Pesto Chicken Salad

Pesto chicken salad adds Italian flare to a traditional chicken salad. Loaded with flavor from the garlic and basil in the pesto, this chicken salad is delicious in any sandwich, wrap, or on a bed of greens.

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I’m sort of particular about chicken.

If it’s too chickeny I will not eat it.

So you can imagine, this makes finding a chicken salad recipe I like a challenge.

I do love this Honey Mustard Chicken Salad but my Italian girl heart goes gaga for pesto.

So you know I love this pesto chicken salad!

It’s so full of flavor and a delicious sandwich filling.

Plus it’s pretty easy to make, and my kids actually eat it, which makes it that much better in my book!

Ingredients and Kitchen Supplies

To make pesto chicken salad, you will need:

• Pre-cooked Chicken – We often use our Italian grilled chicken to make chicken pesto salad, but you can also use rotisserie, baked, boiled, or any other chicken leftovers. If needed, you can also boil, bake, or use your Instant Pot to cook the chicken.
• Pesto Sauce – We also tend to use our homemade pesto sauce, but in a pinch, jarred pesto sauce works well too.
• Walnuts – You could also use pine nuts for even more flavor, but walnuts make excellent way to add some texture to the pesto chicken salad. We tend to get the small chunks to avoid excess chopping, but you could use larger walnut pieces and just give them a quick rough chop.
• Fresh Basil – Fresh basil cut into smaller pieces adds a burst of extra flavor and freshness to the chicken salad.
• Mayo – We use regular mayo, but you could low fat or other varieties.
• Salt and Pepper – This is to taste. You can also skip this altogether.

For kitchen supplies, you can use advanced technology or brute force. If you want to use technology, you’ll want:

• Food Processor – You do not need to use a food processor. When you use a food processor, you can make a smoother chicken salad with less overall effort.

Otherwise, you can use two forks to shred fully cooked chicken.

How to Make Pesto Chicken Salad

1. Prepare the chicken.

Place cooked chicken on a large cutting board.

Use two forks to gently pull the chicken apart until you have bite-sized pieces.

Keep pulling the chicken apart until it reaches your desired level of chunkiness.

For ease and to produce smoother chicken salad, you can pop the chicken in a food processor.

Keep pulsing the chicken until it reaches your desired level of smooth.

When ready, place the shredded chicken in a large bowl.

2. Mix the pesto chicken salad together.

Add the pesto, mayo, walnuts, and fresh basil to the bowl with the chicken.

If you are using larger walnut chunks or halves, you may want to give them a rough chop.

Use a large spoon or tongs to mix the ingredients together until they are well-combined.

3. Store or serve.

You can serve the pesto chicken salad right away as a topping for greens, as a sandwich, wrap, or however you like.

We often let the chicken salad rest covered in the fridge for at least a half hour before serving to let the flavors come together.

If you want to store it for longer, scoop it into an air tight bowl and store in the fridge.

Serving

Pesto chicken salad is pratically born to make a filling sandwich or wrap.

You can dress these up as you see fit and choose your favorite breads, croissants, and wraps.

You may also want to add extra pesto sauce or mayo, more fresh basil, tomatoes, lettuce, or other greens to top the sandwich or wrap.

You can also skip the wrap and sandwich altogether and serve it over a fresh bed of greens.

For added fun, you can use pesto chicken salad to make a chicken salad melt with plenty of cheese on top.

Storing

Pesto chicken salad lends itself well to storing.

In fact, we generally recommend waiting to serve for at least a half hour to let all the flavors come together and really pop.

If you plan to store it for a short period, you can keep it in the mixing bowl with a loose aluminum foil covering in the fridge.

When storing for a longer time, you will want to place the chicken salad in an air tight container and place in the fridge.

Pesto chicken salad should stay fresh for about 3 to 5 days in the fridge.

Tips and Tricks

• Allow the pesto chicken salad to rest before serving. This helps the flavors really come together. The longer it rests, the more the flavors will start to come out.
• If you plan to make chicken salad out of left overs, make sure they are completely cool or at least cool to the touch. Keep in mind, if you use left overs from a day or two ago, it does not increase their food safety and freshness adding it to chicken salad.
• If you don’t want walnuts, you can skip them. You can also add more if you like.
• Fresh pesto sauce tastes the best. For a bit of a twist, you could also make lemon pesto for added fresh flavor.
• If I were making this just for me and not for my kids, I would definitely add a little diced red onion to add even more oomph to the flavors.

Other Pesto Favorites

If you love pesto as much as we do, be sure to check out these other pesto favorites:

• Easy Turkey Pesto Paninis
• Pasta al Pesto (Pesto with Linguine)
• Easy Baked Gnocchi with Pesto Sauce
• Traditional Pesto Sauce
• Easy Baguette Caprese Sandwich with Pesto

Did you make this? Let me know!

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