Cranberry Pecan Chicken Salad is Sweet tart cranberries mingling with crunchy nutty pecans all with protein filled chicken.
It’s great as a sandwich. Try it with crackers as a spread. It’s perfect on its own in a potluck!
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Baby Shower Party Food
I made this Cranberry Pecan Chicken Salad for my sister in law’s baby shower because both my mom and the mother to be love chicken, and chicken salads go over so well with them.
My sister in law had asked for more protein filled salads due to the possibility of gestational diabetes.
And, my menu was all about easy pre-made salads that I could just take out of the fridge and serve; no muss no fuss on the day of the shower!
Since the baby shower, we’ve made this Cranberry Pecan Chicken Salad many times, and it’s always a hit.
Easy to make & budget-friendly recipe
This recipe is so easy; I bought a rotisserie chicken from the grocery store. The whole cooked chicken was only $5; a pretty good deal!
All I had to do was clean the chicken, shred the meat into the bite sized pieces, and then do a little mixing. Like I said, easy!
My grocery store’s deli even carries shredded cooked chicken, so you could buy that and save yourself the step of having to clean the chicken yourself.
Great for warm weather
My Cranberry Pecan Chicken Salad is a perfect warm weather lunch or dinner accompaniment.
Chicken tastes just as good cold as it does warm, which makes it a great choice for summer. And the ingredients include pecans and cranberries so this dish is sweet, savory and crunchy all at once.
It’s quick and easy to toss this recipe together first thing in the morning and have it chilled and ready to eat for lunch.
It’s also great on bread, so you can make a sandwich if you prefer.
Childhood memories
This is the kind of salad I would eat on crackers. My mom used to make a cream cheese and chicken salad that we would serve with crackers. Or sometimes she would stuff it into crescent rolls for a Crescent Chicken Packets dinner.
This salad totally reminds me of that chicken salad.
Kind of makes me nostalgic.
This recipe has been pinned on Pinterest over 450,000 times! That’s right, over 450,000 times and counting! And there are lots of “tried its”.
Make sure you pin it too!
Just like Grandma made
I found this recipe from Yesterfood, but I’ve seen countless others on Pinterest and Facebook, all having their own special ingredients. I’ve even gotten many comments about how Grandma used to make this with apples or grapes.
It seems that this is a special recipe for lots of people who become very nostalgic with it! And I think, that’s really cool!
Cranberries
Cranberries are a tangy northern American fruit that have become more popular over the years, moving out from their humble place as something we only served at Thanksgiving to a fruit that can be used fresh or dried in a range of dishes.
They are great in cakes and cookies or made in to a sauce to serve with a wide assortment of meats including pork, beef or chicken.
You can buy cranberries that are sweetened, or try simple unsweetened ones. Once you become accustomed to the tang of a cranberry, nothing else will do but a real cranberry with nothing in it.
Cranberries are also great fruits that may protect us from various forms of cancer.
The little red globes of fruity goodness help prevent urinary tract infections!
All of the health benefits from cranberries are substantially improved when you eat the whole fruit rather than an extract or in some other processed form.
These fruits are also great sources of vitamin E, manganese and fiber.
Pecans
Pecans are also one of the ingredients in this health conscious salad. Nuts contain plenty of anti-oxidants and anti-inflammatories, as well as lots of vitamins and minerals. So make this salad, and plenty of it, to add something nice and healthy to your day.
Recipe variations:
- grapes that have been cut in half
- any kind of nut
- raisins instead of cranberries
- add a little curry powder
- Greek yogurt instead of mayo
- splash in a dash of ranch
- throw in chopped apple
- leave the celery out
Other great chicken recipes you’ll love
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Recipe
Cranberry Pecan Chicken Salad
Ingredients
- 3 cups cooked shredded chicken
- ¾ cup mayonnaise
- ¾ cup chopped celery
- ¾ cup chopped pecans
- ½ cup dried sweetened cranberries
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 1/8 teaspoon white pepper
Instructions
- Combine all ingredients and mix well. Refrigerate for an hour to allow flavors to combine. Serve chilled.
Video
Nutrition
Nutritional information is based on third-party calculations, and should be considered estimates. Actual nutritional content will vary based on brands used, measuring methods, portion sizes, and more.
I used canned chicken, added an apple and took out the nuts. It was delicious!
Very good although I used plain Greek yogurt instead of mayo & added a bit of sea salt & pepper because it was a little bland. It lasted a few days for lunch and was delicious!! I will make it often.
I skipped the celery and added a green apple for crunch instead. Very good!
Very good w/ additions: needed more mayo and to this added 2T each whole grain mustard, apple cider vinegar & honey (to taste). Also, added finely sliced green onions. Deelish!!