Looking for a quick and easy lunch idea? Try this deli-style canned chicken salad recipe with bursts of sweetness from fresh red grapes. It's made with a tangy ginger-lime mayonnaise, thinly sliced scallion greens, and crunchy toasted almonds.
Just like my popular best-ever deli-style tuna salad recipe, my deli chicken salad recipe is best refrigerated for several hours before serving to really develop that "deli" flavor.
It's excellent with crackers, but I also love pairing it with my soft-baked ciabatta bread for chicken salad sandwiches.
I'm not sure where this specific chicken salad with grapes recipe initially came from, but I pulled it from the binder of family favorite recipes my mom put together when I went off to college.
It's what I think of when I think of my ideal chicken salad; pale and creamy with sweet red grapes, a tangy dressing, and mild sharpness from the scallion greens.
This is actually a half-batch version of the full canned chicken salad with grapes recipe I got from my mom — I find it makes the perfect amount for me to eat for lunch 3 or 4 days in a row.
I love this chicken salad recipe because it's easy to keep most of the ingredients on hand to make it. The canned chicken is shelf-stable, as are the almonds and ginger. I usually have limes or a squeeze bottles of lime juice around, too.
Grapes and scallions are the only ingredients that truly need to be bought fresh, and I've always got a glass of scallions I'm regrowing on my windowsill (and you should too!).
I find that canned chicken breast, which is packed like tuna or salmon, gives the best bite-sized pieces of chicken and is the easiest to shred for this chicken salad. If you prefer using a rotisserie chicken, that's fine too. You need about 1 cup of shredded chicken breast, without the skin.
When it comes to ginger, I usually use ground ginger, but if you prefer fresh ginger or the squeeze bottles of ginger paste, those also work just fine.
I know fruit in chicken salad can be controversial, but I'm definitely in the "pro" fruit camp. Red or purple grapes, sliced in half or in quarters are my preferred option, but you can also use green grapes or diced nectarines or peaches!
Other optional ingredients for chicken salad: Dried sour cherries or craisins, diced celery, apple slices, green grapes, clementine or mandarin orange segments, minced shallot, chives, etc.
🐓 How to Use Canned Chicken Breast
If you've ever seen canned chicken breast on the shelf and wondered "What can I make with canned chicken breast?" give this chicken salad recipe a try!
Canned chicken breast is fully cooked and packed in water just like tuna or salmon. This makes it super juicy, flavorful, and fork tender, so easy to shred with just the edge of your fork. Just open the canned chicken, drain the liquid, and it's ready to use!
Of course you absolutely can use rotisserie chicken or cook up boneless, skinless chicken breast just to make this chicken salad, but canned chicken is much faster, easier, shreds better, and tastes better too.
Canned chicken is also shelf stable, so you can keep it around longer without taking up space in your fridge or freezer or worrying about it going bad.
NOTE: Make sure you buy canned chicken breast and not whole canned chicken. Whole canned chicken is a very different thing.
🔪 How to Make Canned Chicken Salad
Whisking the sauce before adding the chicken gives a smoother sauce without any hidden lumps of ginger!
Canned chicken breast shreds really nicely. I use two forks to break the pieces of chicken into bite-sized pieces.
Be gentle when mixing in the grapes so you don't crush them.
Toasted slivered almonds add such an amazing crunch.
There's no harm in adding the almonds at the same time as the grapes and scallions. (I actually really like the texture of the almonds after they've had a few hours to sit in the chicken salad and soften slightly.) But if you want to preserve their crunchy texture, wait to add the toasted almonds right before serving.
While you can serve this deli-style chicken salad immediately, it is infinity times better if it has time to chill in the fridge first.
For best results, transfer the chicken salad to an airtight container (or cover the mixing bowl) and refrigerate it for at least 4 hours if not overnight before serving.
This cold resting period might not seem like much, but it's exactly how chicken salad is stored at an actual deli counter. It gives all the flavors time to meld and mix together and will bring that classic "deli" flavor to the table.
📖 Substitutions and Variations
There are a lot of ways you can customize this chicken salad recipe or make it your own! Here's some simple ingredient substitutions in case you don't have everything on hand.
- Instead of canned chicken breast, use shredded rotisserie chicken (remove the skin), or pan-fry and shred a large chicken breast. If you're cooking chicken from scratch, make sure you season it well with salt and pepper!
- Instead of mayonnaise, use miracle whip, plain greek yogurt, or sour cream.
- Instead of scallions, use chives or shallots.
- Instead of ground ginger, use 1 teaspoon of finely grated fresh ginger root OR 1 teaspoon squeeze ginger from a tube.
- Instead of grapes, use diced nectarines or peaches. Some people even use apples or pears in their chicken salad recipes!
👩🏻🍳 Practical Tips & Recipe Notes
- I store my chicken salad in 16 ounce deli containers. This recipe makes just about 16 ounces, so one container is perfect here.
- If you want to use fresh ginger, store it in the freezer, it will stay good for a long time and you can grate it into the chicken salad with a zester right from frozen.
📖 Recipe
Easy Deli-Style Chicken Salad with Mayo & Grapes
Recipe Notes
- Instead of grapes, diced nectarines or peaches will also work. Dried sour cherries are also a good swap!
- 1 teaspoon of grated fresh ginger or 1 teaspoon of ginger paste can be used in place of the ground ginger.
- To really amp up the lime flavor, zest a quarter of the lime into the mayo before you cut it open to juice it.
- If you're using a fresh lime, roll it back and forth on the counter pressing down hard with the heel of your hand as you do OR microwave it whole for 10-20 seconds before you cut it open. Either of these tricks will help get the lime juice flowing and it easier to squeeze.
- If you're using rotisserie chicken or a piece of chicken you cooked yourself, cut the chicken into 1-inch cubes and then use two forks for the shredding.
- Store this deli-style chicken salad in an airtight container in the fridge (41°F or lower) for up to four days. (Source: FoodSafety.gov Cold Food Storage Chart). On days 3 and 4 the "deli-style" flavor will be more intense as the flavors continue melding into each other.
- Chicken salad should be served cold, and should not sit out at room temperature for longer than 2 hours. If you're serving it somewhere where it needs to be out of the fridge, make sure you are at least serving it over an ice bath or bowl of ice to keep it cool.
Ingredients
- 12.5 ounce canned chicken breast (1 cup, drained)
- ¼ cup mayonnaise (54 grams)
- 1 tablespoon lime juice (juice from half a lime)
- ½ teaspoon sugar
- ½ teaspoon ground ginger
- ¾ teaspoon diamond crystal kosher salt (use half as much of any other brand)
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
- 10 red grapes (halved or quartered)
- ⅛ cup thinly sliced scallions
- ⅛ cup slivered almonds (toasted)
Instructions
- Whisk together mayonnaise, lime juice, ginger, sugar, salt, and pepper. Add chicken breast and use a fork to mix everything together, shredding the chicken cubes in the process.
- Stir in sliced grapes and scallion greens.
- Toast slivered almonds in a dry skillet over medium heat until they are lightly browned, about 4-5 minutes. Stir frequently and do not wander away — they go from pale to toasted very quickly!
- Stir slivered almonds into the chicken salad, then transfer chicken salad to an airtight container and refrigerate for at least 4 hours or overnight before serving. For crunchier almonds, wait to stir them in right before serving.
Meg G says
This recipe is so delicious and came together so quickly! I will make a double batch next time. I am very excited to have something simple to work into my weekly meal prep. I served it with a slice of crusty no knead bread and I can’t see a bad accompaniment for this.
Kim W says
This recipe is very easy to make, and the result tastes so good. I managed to hold off eating some for 24 hrs, so I can only imagine how good it will get over the next day or two.
Bekah says
Delicious! I used dried cranberries instead of grapes cause I’ve got a toddler who loves sharing food with the dogs 😆
It was super easy to make, great for weekday meals, I’ll definitely make this again.
Susan N says
Sauce was top notch—I was not expecting that cause I thought the ground ginger would be really defining. Will keep this recipe in my back pocket.