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
- Cucumber Tomato Avocado Salad
- Taco Salad
- Classic Tuna Salad
- Caesar Salad
- Creamy Cucumber Salad
I made this tonight for dinner. Perfect summer salad. I did add tomatoes. Thank you!!
You’re welcome Lori! I’m glad you like it! Thanks for sharing 🙂
How many calories per serving?
Due to time constraints, I don’t typically include nutritional info, but check out this nutrition analyzer – you can plug in the ingredients from any recipe, select the serving size and it will give you nutritional info, calories, etc. I hope that is helpful to you Selena!
Please see my reply below: 350 calories per serving.
For this recipe, with the dressing, it is 350 calories per serving. I do MyFitnessPal.com and plugged in the ingredients. It will automatically import the recipe. If you want more information such as carbs, etc., just reply and I can send it via email.
Thank you for sharing!
please send carb, protein fat and fiber if it’s been calculated. Sounds so good!!
Super delicious salad! I can’t do eggs or bacon so I substituted those two items with strawberries and orange peppers insted!
Yum, that sounds delicious Cynthia! Thanks for sharing your great review!
Love the recipes, but could you please make a PRINT option to get the recipe on a single page without my having to copy and paste in increments?
Hi Lynn, it really depends on the recipe and the length of the instructions – sometimes that is not possible with the formatting I have to work with. This particular recipe though should print on 1 page. If you are having trouble with this specific recipe, you might check your printer margin settings and see if you can narrow those. I hope that helps!
It printed beautifully on 1 page on my printer once I changed the format to portrait…it had been set to landscape for a different printout and I’d forgotten.
It looks like a lovely recipe…I’m pinning it!
Yum!
I didn’t have any fresh dill or chives, so I used Penzy spice “sunny Paris” seasoning. Yum!
Served it on a light Wasa cracker. 🙂
That sounds delicious Becky! Thanks so much for sharing 😀
Made this for dinner last night, but substituted cilantro for dill. Love it! Easy to make, and loaded with flavor for so few ingredients. It will become a regular menu item at my house, thank you for sharing Natasha 🙂
You’re welcome Carol! I’m glad you love it! Thanks so much for sharing 🙂
Delicious! To keep the avocados from turning brown too early, Just slip them into the dressing, give them a gentle toss.
I’m glad you enjoy the recipe Deb! Thanks for sharing your tip with other readers!
This was amazing! It was light and fresh tasting. I added peas to it. Very yummy. Thank you for the recipe. It’s my new go to meal!
You’re welcome Ann! I’m glad you love it! Thanks for sharing your great review!
This was amazing! The kids loved it. Easy light supper after 4 hours at the gym!
I’m happy to hear the whole family enjoys the recipe! Thanks for sharing Debbie 🙂
Would this be low carbs??
Due to time constraints, I don’t typically include nutritional info, but check out this nutrition analyzer – you can plug in the ingredients from any recipe, select the serving size and it will give you nutritional info, calories, etc. I hope that is helpful to you Kathleen!
Made it tonight! Then made a second batch. Hubby almost devoured all of the 1st after coming in from cutting the yard! Thanks
You’re welcome Kelly! I’m glad you both enjoy the recipe! Thanks for sharing your great review!
Have you calculated the nutrients, such as fat, protein, and carbs, in this??? It looks amazing!!
Due to time constraints, I don’t typically include nutritional info, but check out this nutrition analyzer – you can plug in the ingredients from any recipe, select the serving size and it will give you nutritional info, calories, etc. I hope that is helpful to you Christi!
I cant wait to make it! I didnt see you put the eggs in but I think I can figure out how to do that 🙂
Hi Michelle, the egg is optional so we didn’t fit it into our short social video, but they are in our full episode (see video above). I just served it with the egg 🙂
This is so delicious! Thank you for the recipe!
You’re welcome Alex! I’m glad you like it!
Love, Love, Love the chicken avocado salad. Nice and light and sooooo good!
I’m happy to hear you love the recipe! Thanks for sharing your fantastic review Brenda!
I would love nutrition info! Thanks!
Due to time constraints, I don’t typically include nutritional info, but check out this nutrition analyzer – you can plug in the ingredients from any recipe, select the serving size and it will give you nutritional info, calories, etc. I hope that is helpful to you Laura!
what could you use instead of dill- not a fan . . .
Hi Lin, you could omit it or substitute with cilantro 🙂
What are the Nutrients in this? Is it Keto friendly? It looks fantastic
Due to time constraints, I don’t typically include nutritional info, but check out this nutrition analyzer – you can plug in the ingredients from any recipe, select the serving size and it will give you nutritional info, calories, etc. I hope that is helpful to you Karen!
This looks delicious. I may be the only one eating it – will the avocado really keep without turning brown?
Hi Susan, The lemon juice keeps it from browning too quickly and it stays looking and tasting great for about two days. I haven’t tested it beyond that only because the avocado starts to change color. You might consider cutting the recipe in half if you are serving it as a main course.
Thanks!
You’re welcome Susan!