sliced
- ½ Cup Walnuts, chopped also works well with hazelnuts and almonds
- ¼ Cup Fresh Basil, chopped
- 3 Tbsp Dijon Mustard
- ½ Cup Greek yogurt
- ¾ Cup mayo
- Salt and pepper to taste
- ½ Cup Fresh Fennel, chopped optional
- ½ Cup Golden Raisins dried cranberries and apricots are also good
Instructions
- In a small bowl, combine Dijon mustard, Greek yogurt, and mayo, mixing well.
- Add chicken, strawberries, walnuts, and basil to a large bowl. Add fennel if using.
- Pour mustard mixture over the chicken and gently stir to mix.
- Season with salt and pepper
- Serve over baby greens or lettuce, or on a soft roll, toasted bread, or a wrap.