Copycat Chick-fil-A Chicken Salad

If you were disappointed when Chick-fil-A discontinued its chicken salad in 2017, this copycat Chick-fil-A chicken salad recipe will put a smile on your face. It comes together in just a few minutes, and it works equally well in a sandwich or on its own.

And while it may be a copycat, it’s a great chicken salad recipe in its own right. You can use it like any other chicken salad, or as part of a whole spread of copycat Chick-fil-A menu items. Either way, you’ll have fun with it.

Ingredients for Copycat Chick-fil-A Chicken Salad

• Reduced-fat mayonnaise: The mayonnaise is a binder in this recipe, holding the other ingredients together. It also acts as the salad’s dressing, adding flavor and moisture.
• Sweet pickle relish: The sweet pickle relish brings a balanced tart-and-sweet flavor to the salad. More important, it’s part of the original salad’s flavor profile.
• Celery: The chopped fresh celery adds crunch, moisture and a distinct complementary flavor.
• Sugar, salt and pepper: These three fundamental seasonings balance the flavors in the salad.
• Hard-boiled egg: The minced egg adds protein, color (from the yolk) and a textural contrast with the chicken.
• Chicken breast: Boneless chicken breast is the salad’s main ingredient, providing plenty of lean, healthy protein.
• Whole wheat bread: The whole wheat bread leans into the salad’s health-forward approach.
• Romaine leaves: The lettuce leaves make the sandwich more attractive while adding crunch and moisture.

Directions

Step 1: Make the dressing

In a bowl, mix the mayonnaise, pickle relish, celery, sugar, salt, pepper and egg to make the dressing.

Step 2: Finish the chicken salad

Stir in the chopped chicken.

Step 3: Assemble the sandwiches

Line two slices of toasted bread with the lettuce leaves. Top the lettuce with the chicken salad, spreading it gently to the edges, then place the second piece of toast on top. Cut the sandwiches in half, if desired, and serve.

Copycat Chick-fil-A Chicken Salad Variations

• Make it topless: This chicken salad is an excellent choice for serving open-faced, as part of a lunch spread or as a canape. For your lunch buffet, spread the salad on your choice of bread, then cut the slices into small strips or triangles. Garnish them with a sprig of parsley or dill, a couple of capers or a slice of pickle. Follow the same process for canapes, but use sturdy crackers, melba toast squares or something similarly crisp. Serve them on platters with a selection of other canapes.
• Try it breadless: This chicken salad is good enough to stand on its own, without the bread or toast. To serve it that way, choose a cup-shaped salad green as your base. Butter lettuce, Belgian endive, the mid-sized inner leave from romaine and the large green outer leaves of iceberg lettuce are all good choices.
• Add your choice of mix-ins: If all you want is to replicate that lost Chick-fil-A experience, cover your eyes and skip this paragraph. But if you love chicken salad and want to change it up on a regular basis, you have options. So many options. Almonds, walnuts, pecans and cashews all work well in chicken salad, for example. So do sunflower seeds or pumpkin seeds. Diced apples, peaches or apricots, cherries and many berries all play nicely with chicken salad, and so does dried fruit in general. Savory options include diced sweet peppers or cucumber, fresh herbs or thinly sliced radishes. Check out our selection of chicken salad recipes for more inspiration.

How to Store Copycat Chick-fil-A Chicken Salad

Like most salads containing meat, fish or poultry, this one needs to be refrigerated. Pack the salad into a food-safe storage container with a tight-fitting lid, or simply cover the mixing bowl you used to prepare it.

How long will this copycat Chick-fil-A chicken salad recipe keep?

If it’s kept in your refrigerator from the start, the salad will keep for four to five days. If you used leftover chicken, deduct a day for every day since the chicken was cooked. Also, if you tweak the salad with perishable mix-ins such as fresh fruit, those may shorten its storage life.

Can I make the chicken salad ahead of time?

You certainly can. Finished sandwiches should be eaten as soon as they’re made, but you can certainly prep the chicken salad a day or two ahead of time. You can even make a double batch and use it for your week’s lunches, varying it with mix-ins (see above). The mix-ins should be added separately to each day’s portion of salad.

Copycat Chick-fil-A Chicken Salad Tips

How much raw chicken do I need to make 2 cups?

Typically you need to allow 1/2 pound of uncooked chicken for every cup of diced chicken breast. In this case, you need 2 cups of chicken, so that’s about a pound of raw boneless, skinless chicken breast.

Can I use regular mayonnaise?

Yes, of course. The recipe calls for reduced-fat mayo in order to keep the calories down, but you can certainly use the regular kind (or even homemade mayo), if you wish. In fact, tweaking the mayo is another way to vary the basic chicken salad. You might go with a garlicky aioli, for example, or stir in a spoonful of pesto or sriracha.

What other kinds of bread should I consider using?

The base recipe here calls for whole wheat bread, but you can run with whatever type of bread you like. That might be soft white bread, rye, multigrain or many others. The only real rule to observe is that if you’re making a conventional two-slice sandwich, the bread or roll needs to be soft enough that you can bite through it without the filling squeezing out the sides. Flatbreads like pita or focaccia are good options too, but crusty artisanal bread is best reserved for open-faced sandwiches.