Honey Mustard Chicken Salad
Honey mustard chicken salad elevates traditional, mayonnaise based chicken salad with its flavor combinations. Sweet honey and sharp, savory dijon mustard make this chicken salad recipe anything but boring.
Do you ever feel stuck in a lunch rut?
Lunch is just so hard. Especially when you are a work at home mom. Or heck, just a mom in general. My day often doesn’t slow down enough for me to have a decent lunch so I find myself eating handfuls of nuts or not eating anything at all until dinner except coffee and then by that time I’m absolutely hangry.
I try to make some easy things up ahead of time so I have easy lunch options available. For example, we make up a big batch of homemade Caesar dressing so we can easily have kale Caesar salads. Sometimes it’s leftovers. In the winter, I’m a huge fan of this easy sweet potato soup for lunch.
This easy chicken salad fits the bill for something easy I can make a big batch of at the beginning of the week. I serve it over top of salad greens and in sandwiches or wraps.
Making it is super easy too. I take cooked chicken breast and toss it the food processor with some mayo, honey, dijon mustard, red onion, and just pulse away. A not about the cooked chicken breast: I make this a lot with leftover baked Parmesan chicken nuggets. You could also use:
- rotisserie chicken
- left over roast chicken
- any chicken left overs that don’t have some sort of tomato based or strong flavor sauced (For example, peanut chicken wouldn’t be a good choice, but leftover chicken from this Honey Mustard Chicken Chopped Salad would.)
Then bam, lunch is ready for the week.
Tips for Making the Best Honey Mustard Chicken Salad
- It doesn’t matter what kind of cooked chicken breast you use, but I strongly recommend avoiding plain boiled chicken breast. I find boiled chicken breast is extremely boring and bland and does not add any depth of flavor to chicken salads in general.
- The amount of mayo, dijon, and honey is somewhat subjective based on how moist you like your chicken salad and how the chicken breast you’re using for the salad was prepared. I suggest adding a tablespoon of each at a time (so 3 tbs total- 1 of mayo, 1 of dijon, and 1 of honey) and pulsing in the food processor and repeating until the chicken salad reaches your preferred texture and moistness.
- If you like a little texture in your chicken, add the red onion at the very end of the chicken salad. Also, walnuts are totally optional but you can add a quarter cup for even more crunch factor.
Ingredients
- 2-3 cups of cooked chicken with no bones or skin I prefer chicken breast
- 3-4 tbs mayonnaise
- 3-4 tbs dijon mustard
- 3-4 tbs honey
- 1/2 red onion rough chopped
- 1/4 chopped walnuts optional
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Add the chicken and 1 tbs of mayo, 1 tbs of dijon, and 1 tbs of honey to a food processor. Pulse. Add in the additional wet ingredients a little at a time and repeat until your chicken salad reaches the desired moisture level. Add in the onion and pulse to chop and distribute. Fold in walnuts and stir in salt and pepper. Serve on salad greens or in a sandwich or wrap. Enjoy!
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