Chicken salad recipe without celery
There are so many ways to spice up your classic chicken salad. A lot of recipes call for celery to add that crunch and fresh flavor.
I am going to show you two different chicken salad recipes without celery. They are both fresh and delicious.
Follow along for both easy recipes!
How to make chicken salad without celery
You can use so many different things to spice up a chicken salad recipe without using celery. Chicken salad is a great snack served with crackers, or a meal served on top of a green salad or a good old sandwich.
These are two of my favorite chicken salad recipes. One has apples, walnuts, and red onions and the other one has dried cranberries, walnuts, and red onions. Both equally delicious and a promised crowd pleaser.
Gather your ingredients
I always recommend gathering all of your ingredients before you start so that everything is ready to go. You will also want a cutting board, chef’s knife, and a mixing bowl.
Clearly, my mixing bowls in my video were too small for the job so grab a bowl that will be easy to mix in.
Make sure that your mayo has not gone bad so that your chicken salad is amazing!
Chicken salad with apples, red onions, and walnuts
Ingredients
- Chicken
- Apple
- Red onion
- Walnuts
- Avocado mayo
- Black pepper
Equipment
- Cutting board
- Chef knife
- Mixing bowl
- Rubber spatula
Cook and dice the chicken
In this recipe, I used 1lb of cooked chicken breasts. You can bake, boil, or grill your chicken breasts but in this recipe, I chose to air-fry the chicken. The seasoning on the chicken adds great flavor to this recipe.
You can see my air fryer chicken breast recipe. It’s easy, juicy, and done in just 20 minutes. Make sure that you allow your chicken breasts to cool before you cut them and mix them up.
Once the chicken has cooled off you want to cube it into small pieces. Start by cutting across the chicken breast making 1/4 inch slices. Then cut across the chicken in the other direction every 1/4 inch and making cubes.
You want to be sure not to make the pieces too large as you aren’t looking for bite-size pieces, but small cubes.
Another option for chicken is to use a rotisserie chicken. This is very popular and you can use dark meat also.
Dice up the apple
Start with washing your apple, making sure to get all of the pesticides and bacteria off from the apple. Cut up your apple into small cubes about 1/4 inch like the chicken.
You can watch my video here on how to cut an apple if that helps.
Chop red onion
Now you want to dice up a 1/4 of red onion. Cut the onion finely so that the flavor is there and a slight crunch. If the pieces are too big it will overpower the chicken salad.
You can also use cut green onions as they go really well also for a substitution.
Chop walnuts
Grab about a cup of walnuts and chop them up a little bit. These do not need to be finely chopped but if you prefer them chopped small then go right ahead!
You can take them to another level and make toasted walnuts.
Mix them all together
Combine all of the ingredients into one bowl. The chicken, walnuts, red onions, and apples. If you want to add a little spice, add a little bit of fresh ground black pepper.
If you used my air fryer chicken recipe then you will not need to add salt because the seasoning on the chicken has enough salt to flavor the chicken salad.
If you didn’t use my recipe, you should have (only kidding, kind of) you will want to add a pinch of salt to each bowl also.
Add 1/3 cup of avocado mayo and mix them up until all of the chicken is coated with mayo. You may need to add a little bit more but I live by the “you can always add, but you can’t take out” motto.
Serve
It’s time to enjoy! These two salads are great served with crackers as a night lite appetizer or on a nice green salad. Maybe you want to bulk it up a little and serve it as a chicken salad sandwich.
There are so many ways to serve a chicken salad that I even have a post on how and what to serve with chicken salad! Your friends and family will love your new twist on a refreshing chicken salad.
Chicken salad with dried cranberries, walnuts, and red onions Recipe
Ingredients
- Cooked chicken
- Walnuts
- Red onions
- Dried cranberries
- Avocado mayo
- Black pepper
Equipment
- Cutting board
- Chef knife
- Mixing bowl
- Rubber spatula
Dice your chicken
Just like we did in the last chicken salad recipe you want to cut up your cooked chicken into 1/4 inches pieces. To add a little more flavor I used this air-fryer chicken recipe to cook my chicken for this salad.
Cut across the chicken breast making 1/4 inch slices and then cut across in the other direction to get your 1/4 inch pieces.
Chop walnuts
You will want about a 1/2 cup of walnut roughly chopped. If you want them chopped fine then go ahead and keep chopping. These will add a buttery crunch to the chicken salad.
Chop red onion
Finely chop 1/4 of red onion. You want to finely chop it so that it doesn’t overpower the chicken salad. You want a little bit of crunch and punch from the onion but you don’t want it to be too much.
Dried Cranberries
I use about 1 cup of dried cranberries for 1lb of chicken for this recipe. The cranberries will be mixed in just as they are. They give a nice sweetness and a little bit of tartness, it’s so good!
Time to mix it up
Mix everything together, the chicken, walnuts, red onions, and dried cranberries. Add in 1/2 cup of avocado mayo and a little black pepper if you would like to spice it up a bit more.
I suggest you try it before adding more pepper. This sweet, tart and savory chicken salad check off all the boxes for me and make it one of my favorite chicken salad recipes.
Serve with crackers, on bread, or even on a nice bed of greens. It goes well with so many things. Another popular way is to serve on lettuce wraps.
If you have leftovers of chicken salad you are going to want to learn if you can freeze chicken salad.
Chicken Salad Recipe Without Celery ( 2 Easy and Healthy Recipes)
Equipment
- Cutting board
- Chef knife
- Mixing bowl
- Mixing spatula
Ingredients
Chicken salad with apple, walnuts, and red onion.
- 1 lb chicken
- 1 apple
- 1/4 red onion chopped
- 1 cup walnuts
- 1/2 cup avocado mayo
- 1/4 tsp ground black pepper
Chicken salad with dried cranberries, walnuts, and red onions
- 1 lb chicken
- 1 cup dried cranberries
- 1/4 red onion
- 1 cup walnuts
- 1/2 cup avocado mayo
- 1/4 tsp black pepper
Instructions
Chicken salad with apples, walnuts, and red onions
- Dice your cooked chicken breast into 1/4 cubes. Start by cutting across the breast making 1/4 inch slices and then cutting every 1/4 inch in the other direction.
- Chop 1 cup of walnuts to a rough chop or if you prefer a fine chop then keep chopping.
- Chop your red onion. You will need 1/4 of an onion in which you want to finely chop. Start by quartering the onion. Make thin slices across 1/4 of the onion and then again going the other direction. You want these finely chopped so that the onion doesn't overpower the chicken salad.
- Wash and cut your apple. Stand the apple and cut from the stem down on all four sides and then lay the pieces down and cut them into 1/4 inch slices. Then in the opposite direction cut the again making 1/4 cubes.
- Mix in a scoop of mayo and mix everything together until the chicken is coated with mayo. Start with a little less than 1/2 cup and add more if you need it.
- Add ground pepper and salt to taste. Remember, if you used my air fryer chicken recipe then you will not want to add salt as the seasoning on the chicken will add enough. That's it! So good!
Chicken salad with dried cranberries, walnuts, and red onions
- Dice up 1lb of cooked chicken into 1/4in pieces and put into a mixing bowl.
- Add a 1/2 cup of dried cranberries into the bowl with the chicken.
- Chop up 1/2 cup of walnuts as fine as you would like them. I like to leave them on the chunkier side for more of a crunch. Add into your mixing bowl.
- Finely chop up 1/4 of red onion. Slice in one direction thinly and then go in the opposite direction to get a fine chop. Toss these into the mixing bowl with the other ingredients.
- Add 1/2 cup of avocado mayo and mix everything together. Make sure that the mayo is well incorporated with the chicken.If you want it to be a little spicier go ahead and add some freshly ground black pepper.
Online Cooking for Beginners Course