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
- Asian Chopped Salad
- Maroulosalata – Greek Lettuce Salad
- Cucumber Tomato Avocado Salad
- Taco Salad
- Classic Tuna Salad
- Caesar Salad
- Creamy Cucumber Salad
Do you happen to have a calorie count on this? Thank you!
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 Andrea!
This looks absolutely wonderful. I have a question though…. I live alone and intend to cut the recipe in half but was wondering how long this would keep? Have you ever had leftovers? My plan was possibly not adding the dressing until I eat it so as not to get soggy,
Joan, it keeps well with the dressing overnight. You can add the dressing and omit salt, to preserve if for longer period of time.
I ate this three days in a row and thought it tasted better each day!!
What I did was mix the corn, cucumber, lettuce, mint & parsley & pulled lettuce into a glass bowl and had the chicken wrapped in gladwrap and the dressing in a small ramekin, also had steamed broccoli and asparagus that I also kept separate. We made our salad up each night. Kept well for 3 nights 🙂
Surprised it lasted that long, it’s devine 🙂
This is amazing….however 15 min prep time is way understated lol. I just made this and it took 2 hours and I used a rotisserie chicken! By the time you cook the corn, eggs, bacon, and chop and mix….just sayin, allow yourself a lot more time than 15 min. 😉
Hi Kathy, thank you for sharing! I’m so glad you loved the recipe!
I’ve made this twice in the last 10 days or so! The first time I made it exactly as written & it was fantastic! Tonight I added quartered cherry tomatoes and some small pasta “salad” noodles and that was even better! I doubled the dressing since the quantity it needed to cover was larger. Thanks so much! This is definitely a keeper!!
My pleasure Marianne! I’m happy to hear how much you enjoy the recipe! Thanks for sharing your wonderful review with other readers!
This has become my family’s favorite salad…replacing my long-time favorite “orzo salad”…and it ain’t easy pleasing 6 people at once. So easy and delicious. Thank you 🙂
You’re welcome Lisa! I’m glad to hear the recipe is a HIT! Thanks for sharing your excellent review!
This looks so good!! Do you deliver???
I’m going to Sams tomorrow to get the ingredients. I’ll let you know how it turns out.
Please do Judi! It’s super popular for good reason! I hope you love it!
Which cooking method do you use to cook the chicken?
Hi Christopher, I use a store-bought rotisserie chicken for this so it’s as easy as it gets. You can roast your own chicken or season and sautee chicken breasts on an oiled skillet until cooked through.
Thank you.
Oh my!! I meant “nutritional value”… I would like to know the nutritional value on the avocado chicken salad.
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 Marcia!
I would love to know the Buttonball value please.
Hi Marcee, I’m not sure what Buttonball is – is it a new diet?
This is delicious! I thought I had lemons but did not. However, I do have lemon olive oil that I used and it worked beautifully! Thanks for the recipe!
My pleasure Tamara! I’m happy to hear that! Thanks for sharing your great review!
Any suggestions on a substitute for the dill? My kids aren’t a fan of that part but I LOVED this so I want to make it again
Hi Chelsey, 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 used turkey bacon and ate a serving on top of mixed greens. It was so good!
Yum, that sounds delicious! Thanks for sharing your great review Sarah!
I love this recipe so much! How many servings does this make? Any ideas how many calories per serving? Thanks!
Hi Melissa, So you can easily find it in the future, I usually put serving sizes in the print-friendly recipe towards the bottom of the page. On this one it is: 6 as a side or 4 as an entree. I don’t usually put calorie counts due to time constraints 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!
what would I be able to use as a substitute for corn on the cob, didn’t like it with canned corn niblets and getting hard to find corn on the cob at this time of year 🙁
Hi Mary, sliced English cucumber works great in this salad as well 🙂
Frozen corn (cooked for only 4 or 5 minutes) is almost just like corn on the cob.
Made this salad adding tomatoes and grilled asparagus added it on top of farro pasta for a complete meal! Excellent
Oh yum! That sounds great! I’m glad you enjoy the recipe! Thanks for sharing your review Lori!
Making this tonight., can’t wait! Love your recipes!
Please let me know what you think Pam!
Natasha, you have so many good recipes. Thank you for sharing.
My pleasure Laurie! Thanks for following!!
I love this recipe…. will make it when I get home from Disneyland!
Please let me know what you think Dot! Have fun!!
Best salad around. This is the third time I am making it since Fall. My husband requested, it’s that good. Winner winner recipe.
I am so happy to hear that! It sounds like it has become a regular for you! 😉 Thank you for sharing your amazing review 🙂
I just made this tonight. It was ok, but not great. It tasted bland to me. I tried adding toasted, slivered almonds for crunch, but that didn’t help much. I think next time I’ll add a fruit like golden raisins, grape halves or craisins for some sweetness to offset the tart lemon.
Hi Deb, I’m not sure if this helps, but I have found that fresh (not concentrate) lemon juice and freshly cooked corn (not canned) make all the difference in this salad.
Oh my goodness! I hate corn and I’m not a fan of avocado chunks. I made this recipe, exactly as recipe states and it is amazing. I love all the flavors togerher and i wouldnt change a thing. So good!! Thanks for sharing this. Im adding it to my faves, now!
My pleasure Andrea! I’m glad you love the recipe! Thanks for sharing your fantastic review!