This fresh and lemony chicken salad with basil has been a staple lunch in our house all summer long. It's very easy to make anytime you need a quick summer meal idea!
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Basil chicken salad
I can never get enough of fresh basil, and I'm always looking for ways to incorporate it into my cooking.
During these last few months, a local restaurant has been doing curbside deliveries of their famous chicken salads. We tried a few variations, but our favorite was the lemon basil flavor. After ordering it weekly for a long time, I decided to try making it myself.
As always, I went for the simplest route, and managed to re-create our favorite chicken salad using only 5 ingredients (plus salt and pepper).
Ingredients
- 3 cups shredded cooked chicken (use all white meat or mostly white meat)
- ½ cup mayonnaise
- 2 tablespoon basil, finely chopped
- 1 ½ tablespoon pecans, finely chopped
- 2 teaspoon freshly squeezed lemon juice (or more to taste)
- 1 teaspoon salt
- Dash pepper
Instructions
Step 1: In a large bowl, combine all the ingredients except for the chicken (mayo, chopped basil, pecans, 2 teaspoons lemon juice, salt, and pepper). Mix well.
Step 2: Add the shredded chicken and use two forks to mix the basil mayonnaise dressing into the chicken while separating and shredding the chicken with the forks. Taste and add more lemon juice, if needed.
Step 3: For the best flavor, refrigerate for a few hours before serving. Serve on a sandwich, in a wrap, on a croissant, or
Tasty add-in ideas
This simple chicken is pretty much perfect as it is, but here are a few tasty additions to chicken salad:
- Finely diced celery, for crunch
- Dried cranberries, for sweetness
- Fresh diced scallions or chives
- Halved grapes
- Chickpeas (I love the texture of chickpeas in tuna salad and chicken salad!)
- Fresh cilantro and lime juice instead of lemon juice
Ingredient tips, shortcuts, and substitutions
- To save time, I used a rotisserie chicken for this chicken salad recipe (one chicken produced enough white meat).
- If you don't like nuts or have an allergy, you can omit the nuts or use sunflower seeds for crunch. You could also swap the pecans with almonds, walnuts or roasted pine nuts, depending on what you've got.
- I used full fat mayonnaise for my version, but you can experiment with subbing in Greek yogurt or low fat mayonnaise for a low fat chicken salad. (On the flip side, if you want to add a little more tang, you can do a mixture of sour cream and mayonnaise).
Related recipe: Pretzel Crusted Chicken
How to serve chicken salad
There are so many possibilities for serving this chicken salad. Try any of these:
- As sandwiches, on bread, in croissants or mini croissants
- Open faced sandwiches
- In a wrap
- In a lettuce wrap
- Spread on crackers
- Spread on veggies, such as sliced peppers or cucumber slices
- On top of a salad
If you enjoyed this recipe, let me know with a comment and a star rating below. And don't forget to share it on Facebook and save it on Pinterest for later!
Lemon Basil Chicken Salad
Ingredients
- 3 cups shredded cooked chicken use all white meat or mostly white meat
- ½ cup mayonnaise
- 2 tablespoons fresh basil leaves finely chopped
- 1 ½ tablespoons pecans finely chopped (see notes)
- 2 teaspoons freshly squeezed lemon juice or more, to taste
- 1 teaspoon salt or to taste
- 1 dash pepper
Instructions
- In a large bowl, combine all the ingredients except the chicken (mayo, basil, pecans, lemon juice, salt, and pepper). Mix well.
- Add the cooked chicken and use two forks to mix everything together while shredding the chicken further.
- For the best flavor, refrigerate for a few hours before serving to allow flavors to mingle. See notes below for optional add-ins and serving suggestions.
Debbie
Sunday 11th of June 2023
Excellent! Great make at home version of one of my favorite chicken salads!