Creamy, southern salads mounded onto soft, yeasty rolls are the perfect lunch and one of the best parts of summer eating and a favorite way to stay cool.
Next time try this simple tomato sandwich!
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❤️ Why you'll love it
- chicken salad on a croissant is an easy meal
- creamy dressing
- perfect blend of flavors
This easy chicken salad recipe is a classic, made the Texas way with cubed chicken breasts, pecans, juicy grapes, and a little sweetened mayonnaise.
It shows up at just about every baby shower, bridal showers, and wedding brunches that I've ever been to.
🧾 Ingredients
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- chicken breast
- celery
- cream
- red seedless grapes (green grapes work, too)
- sugar gives you a touch of sweetness. Please note "a touch" is relative to your tastes.
- mayonnaise - you can use light mayo if you want. I don't care for it and always use regular Hellmann's.
- green onion works better than sweet onions because the flavor is more delicate.
- pecans
- smoked paprika
🔪 Instructions
- Poach chicken in chicken stock until done.
- Mix dressing ingredients until smooth.
- Combine salad ingredients.
- Spoon dressing ingredients over salad and mix.
🥄 Equipment
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You'll need the following items to make this recipe successfully.
🥫 Storage
Put it in an airtight container or cover with plastic wrap and keep refrigerated for up to 4 days. After that it gets watery.
If you are at a potluck or a picnic be sure to keep it very cold by placing the serving bowl in a bowl of ice. If it's been at room temperature for 2 hours or more throw it out.
Food safety is important - always better to be safe than sorry, right?
Southern chicken salad with grapes doesn't freeze very well at all. The grapes and celery suffer and lose texture.
💭 Tips
Expert Tip: Poaching the chicken in chicken stock helps it retain more flavor than if you were poaching in water.
There's one thing that pretty much every Southern woman I know agrees on and that is you can't make chicken salad with dark meat. Ew.
Not now. Not ever.
I think some people around here even make it with shredded chicken and get by with it as long as it's chicken breast but as far as I know cubed chicken breast is the most accepted form of chicken for a real chicken salad sandwich.
Chicken salad isn't rocket science but it does take a little tweaking to get it exactly right. Here are some tips for making the perfect southern chicken salad sandwich, tea room style.
- Use a sweeter bread than you normally might. Buttery croissants, a Hawaiian sweet roll, or a soft potato roll work well but when I owned the tearoom the most popular bread to put chicken salad on was plain raisin bread - no cinnamon swirl just a plain white or wheat bread with raisins kneaded in.
- One of the best ways to cook the chicken breast is to add a bunch of chicken breast and about half the stock called for in the recipe to a slow cooker and cook it on low for about 6 to 8 hours. Let cool, cube, and freeze in recipe sized portions.
- Adjust the amount of sugar you use to your own taste - I 'm telling ya I bet I put in close to ½ a cup.
- You don't "have" to toast the pecans if you don't want to... but it's so much better and adds extra crunch.
- Toast the pecans in a 350F oven for about 5 minutes, stirring often and watching carefully.
- For best results in flavor and texture make sure the grapes are the kind that are firm and sort of "pop" when you bite down on them.
- Add more or less grapes to your own taste.
- Same with pecans.
- Some people like chopped up fresh parsley in it.
- This is best if you let it chill in the fridge for an hour or so to let the flavors blend but you can eat it right away.
- You can use a store bought rotisserie chicken - just cube the breast meat and save the dark meat for another recipe.
👩🍳 FAQs
Usually because the chicken breast is overcooked. Poach the chicken gently in chicken stock until it reaches 160F then let drain it and let it sit on the counter for 5 to 10 minutes to reach 165F and for the juices to settle.
Add about a tablespoon of sweet pickle juice - or dill pickle juice if you prefer. A little lemon juice works, too.
Stir in a tablespoon of mayonnaise just before serving and it should thicken it right up. If it's very runny/watery you can let it drain in a colander and then add a bit more dressing if needed.
If you keep the bowl on ice and the salad stays cold then you're fine. If it sits at room temperature for 2 hours or more then be safe and throw it out.
📚 Related recipes
We eat chicken almost every night around here. It's crazy but it's the one thing my kids don't get tired of. Here are some of my favorite recipes.
More Great Chicken Recipes
- Crispy Baked Chicken Wings are easy as pie and spicy hot!
- Creamy Chicken and Noodles is quick comfort food any time of the year.
- Chicken Alfredo Ravioli takes just 15 minutes to make. That alone keeps it on the "A" list here!
- Bourbon Chicken is just as good... ok... BETTER... than the version you get in the mall. I promise.
- Fried Chicken Po'Boy Sandwich is going to sweep you up and sit you right down in Louisiana.
🍽️ Serve with...
- This makes easy lunches when you serve a scoop on top of lettuce leaves or a bed of fresh greens.
- This is so good on multigrain bread!
- I love homemade chicken salad stuffed in tomatoes.
- Delicious in lettuce wraps!
- Make an old fashioned salad plate with this chicken salad, potato salad, and a scoop of cottage cheese on a pineapple ring.
📞 The last word
This southern chicken salad is served in small tearooms and cafes all over Texas, usually piled high on flakey, buttery croissants and accompanied by goblets of icy cold sweet tea. If you've always had the shredded dark meat chicken salad sandwich then honey get your jaws ready because you are in for a treat!
To me there's nothing quite as fancy and a really good chicken salad sandwich made in the southern style. Big pieces of cubed chicken breast, sweet red grapes, buttery, toasted pecans, and a little sugar in the mayonnaise.
Ok, maybe for some of you a lot of sugar in the mayonnaise - I like it sweet and I'm pretty sure that I put in twice the amount I'm telling you to put it.
The main thing is you can't use dark meat, you can't shred it, and dear Lord don't use salad dressing (Miracle Whip). It has to be mayo.
I love that there are certain ways to do things like taking meals to people when someone takes sick, or there's a new baby, or a death in the family.
I like that there are rules and boundaries - like not calling someone on the phone between 9 pm and 9 am, or holding doors for people, or taking off your hat when you enter a building.
And I like that ladies will argue at length about what should or should not be in a good southern chicken salad recipe.
It doesn't take very long before the "bless your hearts" and "her mama was always a bit... touched" start flying around.
And those are fighting words.
I like that little old ladies (which I am quickly becoming) will walk up to you in a dressing room and tell you that you look better in the red dress than in the blue one because the blue one makes you "look a mite puny, darlin".
I mean, I 'll take all the help I can get.
I love church potlucks where everyone brings what they are known for making.
It's where Southern women really compete, christian or not. They could have attended church that morning, shouted A-MEN to every reference to loving your neighbor but if there's a potluck these ladies in their hats and high heels will grit their teeth, clutch their pearls, and create perfection on a plate just to make sure it's the best one there.
If mental fight club was a thing you'd see it at those potlucks.
It can get fierce.
Now, you don't have to put on your fancy hat, fix your lipstick, or develop a drawl to enjoy this chicken salad sandwich but you might consider adding a scoop of macaroni salad, or even this Tex-Mex macaroni salad, next to it, maybe a pitcher of tea, and inviting someone over to share some great food and good fellowship.
Porch and rockers optional.
What’s new? Check out my Restless Chipotle & Co. Store on Amazon where you'll find all kinds of nostalgic goodness! Thanks so much for being a part of Restless Chipotle!
There's no doubt in my mind that you're going to love this chicken salad recipe - it's got so much flavor!
It's truly the best whether you make it into a sandwich or just put a scoop on your plate on a bed of greens.
If you click on the number of servings in the recipe card you can adjust the measurements up or down for the exact number of servings you need. Don't forget that you can click on "add to collection" to save it to your own, private recipe box!
If you love this recipe please give it a 5 star rating. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Southern Chicken Salad
Print Pin Recipe SaveEquipment Needed
Ingredients
- 1 pound chicken breast
- 2 cups chicken stock
- 1 ½ cups seedless red grapes, About ½ pound. Halved and make sure they are the firm ones not the soft ones. Use green or black in a pinch.
- 1 cup celery, diced
- 1 cup pecans, chopped and toasted
- ½ cup green onions, sliced
- 1 cup mayonnaise
- ¼ cup sugar, or as desired
- 2 tablespoons whipping cream, more as needed
- Salt
- Freshly ground black pepper
- Smoked paprika to garnish
- 6 croissants, split in half
Instructions
- Simmer the chicken in the chicken stock until cooked through and tender.
- Remove the chicken from the stock and reserve the stock for another use.
- Cool for 10 to 15 minutes.
- Cube the cooked chicken and place in a bowl.
- Add the grapes, celery, pecans, and green onions.
- Stir gently.
- Mix the mayonnaise and 2 tablespoons of the sugar.
- Stir into the chicken mixture.
- Add the cream if needed to thin it out a little.
- Taste and add more sugar if you like it sweeter - I like mine a little sweet.
- Mix in the salt and pepper.
- Pile on the cut side of the bottom croissant.
- Sprinkle with smoked paprika.
- Top with the other half of the croissant.
Notes
- One of the best ways to cook the chicken breast is to add a bunch of chicken breast and about half the stock called for in the recipe to a slow cooker and cook it on low for about 6 to 8 hours.
- Adjust the amount of sugar you use to your own taste.
- Toast the pecans in a 350F oven for about 5 minutes, stirring often and watching carefully.
- Make sure the grapes are the kind that are firm and sort of "pop" when you bite down on them.
- This is best if you let it chill in the fridge for an hour or so to let the flavors blend but you can eat it right away.
- You can use a store bought rotisserie chicken - just cube the breast meat and save the dark meat for another recipe.
Nutrition Facts
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We'll never share your email or send you spam. Pinkie swear.First published July 30, 2017. Last updated July 8, 2021 for better images and more information.
Debbie
Have you tried dried cranberries instead of grapes? It’s delicious. I love this chicken salad. I love it with grapes or cranberries. The sweetness is perfect.
Marye
Yes! dried cherries or blueberries, too.