Curry Chicken Salad Recipe | Easy Meal Prep Dinner
Curry Chicken Salad with Raisins, Cashews & Celery
This curry chicken salad recipe is so healthy and so delicious! Greek (or nondairy) yogurt lightens this up from the traditional mayo, but there’s no sacrifice on flavor with this nutritious option. And, it’s extremely easy to prepare and completely versatile! You can pack it to take on-the-go for an easy meal prep lunch, or serve it up for dinner. A protein-packed option that’s great on its own—or stuff it in a pita, sandwich, or serve it on a bed of greens!
The curry flavor is the highlight of this dish. What a fun flavor idea for chicken salad, am I right!? Of course, it’s pairing the curry powder with roasted cashews and raisins that really makes this curry chicken salad recipe tip the scales! A classic, yet often also an eye-opening flavor combination. Not to mention that gorgeous golden color!?
Versatile & Substitute Friendly!
Greek yogurt is a great, protein-packed substitute for mayo. But, feel free to use regular mayonnaise, or a dairy free yogurt as a substitute if you prefer. Really, you just want some kind of creamy element. And, that creaminess only adds to the varying textures in this curry chicken salad recipe. There’s the crunchy cashews, soft and sweet raisins, and crisp, fresh celery and green onion! The tang of the yogurt also pairs well with the naturally sweet curry flavors.
I like to bake the chicken so it’s fresh and shreds apart nicely, but you could also use pre-cooked chicken (chopped or shredded), rotisserie chicken pulled off the bone, or even canned chicken! Don’t make this harder than it needs to be, especially if you have shortcut items on hand.
Make this Curry Chicken Salad Recipe Your Own!
As I mentioned, this curry chicken salad recipe is totally versatile. Really, with almost any chicken salad, it’s easy to take what you want, and leave what you don’t. Swap out your favorite ingredients! Use more of your favorites! More raisins and cashews definitely wouldn’t make this salad any worse… 🙂
And, serve it in any vessel that you prefer—a tortilla wrap, a pita pocket, on regular sandwich bread, a lettuce wrap, or as a side with healthy vegetables. If your family enjoys cold chicken salads, this curry chicken salad recipe is sure to be a winner! If your family thinks they don’t like chicken salad, but enjoys sweet and savory curry flavor, this dish may be one to sway them…
This curry chicken salad recipe is one that reminds me healthy can be delicious, and definitely doesn’t need to be boring. It’s supposed to yield four servings, but let’s be real—two people could devour this recipe. So, make double!
Curry Chicken Salad Recipe
Ingredients
Chicken:
- 8 oz chicken breast boneless & skinless
- 2 tsp oil
- salt, to taste
- pepper, to taste
Salad:
- 1 cup Greek yogurt, or nondairy yogurt of choice
- ½ cup roasted cashews
- ¼ cup raisins
- 1 stalk celery
- ¼ cup green onion
- 1-2 Tbsp curry powder
- salt, to taste
- ⅛ tsp pepper
- ½ lemon juiced
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400°F (200°C).
- On a baking sheet lined with foil and sprayed, dress chicken breast lightly in oil and season to taste with salt and pepper.
- Bake for about 30 minutes, until heated through to 165° F (74°C).
- Remove from oven and allow to cool slightly. While still warm, use two forks to shred tender chicken breast into pieces.
- Allow shredded chicken to cool completely.
- In a large mixing bowl, toss shredded chicken with salad ingredients (except for lemon juice) until well coated and combined.
- Finish with a squeeze of lemon juice, serve, and enjoy!
12 Comments on “Curry Chicken Salad Recipe | Easy Meal Prep Dinner”
I love how you prep food. It is just one of the things I have learned from you. This is going on next week’s menu. Thanks again. I really appreciate you!
Hi Kelly, so glad that you enjoy this curry chicken salad recipe and that you’ve found our meal prep approaches helpful! Happy to have you here 🙂
Really tasty and easy to make, my favorite chicken salad for meal prep. Thanks!
Hi Joseph, we’re so glad to know that you’re a fan of this curry chicken salad recipe! A little flavor can go a long way 🙂 Thanks for trying out the recipe!
Yum! Now I am craving chicken! I love roasting whole chickens on Sunday evenings, and I always use the bones to make a broth. It’s a great way to have a surplus of broth in the freezer, and it’s so handy when anyone in my house gets sick! I will try this recipe the next Sunday I roast a chicken.
Hi Ashley, what a great idea to make a roast chicken and use it in this curry chicken salad recipe! Sounds delicious 🙂 would love to know how it turns out whenever you give it a try!
Meals like this have been saving my hide this summer! Love the addition of the cashews! Pinned 🙂
Hi Harold, we’re so glad to hear that you’re enjoying this curry chicken salad in the summertime! Such a cool, refreshing, and easy meal to prep 🙂 Thanks so much for giving the recipe a try and for being here!
Love your post! Do you ever start w/ frozen g. beef? If so, how much time do you add to the cooking? I have a whole freezer full of g. beef.
Hi Alisha, this is a chicken salad recipe so we’ve never tried it with ground beef. You could of course cook ground beef and toss it with these same seasonings and mix-ins! I’d recommend transferring frozen ground beef into the fridge to thaw for about 24 hours before you want to cook it.
This one is a winner, I do the curry yogurt lemon juice as a cold dressing for the chicken breast when it’s my main course (I haven’t tried the full salad yet, but I’m sure it works perfectly well). I keep coming back to it, so easy! 🙂
That’s so great to hear 🙂 thanks so much for trying out the recipe!