This Avocado Chicken Salad Recipe has so much flavor and the perfect texture! We swap mayonnaise for fresh avocado, so it’s creamy but light and satisfying. I know, I know classic chicken salad recipes usually have mayo, but you will never miss it!
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Helpful Reader Review
“This salad is always on rotation, my son asks for it and he loves the leftovers for lunch the next day. It really is hearty and yummy!“ – Eva ★★★★★
Easy Avocado Chicken Salad Recipe
This avocado chicken salad recipe is a winner, and it is well-loved by adults and children. Since I first posted the video, it went viral with over 50 million views, making it one of the most popular recipes on my blog. Funny enough, this recipe came about from a craving I had driving home from my night shift back when I worked as a Registered Nurse!
It’s quite a bit different than our classic Chicken Salad, but everything about this is good, from the tender bites of chicken, creamy avocado, sweet corn, and crunchy bacon. Plus, you’ll want that fresh lemon dressing on all of your salads.
My son is particularly smitten with this chicken avocado salad and requests it for his birthday. It was in his top 3 requests, so you can imagine I made it for his birthday and as often as I can throughout the year. By the way, his other two were this Shrimp Dip and Caesar Salad. I love this kid.
Avocado Chicken Salad Video
You’ll love my lighter chicken salad with avocado. It’s just as creamy, flavorful, and filling as using mayo, but this is a dish you’ll feel great about eating often! If you’re lucky enough to have leftovers, this chicken salad tastes just as good the next day – perfect for a to-go lunch. You all are always requesting work and school lunch ideas, and I hope you love this one!
Ingredients for Avocado Chicken Salad
This Avocado Chicken Salad has such simple ingredients, and you may already have everything you need to make it (I just love it when that happens)!
- Chicken – shredded or cubed. I use rotisserie or Roast Chicken to make prep easier, but you can also use well-drained canned chicken or Bake Chicken Breasts before shredding or cutting them into bite-sized pieces.
- Avocados – I use two avocados. You’ll want nearly ripe or perfectly ripe avocado for this salad.
- Corn – You’ll need 1 cup, or 1 ear of corn. You can rinse canned corn, cook frozen corn, use Grilled Corn or Boiled Corn. You can also microwave unshucked corn for 3-4 minutes. If you want to keep this salad Paleo, just omit the corn.
- Bacon – I prefer lean cuts of bacon (see how to cook bacon without a mess). If you’re looking to cut fat, I use turkey bacon instead.
- Herbs – Dill and Chives – If you prefer you can swap the dill with cilantro or the chives for green onions
- Dressing ingredients – lemon juice, olive oil, salt, and pepper
- Hard-boiled eggs – Optional, but these add great protein to the salad. Peel, cut, or quarter, and then add to the salad ingredients.
Substitutions/ Variations
We love this just as it is, but you can use these easy substitutions to make it your own.
- Protein – omit the chicken or swap with hard-boiled eggs, leftover shrimp, or chickpeas
- Veggies – swap the corn or add other seasonal veggies like tomatoes, cucumbers, or red peppers
- Pasta – Try mixing in a cup of bowtie pasta or any small-shaped pasta.
- Add heat – chop jalapeno or add a shake of red pepper flakes to the dressing.
Helpful Reader Review
“Stellar recipe!! Used turkey bacon for the first time ever and could NOT tell a difference, thanks for the tip! Also used a cup of frozen corn and just heated It up in pan until it got a little char to it. D-E-L-I-S-H😋” – Sam ★★★★★
How to Make Avocado Chicken Salad
- Dice or shred two chicken breasts or 2 cups of rotisserie chicken into a mixing bowl.
- Peel and dice avocado into bite-sized pieces. Careful! I’ve met too many people with avocado-cutting injuries. Add the pieces to the bowl.
- Add the corn, onion, bacon, and dill to the bowl.
- Mix the dressing ingredients in a small bowl and then pour over the salad ingredients. Toss to combine. Add the hard-boiled egg if using, but don’t stir too vigorously after adding them.
How to Serve Avocado Chicken Salad
This avocado chicken salad is deliciously versatile. It is a protein-packed salad so it’s perfect for work lunch or meal prep and the lemon keeps it fresh and vibrant. Serve this chicken salad:
- As a main course salad alongside crusty Sourdough Bread
- In Croissants, Pita Bread, Hamburger Buns, Tortillas, or Sourdough Dinner Rolls
- Or scooped up with Pita Chips or Sourdough Crackers
- In lettuce cups for chicken salad lettuce wraps
Make-Ahead and Storage Tips
This is a great salad to Make-Ahead because it tastes even better once the flavors meld the next day.
- Make-Ahead: If you know you won’t be serving it immediately, wait to cut and add the avocado until right before serving. Mix the salad and cover. Refrigerate overnight or until ready to serve.
- To Refrigerate: Cover leftovers with plastic wrap directly over the surface of the salad. This will help to slow the browning of the avocados. Refrigerate for up to 3-4 days.
This Avocado Chicken Salad recipe is one of my (and my son’s) very favorite salad recipes; seriously tasty and easy, hearty but feel-good food at the same time. It’s a win-win-win! Try this easy chicken salad today.
Avocado Chicken Salad
Ingredients
Avocado Chicken Salad Ingredients:
- 2 large cooked chicken breasts, shredded or chopped
- 2 large avocados
- 1 cup corn, from 1 cooked cob
- 6 oz lean bacon, cooked and chopped
- 1/4 cup Chives , (or green onion), chopped
- 2 Tbsp Dill, chopped, or to taste
- 2 hard-boiled eggs, Optional, halved or quartered
Lemon Dressing:
- 3 Tbsp lemon juice, freshly squeezed
- 3 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 1 tsp sea salt, or to taste
- 1/8 tsp black pepper
Instructions
- Dice or shred the 2 large cooked chicken breasts and place them into a large mixing bowl.
- Peel and pit 2 large avocados, slice into bite-sized pieces and add to the mixing bowl.
- Add 1 cup of cooked corn (freshly cooked corn is best), toss in chopped green onion, chopped bacon, and fresh Dill.
- Make the dressing – add the ingredients in a small bowl and stir to combine. Drizzle the dressing over your salad and toss to combine. Serve with slices of hard-boiled egg if desired.
Notes
**For a healthier salad, you can use uncured turkey bacon which tastes amazing but has less fat. Make-ahead – Mix all the ingredients except the avocado and hard-boiled egg. Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve. Add the avocado and egg just before serving. Storage – To store leftovers, cover the dish with plastic wrap, ensuring the wrap is touching to top of the salad to slow the browning of the avocado pieces. Store in the fridge for 3-4 days.
Nutrition Per Serving
Filed Under
More Easy Salad Recipes
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- Maroulosalata – Greek Lettuce Salad
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- Taco Salad
- Classic Tuna Salad
- Caesar Salad
- Creamy Cucumber Salad
Absolutely delicious and easy. Made it three times in two weeks and have given the recipe to six people. Love the dressing because it doesn’t overwhelm the taste of the ingredients. Thank you so much.
You’re so welcome Sharon! Sounds like you found a new favorite! Thank you for the great review!
So do you think this is about 2 cups of chicken?
You will get: whole chicken = 3 Cups white meat. It does make about 6 cups of salad – I hope that helps! 🙂
Saw this on Facebook and had to give it a try! I passed on the eggs and bacon and added tomatoes and elbow pasta to make it into a pasta salad (because that was what I had on hand; would have preferred rotini but what can ya do?). Perfect for lunch all week! Will definitely come back and play around with this recipe in the future.
That’s so great! I’m happy you were able to make it your own!
Minus the corn and dill, plus blue cheese this is a classic Cobb salad. Sounds good
Hi Judy! It can definitely be customized! Enjoy!
I love this salad and have made it several times. It’s always a hit. I appreciate the recommendation for making it paleo/Keto with the cucumber. Those recommendations would be helpful with your other recipes as well.
I’m so happy to hear that! Thank you for sharing your great review, Bee!
Natasha! Can I use dried dill instead of fresh one!
Hi Judith! Yes! You can use dry dill. Just make sure if you substitute with dried dill, you use considerably less.
Hey Natasha! Made this the second time and even doubled up everything. I ended up going to the grocery store and just bought a pack of chicken breasts because I honestly did not feel that I would have use for the dark meat chicken pieces if I bought a pack of rotisserie chicken so I got myself 3 chicken breasts, seasoned it with garlic powder, salt, pepper, and smoked paprika and sprinkled it on the breasts that I brushed with olive oil and roasted it for 25 minutes. Oh and I also brined the chicken for 15 minutes in warm water and salt too to make it even more tastier. Well, I got enough chicken and was able to add it to the salad which was way more than enough but it turned out so good! I also added sweet red onion to the mix which goes really well with the lemon vinagrette dressing! This salad is a major hit in our household!
Awww that’s the best! Thank you so much for sharing that with me :). I’m all smiles!
What is the best substitute for dill?
Hi Lian, you could just omit the dill and the salad will still work. You could also try some finely chopped cilantro or evenly parsley, adding them to taste if you prefer to substitute 🙂
Msde your avocado chicken salad, it was amazing, making it again this week, daughter coming to visit can’t wait for her and her gf to try it…have saved many of your recipes, plan to get thru them all, best part is you make them so easy, and they come out so tasty…thanks, just subscribed to your site, this way i won’t miss any. Thank you.🌹
Debbie
Thank you so much for subscribing Debbie! We are so happy to have you here! I appreciate the great review! Hoping you find many new favorites here!
Made this salad today and I knew I would love it! Didn’t have any dill…didn’t miss it. Still so yummy. Great summer lunch or dinner!
Hi Gina! I’m so happy you enjoyed this recipe!
Cannot wait to try this next week when my daughter and family are visiting!
It’s a perfect recipe for company! Enjoy!
10 out of 10! Then tossed the chicken salad over a bed of lettuce and cucumbers with a splash of low fat honey mustard. So quick and easy to make!
That sounds like a great combination! Thank you for sharing that with me Rachel!
This looks tasty, but I’m wondering about the eggs in the picture; they don’t appear in the recipe.
Thanks!
Please delete my comment; I apparently didn’t read for comprehension! Thanks!
That’s not a problem Sharon. We can leave this comment here to hopefully help another reader 🙂 Thank you!
😂😂helped me I was wondering where the egg came from too. Until I read Sharon’s comment..then I went back to read the recipe lol
No problem! 🙂
Hi Sharon, Yes, the boiled eggs are optional and sometimes I make the salad with eggs for extra protein and sometimes I leave them out. I do have that note in the recipe card: “Optional: For even more protein, we add 2 hard boiled eggs, halved or quartered.” It only improves the salad to add them. I hope this helps.
I made this a few weeks ago, everyone loved it, including my very picky son! The avocado flavor really stood out, so yummy. I will be making this quite often 🙂
That’s so great June! Isn’t it the best when kids love what we moms make.
OMG, this was so good!!Will be definitely making it again.
I’m so happy you enjoyed that! Thank you for the great review, Edi!
Wow! I made this yesterday for a get together and it was awesome! I doubled the recipe and it served 7 with a tiny bit leftover. I can’t wait to try more recipes by Natasha.
That’s so great Michelle! Thank you for the wonderful review!
Did doubling it serve 7 as a meal? I’m trying to figure out how much ill need to have this for dinner for 4
Ashley, this serves 6 as a side when making once batch. Doubling it should serve 12 as a side.
I loved this recipe but more important my husband did too! I was leary about the dressing but it was perfect. I followed the recipe exactly. It’s a keeper for us!
I’m so happy you enjoyed that! Thank you for sharing your great review with us!
THe picture show hard boiled egg, the recipe does not include it. Personal preference?
Hi Janet, Yes, the boiled eggs are optional and sometimes I make the salad with eggs for extra protein and sometimes I leave them out. I do have that note in the recipe card: “Optional: For even more protein, we add 2 hard boiled eggs, halved or quartered.” It only improves the salad to add them. I hope this helps.
Another great recipe! I’ve made this for the week. I just leave the avacodo out and add it daily. It lasts longer that way. But this recipe is so yummy.
Hey! What a great idea! The lemon should help it from turning brown but this works to! Ours is usually gone pretty quick!
Made this tonight. It was wonderful! The whole family approved. I didn’t realize the 6 oz of bacon was precooked weight so mine had a lot of bacon. We liked it that way 🙂
That sounds like a happy accident! I’m happy you to hear you all enjoyed that!
I did the the same it was thick bacon too. Doubled the recipe as well l. I made this for the company bbq
That’s so great!
I made this last Monday and will be making again tonight for office pot luck tomorrow. My husband and I loved it! Thanks for sharing.
You are welcome! I’m happy you enjoyed that!