You’ll enjoy our curry chicken salad recipe! It’s loaded with flavor, texture for a quick and easy lunch. The combo of chicken and curry flavor is amazing. Seriously, it’s better than what you can buy at the deli. There’s no reason to buy this when you can make a homemade batch! This recipe was originally published in 2013 and re-published with new video for you to follow along. It’s an oldie but goodie!

curry chicken salad sandwich

Why We Love this Curry Chicken Salad Recipe

Our recipe is so easy to make and it’s loaded with flavors.  Managing chicken dinner for our busy weeks is so much easier when we start with a roast chicken. We’ll oven roast a whole chicken or get one of the rotisserie chickens at the grocery store and use the leftover chicken breast and thigh meat for mid-week lunch recipes that’s easy, quick, accessible and delicious. Taking a classic recipe and adding a douse of curry and cumin spices makes a great sandwich to get us through the day. If we get tired of chicken sandwiches, we’ll top our favorite crackers with this salad or sometimes dive into it with a bag of crunchy tortilla chips.

curry chicken salad recipe with crackers

Quick Cooked Chicken Options:

Baking, poaching or pan searing fresh chicken is one way to get the chicken for the salad. But there’s quicker and easier ways to have cooked chicken:

  • roast chicken: buy a roast chicken and the chicken breast is perfect for this recipe.
  • canned chicken is a quick and easy option
  • chopped deli meat chicken or even turkey works! Just chop it into small bite sized pieces

Options other than Mayo

The level of creaminess can also be adjusted with the amount of mayo. So start with our base recommendation and add more if you like. But what if you don’t like mayo? here’s come other creamy options:

  • Any type of plain yogurt works great. There’s alot of options out there from low fat to creamy greek yogurts
  • Sour cream is another option. A few dollops of sour cream will give the creamy texture and a nice tangy flavor.
  • Dairy free yogurts that are coconut, oat milk or soy based are great for dairy-free options.
  • Smashed avocado is a fantastic creamy binder.

How much spices to use in this curry chicken salad recipe?

This curry chicken salad recipe can be adaptable by adding more spices, so have fun with the amount of flavor. Use the recommended amount we have in the recipe. Taste the salad and add more curry spices if you like. Or you can minimize the spices. We love flavor, so our recommended amount is just enough to give a wow factor for flavor. It’s not a boring chicken salad. It’s so good!

Video: Best Chicken Curry Salad Recipe

curry chicken salad sandwich

Curry Chicken Salad Recipe

Yield: 3 servings
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Chill Time: 30 minutes
Total Time: 45 minutes
This makes a great sandwich too! Read post for more recipe notes.
This recipe can easily be doubled. We wrote it up as a base of 1 cup of chicken to make it easy as is or to double.
Makes about 1 1/2 cups of chicken salad.
4.89 from 9 votes

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Ingredients

  • 1 cup (140 g) cooked chicken , chopped (use chicken breast or chicken thighs)
  • 1/4 cup (60 ml) mayo or sour cream
  • 2 teaspoons (10 ml) lime juice
  • 2 teaspoons (10 ml) curry powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon (2.5 ml) ground cumin
  • 1 teaspoon (5 ml) soy sauce
  • 2 Tablespoons (30 ml) chopped dried fruit , such as apricots or raisins
  • 1/4 cup (25 g) celery , chopped
  • 2 green onions , chopped
  • 2 Tablespoons (30 ml) fresh cilantro , minced
  • 1/4 teaspoon (1.25 ml) salt , or to taste
  • fresh ground black pepper , to taste

Instructions 

  • Chop or tear leftover cooked chicken to bite sized pieces. Set aside
    cutting or tearing chicken for curry chicken salad
  • In large bowl, add chicken, mayo, lime juice, curry powder, ground cumin, soy sauce, dried fruit, celery, green onion, cilantro, salt and pepper.
    chopped ingredients in bowl for curry chicken salad recipe
  • Stir to combine all the ingredients together until chicken is coated with all the spices and other ingredients.
    bowl of stirred curry chicken salad
  • You can eat it right away or if you prefer it cold, chill for about 30 minutes before serving. Serve in a sandwich, with crackers or with tortilla chips.
    curry chicken salad in a sandwich

Video

YouTube video

Nutrition Information per Serving

Calories: 220kcal, Carbohydrates: 9g, Protein: 12g, Fat: 16g, Saturated Fat: 3g, Polyunsaturated Fat: 9g, Monounsaturated Fat: 4g, Trans Fat: 0.04g, Cholesterol: 40mg, Sodium: 492mg, Potassium: 336mg, Fiber: 2g, Sugar: 5g, Vitamin A: 183IU, Vitamin C: 4mg, Calcium: 40mg, Iron: 1mg
Course: Main Course, Salad
Cuisine: American, Asian
Calories: 220
plate of curry chicken salad with lettuce

Different ingredients for this salad:

There’s so many possibilities to this recipe that you don’t have to follow our suggestions exactly.

  • We love adding dried fruit like apricots, cranberries and golden raisins. But if you’re not a fan of dried fruit, you can leave it out.
  • How about adding some chopped nuts? These are great crunchy ingredients to add to they chicken salad. We love tasting the nuts first too for extra toasty flavor. YUM.
  • Add more chopped vegetables like more celery, shaved carrots, chopped sweet peppers.

Ways to Serve Curry Chicken Salad:

  • Sandwiches or sliders
  • Make a great green salad with lettuce, kale or spinach. Then add a big spoonful of the chicken salad on top.
  • Add it to pasta, rice, couscous or quinoa for a hearty version.
  • Serve with crackers and some slices of cheese
  • This is also a great appetizer. Put the chicken salad in a big bowl. Serve it on a platter with crackers, cheese, pretzels or raw vegetables for dipping.

More Curry recipes you’ll enjoy: