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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- Taco Salad
- Classic Tuna Salad
- Caesar Salad
- Creamy Cucumber Salad
I don’t have frssh dill :{ how much of organic dry dill could I use in this salad? Thank you so much for your recipes. They are my go to when tryng new ones.
Hi Dina, dry would only be good if you soaked it with the dressing to soften it up. Dry is better for cooked foods. I would skip dill and just leave it out. You can add more of the chives if desired.
Looks like there are hard boiled eggs in the picture but I don’t see them included in the recipe!
Hi Connie, the eggs are optional and a great way to add in protein. Here is our tutorial on how to cook hard boiled eggs.
Thank you for practical recipes that are family friendly! I have to be very precise with my diet and love the nutritional information that you provide. It’s so valuable to me. Would you be able to list what a serving size is for the recipes? Portion control is one of my downfalls and I measure everything. Thank you for considering!
Hi Janie, the serving size can usually be found in the recipe card just click on Jump to recipe when you are at the recipe link. I hope that helps.
Made this salad and it was both pretty and delicious
Just ran across this. Wanted to try something different. I plan on meal prepping this for my work week. Would this last for 5 days?
Thanks
Hi Kenny, the avocados would probably brown and the salad wouldn’t be as vibrant. We have enjoyed leftovers the next day, but it’s not ideal for much longer than a couple of days.
Hi Natasha! I tried you wreath bread last night! Omg delicious and so easy to make with your instructions! That was the first time I’ve made bread by hand! Today I m going to make your Chicken Avocado salad!
I’m so glad you tried our bread recipe! I hope you love our chicken avocado salad!
The best salad ever! Everything goes so well together. I Make this all the time. With rotisserie chicken from the store, makes it even easier:) thank you!
You are most welcome, Natalya! Thank you too for your excellent review.
Hello! I always watch you!! I love your passion and how do you explain with a lots love every recipes! My goal is to learn to to make different plates and desserts for my family!! Thanks and I’m very excite to be part of your fallows 😇
Thank you for always watching my videos, Virgina. I hope that you and your family will love every recipe/dessert that you will try!
Hi Natasha, I’m new to your kitchen! First recipe I tried from you was the Delicious Salmon one with butter & garlic.
Really love your easy to follow recipes, they always turn out so good. THANK YOU!💕
I’m happy to hear that you’ve been enjoying my recipes, Sally. I hope that you will love every recipe that you will try!
Hi natasha, I love the way you make baking look so easy, you are so lovely to watch and you speak like you know us, i feel watching you i can bake a sponge cake now. Keep up the good work. Very knowledgeable and a very down to earth person. Love you.
Hello Joan, that’s so nice of you. Thank you so much for your kind words and good feedback. I appreciate it so much!
I have really enjoyed reading, making and hoping to make a recipe on your blog. They always look so delicious even if I haven’t had the chance to make them. You always seem to really enjoy making your recipes. And last, but certainly not least I love seeing your family pop in occasionally to hang out with you. Thank you for sharing your recipes and your family with us.
Hello Donna, so nice to hear from you. Thank you for your nice comments, I will do my best to share my family as often as possible. I’m just glad you’re enjoying my videos!
Hello from Cebu,Philippines. I really love this recipe. Been making this for 9 months now all of my family love it after they tried it, and of course my husband.
😘 🍴
Wow, that’s so nice to know, Mitchie. Thanks for your good feedback!
Hello Natasha! Just a question – might be a silly one. What if I don’t have extra virgin olive oil? Is regular olive oil ok? Thanks!
I like using extra olive oil for my salads but that would work too
This is so-o good! Thank you!
You’re welcome! I’m so happy you enjoyed it!
Avocado chicken salad looks very tasty and easy for my wife and I. We are not greatly thrilled on the avocado, but we are willing to work it out. We think we will have some issues, but overall it will be good!!,
Sounds good. Please share with us how it goes if you try it!
I love this recipe. I don’t know how many times I’ve made it and it’s so satisfying. Today I added two tablespoons of mayo and it is absolutely delicious. I’ve also found that I prefer red onion that is VERY finely diced to the green onion- but either way it’s so good.
I’m so happy you enjoyed that. Thank you for sharing that with us!
Natasha, you used to have a different Avocado Chicken Salad recipe on your site and it was different to the current one. It did not have bacon, corn, hard boiled eggs and I don’t believe it had dill. All of ingredients were presented separately on a platter with a dressing drizzled over. What happened to that recipe? I can’t find it anymore.
Hi Caron, you can find all of our Avocado Recipes here. I hope this is helpful.
Hallo Natasha, I will definitely try your Chicken avocado salad,this is my first time to try your recipe…..btw I just try your Cream Brullee though….but I don’t know why I am not very satisfied ..my first try!
I will make this chicken avocado tonight…New Year’s Eve!
I hope you love the chicken avocado recipe, Willa! I’m more than happy to troubleshoot your creme brulee recipe, was anything substituted or didn’t turn out?
Hello from Ireland, this salad looks delish! I can’t wait to get out of isolation to get shopping for this Recipe. I don’t have this bloody Co-vi d but it sure is a pain in the arse. Looking forward to trying quite a few of your recipes.
Thanx, Roisin
That is so tough. I hope things get better for you and your area soon!
Love this made it for family they loved it too! Added more avocado and dill to kick it up but love the base recipe awesome!!!
Hi Kay, That’s so great! I’m so happy you enjoyed this recipe!
I’m from Texas and I love Chinese food. I tried your Beef and Broccoli recipe and let me say it ROCKS! I used the same sauce for a Chicken stir fry that also ROCKED! Thanks for your tips and recipes. How about a Ginger beef/chicken Thai recipe! I’m a big fan!
Awww that’s the best! Thank you so much for sharing that with me! I’m all smiles
I tried your method of creamy mashed potatoes today,
I been doing mine wrong all that time Thank you my newest friend.
K.
You’re welcome! Sounds like you found a new favorite!