12 Best Healthy Chicken Salad Recipes for Weight Loss

The first thing that comes to mind when you hear "chicken salad" is the classic American-style creamy dish dating back to the mid-nineteenth century. Chicken salad often uses a combination of ingredients such as boiled eggs, celery, apples, grapes, almonds or pecans. These staples are combined with cooked chicken and are usually served with mayonnaise.

Chicken salad can have many different flavors and ingredients mixed with it. This dish is usually served cold and is made with cooked chicken, sauce and sometimes extra vegetables, nuts, seeds or fruit for flavor and crispy. For example, chicken salad can be Thai-inspired, combining minced chicken and cucumber with flavors of peanuts, ginger, garlic, chili oil and rice vinegar.Traditional Mexican chicken salad uses sour cream and mayonnaise to bind chicken and mixed vegetables such as beans, corn, and potatoes.

You can find chicken salad in takeaway shops and restaurants, buy it ready-made at the grocery store, or make your own chicken salad at home.

Nutritional value of chicken salad

Chicken salad is packed with lean proteins, vitamins and minerals, and can certainly be part of a healthy meal and an overall healthy diet.

How healthy is chicken salad?

It boils down to the ingredients used to make them and how much you eat at a time. Some ingredients, such as the type and amount of mayonnaise used, may significantly increase the calorie and saturated fat content of chicken salad, which can eventually make it less nutritious than it could be.

Just one small serving of chicken salad of half a cup (about 4 ounces) contains 400 calories or more. Although there is the word "salad" in its name, it is often served on bread or in a roll, rather than served on a vegetable bed. Adding ingredients such as fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds or using a low-calorie binder such as yogurt can easily change these values.

Can I lose weight by eating chicken salad?

Chicken salad can help with weight loss, but there are a few factors to consider. You must control your parts. Eating too much, even healthy and fatty foods, is a barrier to weight loss. Chicken is a low-fat food, and the proteins in it promote a feeling of satiety.

We now mention chicken salad recipes for weight loss

1. Chicken salad sandwich with raisins and curry powder

We use a modest amount of olive oil-based mayonnaise, then enhance the flavor with plump golden raisins and the delicious intricate flavors of curry powder in this chicken salad sandwich recipe. Make a large amount of salad as part of your weekly meal planning and add it to other sandwiches, stuffed with bread, or crowned with a bowl of mixed vegetables.

2. Grilled Caesar Salad

This recipe transforms the high-calorie sauce into a lighter vinaigrette by adding substances, flavor, and nutrition in the form of sun-dried tomatoes and olives. Think of this as a Caesar salad, reimagine it in your dietary program.

3. Grilled chicken and avocado salad

This recipe is rich in protein, and ensures that the number of calories you eat in the salad you order at the restaurant is halved.

4. Asian-inspired chicken salad

Between sweet tangerine oranges and crispy almond slices, this chicken salad recipe is bound to be one of your new favorite meals in meal preparation.

5. Greek Chicken Salad

This Greek salad recipe is delicious and healthy without adding any heavy ingredients or any high-calorie ingredients. It's great for a big dinner party (or should we say big party?), or to plan to prepare several meals where they can stay good in the fridge for a week

6. Cinnamon roasted sweet potato salad with wild rice

Do you think jars are only for drinks or for packing lettuce-based salads? Think again. Sweet potato salad adds a new twist to the term, layering cinnamon roasted sweet potato pieces with shredded chicken, carrots and plenty of spices. With a serving of wild rice, these ingredients together form a whole meal in a bowl.

7. Mexican quinoa and chicken salad

This delicious salad only takes about 30 minutes to prepare, and you can keep it in the refrigerator for up to three days. In this case, the extra time will make the dish more flavorful, as the juice of lemon, cilantro and garlic is soaked in chicken and quinoa.

8. Whole chicken salad with cream sauce

This meal compatible with the classic chicken salad is also an easy lunch to pack. Chicken salad may seem basic because we're all familiar with it, but this recipe really isn't.

9. Chicken taco salad in crock pot

The crocpot chicken taco recipe is great for making huge taco salads. Just add it to a layer of vegetables with some other vegetables, taco cheese, sauce and sour cream. If you're missing a hard taco crust, sprinkle it with some ground tortilla chips as well.

10. Crispy pecan chicken salad with triple acidic vinaigrette dressing

In this salad this crispy chicken is covered with pecans instead of baking and frying it, making this salad low carb. So, if you want to add something crispy to your salad, but prefer to skip toast, this chicken salad recipe is for you.

11. Rainbow chicken salad with almond, honey mustard sauce

When we were told to "eat the rainbow" and consume more fruits and vegetables, we never thought the rainbow would look so beautiful. Between the creamy mustard and honey sauce, raspberries and grapes, this is definitely one of the most colorful chicken salad recipes you can ever get.

12. Classic chicken salad

Nothing beats creamy chicken salad over whole wheat bread, especially if it means adding bacon! This classic chicken salad recipe is great for preparing your meal or to be presented to a crowd at your next meeting.