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!
This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy.
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
- Asian Chopped Salad
- Maroulosalata – Greek Lettuce Salad
- Cucumber Tomato Avocado Salad
- Taco Salad
- Classic Tuna Salad
- Caesar Salad
- Creamy Cucumber Salad
Wow this is amazing, I love almost all of them. Wish I can cook with confidence like you.
Hi Florenciana! Thank you so much for stopping by and sharing that with me. I hope these recipes inspire you. Keep practicing and the confidence will come.
This look sooooo yummy, is there anything you would recommend to add colour to it, when omitting corn, hubby will not eat corn or peas.
Hello Paula. You can omit the corn and substitute it with cucumber.
Your avocado salad is the bomb my husband loved it and he is not a salad lover. thank you for making my husband HAPPY
Aww that’s the best! I’m so inspired reading this! Thank you!
This salad is sooooo delicious! My family favorite !
That’s so awesome, Kasia! Thank you for that great review!
Best recipe
Delicious! I will definitely make this again! I did not use lean bacon and used the full tsp of salt in the dressing and will probably reduce salt by half next time. Very fresh and tasty!
I’m so glad you enjoyed that, Laura! Thank you for that great feedback.
You are my favorite! I love all your recipes. Mainly because they are so easy and quick to prepare. Thank you!
You’re welcome, Cynthia!
I love all your recipes they are outstanding and so are you do you have a book
Hi Maureen, You’re so nice! Thank you! We do not have a cookbook at this time but we do have one in the works.
Love your recipe videos! All your dishes look delicious and easy to make. Thank you!
You’re welcome! I’m so happy you enjoyed it, Lidia.
This looks wonderful. I was looking for a chicken salad WITHOUT mayo ! Thanks Natasha.
Hi Elaine, I hope you find a new favorite in this one. It’s definitely a reader and family favorite.
Delicious. Had it for lunch.
I’m so glad you enjoyed it!
This might be a silly questions, but what is the serving size for this salad? It looks delicious and I can’t wait to try it!
Hi Mikaela, I didn’t measure it that way but I would say each serving is about 1 cup – maybe 1 1/4 cups.
Hi Natasha thank you so much, for accepting me to see your lovely, recipes with respect Elena
Welcome to our blog, Breban! Thank you for sharing your amazing feedback!
Another amazing recipe! I love that your recipes are always created with a perfect balance of a few fresh and simple ingredients that when put together are amazing! I’ve made more than I can mention, but this chicken avocado salad and your shrimp Alfredo are two of my favs! I subbed cilantro in for the dill just out of my unending love of cilantro, but I’m sure it would have been just as yummy with the dill! Thank you and please never stop sharing your amazing recipes!!! I’m a big fan!
I’m so happy you love our recipes! Thank you so much for the fantastic review and your encouraging words. I am smiling big reading your comment, Jenna!
Do you recommend to store with the avocado for lunch or separate since avocado turns brown?
Hi Angel, 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.
Hi Natasha!
That’s incredible, drooling over this, definitely gonna try this out.
Thanks for sharing.
You’re welcome! I hope you love this recipe.
Love, love all your recipes! Do you have any for a Polish Babka (coffee cake with raisins and a butter/flour/sugar crumb topping?
Hi Joan, we have this Chocolate Babka recipe here.
very good!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I’m so glad you enjoyed that, Art!
How do you reduce the sodium out of the avocado salad recipe?
Hi Venus, Bacon is high sodium, up to 500mg per ounce! We used lean bacon for this recipe and that number is still pretty significant. Omitting that will help reduce the sodium quite a bit.
I was on your blog and happened to see this recipe and it looks delicious. I’m going to make it tomorrow and try and keep some leftovers for the next day. You might be interested to know that when I printed the recipe it skipped steps 2 & 3 off the instructions even though I tried it in landscape and portrait. Anyway, not a big problem, because I hand-wrote the missed steps, but I just thought I’d let you know! Thanks for the recipe, I’ll see how it goes tomorrow.
Hi Edwina, are you printing the printable recipe at the bottom of the post?
Question- if I’m using the Kirkland brand canned chicken. About how many cans would I need?
Hi Mags, That would depend on how many ounces each can provides.
I had the same question about Costco canned chicken – label says 7 oz per can.