Here’s a wonderfully simple lunch you can make with leftover roasted chicken. Think: Costco rotisserie chicken or even better—roast a chicken yourself. You can make broth from the bones, crisp up the chicken skin for chips in your air fryer, and use the chicken meat for this salad, some soup, or a casserole.
Why this recipe works
Fresh, simple ingredients! This is such as easy meal to throw together. I think the chopped celery, herbs, and pecans offer great texture and balance the roasted chicken and mayo. You can easily adapt this to any herbs or spices you like!
A great leftover go-to
The first time I made this recipe, I had the ingredients on hand and wanted to use up leftovers. I had some leftover Costco rotisserie chicken and some Chosen brand avocado mayo in my fridge. Having these two ingredients in my fridge was the inspiration for this dish.
Other ingredients you’ll need in addition to the two already mentioned include: a lemon, celery, fresh parsley, tarragon, and pecans. And salt and pepper, of course!
During summer I have a variety of herbs growing in pots on my deck at the ready. I love to be able to go out and cut a few sprigs of what I want to use whenever I need them.
Pulling it together
This comes together very quickly. I start with shredding the chicken right on the cutting board. You might also choose to dice it up if you like it diced. Whichever method, go for bite size pieces.
Then, in a bowl, we’ll make a dressing. I first add a few dollups of mayonnaise, then the lemon juice, then the chopped herbs. Season with salt and pepper and mix it up.
Set the dressing aside and prep the celery and pecans.
Dice the celery into a small, fine dice. I usually slice lengthwise a few times, then dice the stalks. Next, you want to take a few pecans and place on your cutting board. With a large, sharp knife, chop the nuts into small pieces.
Add the shredded chicken and celery to the dressing and mix well. I usually top this with the pecans because it’s prettier and they stay crunchier as a garnish on top. You can mix it altogether if you like the nuts mixed in.
Serving variations
I’ve eaten this with fresh greens. If I were taking this to work for lunch, I pack a container with greens in the bottom, then add the salad, then the pecans on top. At lunchtime, I mixed everything together. It was a great, balanced combo and I had a vehicle for adding some leafy greens.
You could also serve this with a few miniature sweet peppers sliced into pieces for scooping, add some grape tomatoes, sliced avocado, red onion, or bacon bits.
If you have friends and family coming over who are not low carb eaters, you could make this salad and put out some additional ingredient mix-ins like grapes, green apples, or sweet red bell pepper. You could also use different herbs such as basil or dill which be amazing!
