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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If I don’t use the bacon but adding 1 egg , what will be the total nutritional info .also what will be the serving size. I am on a 1000 calorie diet
Hi Deeps, we are not able to make those calculations without completely changing the nutrition label for the recipe. You might try plugging the list of desired ingredients into one of the free nutrition analyzers online. I hope you love the salad!
Hi Natasha!
First I wanted to say thank you 🙏 for all of your awesome recipes, and your style of organization and presentation of your recipes is just on point 👌!! I love it!
I want to try this recipe with Costco canned chicken breast, have you tried it or think it will work? I don’t want all the chicken pieces to fall apart and make the salad look more like a spread if ya know what I mean. But am excited to try this salad. Also do you think thyou frozen corn from Trader Joe’s would work? Thank you!
Hi Alina, That should work fine with the canned meat, make sure to drain it really really well. I haven’t tried that with frozen corn, if you experiment please let me know how you like that.
This was so yummy! Perfect for lunch or dinner!
I’m so happy to hear that! Thank you for sharing your great review!
This well delish but next time I will substitute the bacon with pepperoni as the bacon softened too much.
I’m so happy you enjoyed that.
The combo is wonderful! Thank you so much.
We absolutely love this salad and make it regularly. The dressing is sensational! Thank you Natasha!
I’m so happy to hear that! Thank you for sharing your great review!
Made this tonight for supper with rotisserie chicken and it was absolutely delicious!! Thanks for the wonderful healthy recipe!
You’re welcome! I’m so happy you enjoyed it
This is simply amazing! Probably our favorite recipe I’ve ever found for anything! I’ve made it probably 20 times in recent months! I do cook up my own chicken breasts, but I use Hormel real bacon pieces to simplify prep a bit. I’ve never used fresh dill, but 2 tsp dried dill works well. We always add the egg as well…super filling and healthy!
That’s just awesome!! Thank you for sharing your wonderful review 🙂
Me and my husband made this together. It was amazing!!!!
I’m so happy to hear you both enjoyed that! Thank you for the great review!!
This salad was SOOOO good!! Thanks for a great recipe. I bought a rotisserie chicken at the grocery. Super quick and easy (and HEALTHY!) dinner.
so glad you enjoyed it! Thank you for the wonderful review!
Hi there! I made this tonight. I used the InstantPot to do the chicken and it turned out so tender. I didn’t have any lemons (I thought I did but noooo…) so I used a balsamic dressing and served it over Romaine, and it was really good with that too. Husbandface wants the leftovers for lunch tomorrow.
I’m so happy that worked out! Thank you for sharing this and your wonderful review with us!
I made this for dinner tonight and it was absolutely delicious. My son liked it a lot also, we tried it with ranch dressing and some with a lemon vinaigrette. I liked both and my son liked it with ranch. I’ll definitely be making this again. I used rotisserie chicken.
That’s so great! I’m so glad you enjoyed it!
This looks amazing! I can’t wait to make this for my husband. Can you tell me how long it will keep in the fridge?
Hi Kenneth! I have kept it refrigerated up to 2 days. I think this is the very best when it is served the same day but the avocados will be fine until the next day because the lemon juice in the dressing preserves them. To be safe, I would suggest placing plastic wrap directly over the salad to keep the air out which is what causes the avocados to brown.
Absolutely delicious! Substituted yellow squash for Corn as I was in the middle of Whole30. Have shared with several people who also loved it including their teenage sons! Thanks for sharing!!
You’re so welcome, Kim! I’m glad you all enjoyed it!
Have made this several times now: I used grilled chicken and added red onions and olives. It is a big hit all the time, even my older boys wanted the recipe to make for themselves. Thanks so much for recipe, awesome.
I’m so happy you enjoyed that, Pamela! Thank you for sharing that with us!
I think you forgot the egg in the recipe.
This is a delicious recipe!!!
Hi Laurie! We have this note in the recipe and on the print out regarding the eggs “Optional: For even more protein, we add 2 hard boiled eggs, halved or quartered.”
What else could you use instead of the dill. I just can’t do dill.
Hi Pattie! 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 🙂
I didn’t want dill either so I used freshly chopped basil. It was delicious. Next time I will try coriander (cilantro).
Great idea! Thank you for the great review, Rod!!
I don’t love fresh dill. What would you recommend as a substitute?
Hi Kathryn, 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 🙂
This is delicious. Made it according to recipe and loved it. Sure it could be altered many different ways to satisfy specific tastes too!
Hi Tana! That is definitely so true, this recipe is pretty versatile. Thank you for the wonderful review!
For keto’ers, using the USDA food composition database, 1 cup of corn would be 38.77 grams of carbohydrates. You could subtract 6.46 carbs from the nutritional info if you count total carbs, so each serving would equal 4.54 total carbs.
I haven’t been able to find the recipe for the Chicken Avocado Salad with the lemon dressing. Help with finding it would be greatly appreciated.
Hi Teddie. This is the one right here 🙂