Not your average chicken salad recipe, this savory hearty recipe is made with bright, lemony chicken, red bell pepper, chopped black olives, and seasoned with a sprinkle of celery seed. Delicious on a sandwich, with crackers or just by the forkful, this is one easy recipe that will soon become a family tradition!
What You Need To Make Lemon Chicken Salad
- boneless, skinless chicken breasts
- red bellpepper
- chopped black olives
- lemon juice
- mayonnaise
- celery seed
- salt and pepper
There are tons of chicken salad recipes out there. You can make it with pineapple, grapes, cranberries-all with fruit, all just a little bit sweet. And I love them all. But this recipe… This recipe is a horse of a completely different color. It’s savory. It’s hearty without being heavy. It’s absolutely addictingly delicious. And my family asks for it all the time.
This chicken salad recipe waltzed into our family’s life about 25 years ago. Around that time, my mom managed a little tea house down in Texas, and I waited tables there one summer. The chef would whip up this salad every morning and serve it all day on huge slices of homemade bread. The smell of that bread alone was enough to strike weakness in the knees. But loaded up with this salad… I counted the minutes until we would close and I could get my hands on some of it.
It didn’t take long for my mom to learn to make it, and from that time on, this lemon chicken salad became our summer traveling staple. Going camping? We had chicken salad. Road trip in the works? Better make some chicken salad. And of course, the all-time best reason, a day at the lake? Definitely need some chicken salad.
Now, when the months grow warm, I make this chicken salad for my own family. The word spreads pretty quickly when I start whipping up batch. “Mom’s making chicken salad!” “Hey! Are you making chicken salad?” “Whoa, is that chicken salad?”
Yep, it sure is. And even though it’s gone pretty much as soon as I put it on the table, the sweet memories that come along with making it tend to stick around.
Tasty Lemon Chicken Salad
Ingredients
- 3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, boiled, diced/shredded
- 1 medium- large red bell pepper, diced
- 1 4.25 oz can chopped olives
- 1 C real mayonnaise (generous)
- 2-3 tablespoon lemon juice
- 2 tablespoon celery seed
- ½ tsp salt
- ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
Instructions
- Combine all ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Serve immediately or chilled.
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About how much chicken do you use? Chicken breasts vary in size so much. I made this chicken salad and it is wonderful. I would like to get an idea of how many cups or ounces of chicken you use in this recipe so that when I make it again, I will know I have the right amount of chicken proportionately to the other ingredients. Thank you for a yummy Lemon Chicken Salad. My husband loves it too.
You are so welcome, Paula! I honestly do not measure the chicken in cups or ounces, but the chicken breasts are medium to large. If I had to guess, maybe 3-4 C of chicken? But you could definitely adjust that to taste. My husband loves this salad too!
Absolutely wonderful. This Lemon Chicken salad is so tasty. Don’t let the ingredients throw you off from preparing this recipe. The combination of these ingredients makes for a flavorful chicken salad that will become your all time favorite.
Thank you so much! I am just tickled to hear this! It is different from most recipes with fruit, but this savory, lemony salad is sooo delicious. It is definitely our favorite. Thank you again, Paula! I hope the above answer about the chicken helps a little.