This Whole30-friendly Chicken Waldorf salad is an old-school dish made modern, quick, and easy!
Table of Contents
What is a Waldorf salad?
A Waldorf salad is a creamy fruit and nut salad that was originated by Oscar Tschirky, the maître d’hôtel of the Waldorf Astoria Hotel back in the late 19th century. Although the mayonnaise-dressed salad typically consists of celery, apples, walnuts, and grapes, I like to add cooked chicken to make this a complete meal.
Chicken Waldorf Salad
One of the reasons I tell people to roast two chickens at a time in our second cookbook, Ready or Not!, is because the extra chicken can be transformed into quick and easy leftover makeover dinners…like this Chicken Waldorf Salad! (Didn’t cook two birds? There’s no shame in buying a rotisserie chicken at the store as a shortcut, either!)
This salad’s a cinch to throw together because I almost always have the ingredients for it in my fridge and pantry. If you don’t like or don’t have one of the ingredients in this salad (e.g. tarragon, grapes, apples, etc.), just leave it out—it will still taste great. Creamy mayo + cooked chicken cubes + salad greens is a sure-fire combination that’ll rescue you from your dinner doldrums!
Ingredients
- Cooked and diced chicken breast or thighs
- Gala, Fuji, or Honeycrisp apple
- Red seedless grapes
- Celery
- Butter lettuce or romaine lettuce
- Minced fresh tarragon, chives, chervil, or Italian parsley
- Walnuts
- Paleo mayonnaise (I buy this one.)
- Dijon mustard
- Lemon juice
- Freshly ground black pepper
- Diamond Crystal kosher salt
How to make Chicken Waldorf Salad
In a small bowl, combine the diced apples and lemon juice.
Toss well.
In a large bowl, dump in the mayonnaise and mustard and whisk until uniform.
Toss in the cubed chicken, apples…
…grapes, celery…
…and tarragon. Mix well!
Taste for seasoning and add salt and pepper to taste.
Serve on a bed of lettuce.
Top with toasted walnuts right before serving.
You can make this salad up to two days in advance and store it its the fridge, but don’t add the toasted walnuts until you’re ready to serve it.
More paleo chicken salad recipes
Looking for more recipe ideas? Head on over to my Recipe Index. You’ll also find exclusive recipes in my cookbooks, Nom Nom Paleo: Food for Humans (Andrews McMeel Publishing 2013), Ready or Not! (Andrews McMeel Publishing 2017), and Nom Nom Paleo: Let’s Go! (Andrews McMeel Publishing 2022).
PRINTER-FRIENDLY RECIPE CARD
Chicken Waldorf Salad
Ingredients
- 1 medium Gala Fuji, or Honeycrisp apple, cored, and cut into ½-inch dice
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- ½ cup Paleo Mayonnaise
- 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
- 3 cups cooked and diced chicken breast or thighs
- ½ cup halved red seedless grapes
- 1 medium celery stalk thinly sliced
- 2 tablespoons minced fresh tarragon chives, chervil, or Italian parsley
- Freshly ground black pepper
- Diamond Crystal kosher salt
- 1 head butter lettuce or romaine lettuce
- ½ cup walnuts toasted (Only got raw nuts? Bake them in a 350°F oven for 5 to 10 minutes or until aromatic, shaking the pan at the halfway point.)
Instructions
- In a small bowl, combine the diced apples and lemon juice. Toss well.
- In a large bowl, dump in the mayonnaise and mustard and whisk until uniform.
- Add the cubed chicken, acidulated apples, grapes, celery, and tarragon to the large bowl. Use a spatula to mix everything together. Taste for seasoning and add salt and pepper to taste.
- Serve on a bed of lettuce. Top with toasted walnuts right before serving.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Michelle, I have both of your books, but don’t know the recipes like the back of my hand. So when I get your email & click on a recipe – I often wonder if I already have that in a book. I’m trying not to print for the sake of paper usage. Thanks!
I love this version of a recipe I’ve been making for years. The addition of lemon juice and tarragon add a brightness that my own recipe didn’t have! I highly recommend this recipe.
If you are trying not to go to the store, this is also tasty with canned tuna or canned salmon.
I love this chicken salad. I am known to use MagicMushroom Piwder to season it and substitute almonds or pecans depending on what I have. The salad has more flavor than the typical chicken salad recipe. One tip for other mayo/oil dressed salads: add mayo/oil to somewhat warm chicken (or may I suggest “potatoes”) to enhance flavor. I even warm my left over shredded chicken for this salad
Thanks for the tips!
One of my favorite salads of all time!
I made this for lunch today and now my kids think I’m nuts. Apparently I was doing a little happy dance in my seat while I was eating. Yeah, it’s that good. I just started doing paleo about 2 weeks ago but I was already a big fan of your cookbooks and blog so you’ve made it an easy transition for me. I’m so excited for book #3!
I love this recipe for chicken salad. When I first did a whole 30, this recipe helped navigate me through. Once I learned how to make mayonnaise, I made this chicken salad for breakfast lunch dinner. This was a go to when I didn’t know what to make next. Thank you for sharing this recipe and all of your recipes.
I make this for the family on Sundays so we have lunch for a few days. It’s delicious. My only changes are using golden raisins instead of grapes and adding finely diced red onion. I’ve made my own curry powder mix for the mayo giving it a slight Indian flavor. Super yum!