Are you looking for delicious and healthy lunch options?
Are you looking for a fantastic side dish that goes well with various foods?
Are you looking for a way to include vegetables in your diet in a fun and filling way?
Try chicken salad.
While the first image that comes to mind when thinking about chicken salad is the one that includes mayonnaise, egg, celery and onion; chicken salad is actually any kind of salad that has chicken as a main ingredient.
Because of the many different ingredients chicken salads can have, and just how different they can be from each other, pairing them with other kinds of foods can be kind of challenging.
This is why most people stick to chicken salad as a main dish or maybe even as an only dish.
With this in mind, we decided to create a short guide showing you the many different dishes that go well with chicken salad, so you can create varied and delicious meals with this tasty dish as a side dish or as the main course.
Let’s get started to find what goes with chicken salad!
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What Goes with Chicken Salad?
This depends a lot on the kind of chicken salad you’ve made and the ingredients you used for it.
If your chicken salad is…
1. Mayonnaise Based
A simple green salad will work well as a side dish. The lighter the dressing the better.
If you’re using your chicken salad as a sandwich stuffing, try using vegetables such as lettuce and tomato that won’t overwhelm the flavor of the salad.
The important thing is to keep away from more mayonnaise and from heavy dishes, such as pasta or potatoes.
See below video for how to make chicken-mayo salad:
2. Curry Based
Curried chicken salads are another fantastic option for lunch, not only because they’re a filling and delicious option but also because they’re a wonderful alternative to the usual mayonnaise based salad.
Since curried chicken salads are rather spicy, they go better with fresh foods such as Asian coleslaw, broccoli salad, cucumber salad and the like.
If you’re using the chicken salad as a side dish, try not to serve curry as a main dish, as it can be quite redundant.
If you’re not a fan of spicy food but want to try curried chicken salads regardless, try a cucumber yogurt dressing or even tzatziki. Sure, this might be a Greek sauce but it’s matches well with the spiciness of curry salads.
See below video for how to make curried chicken salads:
3. Chicken Cesar Salad
Chicken Cesar salad is a hearty meal that’s filling all by itself, as it contains meat and vegetables.
This means chicken Cesar salad can be considered a meal all by itself so if you want to side it with something, try keeping it light.
Lightly buttered garlic bread is a delicious option, but you can simply add croutons to your salad instead.
If your salad isn’t particularly heavy, or if you’re eating it as a side dish, try to go to the Italian way and pair it with pizza, pasta, delicious grilled vegetables and maybe some cheese brochettes.
As far as drinks go, a nice dry white wine will do wonders for this delicious salad. (Though maybe don’t have it for lunch if you have to go to work after lunch)
See below video for how to make grilled chicken caesar pasta salad:
4. Chicken Noodle Salad
This is a very filling recipe that’s can easily work as a main dish or even as the only dish. No side dishes necessary.
If you’re really looking for something to go with this delicious chicken salad, try some spring rolls. Particularly fresh pad Thai spring rolls, which are fresh, less carb heavy (which is a great attribute, considering this is a noodle salad) and packed with delicious veggies that will go nicely with the chicken.
See below video for how to make a Vietnamese noodle salad recipe:
5. Fruit
You know what also goes great with chicken salad?
- Chicken, apple and fennel salad.
- Chicken, mango and black rice salad.
- Chicken, cabbage and tangerine salad.
- Chicken and pear salad.
- Chicken and green papaya salad.
Final Thought
As you can see, chicken salads can be incredibly versatile.
They can be lunch, dinner and even side dishes; They can be sweet, sour, spicy or mild; They can be full of vegetables of just about any kind; They can have pasta, rice, quinoa and other ingredients.
In short, chicken salads can have just about anything you want!
So what goes with chicken salad?
Anything you want to mix it with.
Thank you very much for reading! We hope this article was informative and fun!
If our article inspired you to try new recipes, if you have any questions or doubts or if you simply want to say hello, leave a comment!
We’d love to hear from you!
My husband suffered a heart attack not too long ago… he is well on his way to recovery but our eating habits must change. Trying to prepare more fresh veggies, salads and chicken. Thank you for all your recipes and ideas… will not be eating potato chips with our chicken salad sandwiches anymore!! Love your site!!
What can you serve along with chicken salad