Lemon Basil Chicken Salad
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This fresh and lemony chicken salad has been a staple lunch in our house all summer long.
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).
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. 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).
Serving Suggestions:
There are so many possibilities for serving this chicken salad. My personal favorite is making sandwiches with mini croissants, as pictured. But you could also serve it on any type of bread (open face would be great, too), spread it on crackers, serve it over greens, or just eat it alone with a fork straight out of the container!
Lemon Basil Chicken Salad
Ingredients
- 3 cups shredded cooked chicken (white meat)
- 1/2 cup mayonnaise
- 2 tbsp basil, finely chopped
- 1 1/2 tbsp pecans, finely chopped
- 2-3 tsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
- 1 tsp salt
- dash pepper
Instructions
- Place shredded chicken into a medium mixing bowl.
- In a separate bowl, mix together all additional ingredients.
- Stir mayonnaise mixture into chicken using two forks to help separate the chicken as you combine.
- For best results, refrigerate for a few hours before serving to allow flavors to mingle.
Notes
Nutrition Facts
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