Curry Chicken Salad

Curry Chicken Salad is a delicious twist on a favorite lunch! Full of bold curry flavor, it's loaded with cashews, golden raisins, celery, cilantro and a hint of honey.  In just 15 minutes, you can meal prep a batch for the busy week ahead!

• Simple and Easy plus Loaded with Flavor! - While I LOVE my classic Chicken Salad with Grapes and Apples, this Curry Chicken Salad with raisins and cashews is a delicious twist on the usual fruit and nut combinations! That spoonful of curry powder packs so much flavor, sweetened with a drizzle of honey, it's incredibly tasty!

• Perfect Meal Prep! - Curried Chicken Salad with golden raisins is the ultimate meal prep for lunch on a busy week! It's full of pantry staples, so you probably have everything you need on hand. With only 8 ingredients, it turns leftover chicken into my go-to favorite lunch!

• Be sure to try my Simple Tuna Salad, Perfect Egg Salad and Broccoli Salad with Feta and Cranberries too!

Ingredients

• Cooked Chicken - Curry chicken salad with rotisserie chicken or any leftover chicken is ideal for this recipe. Your chicken can be cooked in any way, such as grilled, baked, or in a crockpot and either shredded or chopped. This Cast Iron Skillet Chicken Breast is great when you need cooked chicken for any recipe!

• Celery - Adds flavor, nutrition, and a nice cold crunch to the salad.

• Fresh Cilantro - This is an optional ingredient but I absolutely love cilantro in this recipe! It adds such a bright pop of freshness to the chicken salad. Use your extra cilantro in Guacamole or Cilantro Lime Hummus.

• Golden Raisins - Curry Chicken Salad with golden raisins is the perfect touch of chewy sweetness in this recipe. If you don't have golden raisins, regular raisins are ok.

• Cashews - I like to buy whole roasted and salted cashews and give them a rough chop. If you are starting with raw cashews, you can give them a light toast in a dry pan to bring out their flavor. Peanuts are a great substitute. If you are using heavily salted nuts, consider cutting back on the amount of salt you add.

• Honey - Honey adds a touch of sweetness to balance the savory curry powder.

• Curry powder - The star ingredient! That curry powder brings amazing flavor into this chicken salad. Give it a taste at the end and add more if you like!

• Salt and Pepper - Consider how salty your chicken and your cashews are when deciding how much salt to add. You may not need to add any. Mix everything together and taste it first, then adjust the seasoning. You can always add more salt, but you can't take it out once you add it!

• Mayonnaise -  The amount of mayo in chicken salad can be a thing of preference, so start with a little and add more until the consistency seems right to you! If you want to make this recipe without mayo, you can add a drizzle of olive oil and a scoop of plain yogurt instead.

See recipe card for full quantities.

Instructions

Step 1 - Combine all ingredients in a bowl and mix well.

Step 2 - Adjust the salt and the mayo until you reach the desired consistency.

Step 3 - Serve on sandwiches, tortilla wraps, pita pockets, lettuce wraps, scooped on a salad, or as a dip with crackers and veggie slices.

Recipe Tips

• Amounts don't need to be exact - This recipe is versatile and flexible! So if you love the golden raisins or the cashews, add extra. Out of celery, you can skip it and try a bit of onion or scallions in it's place.

• Try Grapes or Apples - A lot of curry chicken salad recipes add grapes, and they would be a great addition to this recipe as well! Just a handful of red grapes, sliced in half or chopped apple is a nice variation for a juicy burst of nutrition and flavor.

• Options for the Cashews - Pay attention to whether your cashews are raw or roasted and whether they are already salted. If they are raw, you may want to toast them for a few minutes in a dry pan. Peanuts, almonds, pistachios, sesame or sunflower seeds could all be substituted.

• Salt - Keep in mind how salt your chicken and cashews are before deciding how much salt to add to the salad. You may not need any, give it a taste before adding!

How to Serve Curry Chicken Salad

Once you have a batch of this cashew Curry Chicken Salad meal prepped in your fridge, there are so many options for enjoying it! Lunch can be different every day.

• Curry Chicken Salad Sandwiches - Serve it as a sandwich on toasted bread, my Dutch Oven Overnight Bread is delicious! You can add lettuce, spinach, cucumber or avocado slices.

• Curry Chicken Salad Wrap - Serve in a deli wrap tortilla or pita pocket with lettuce or spinach. You could also add avocado and sliced cucumber.

• Curry Chicken Salad Lettuce Wraps or over Salad Greens - Add a few scoops to a salad with a this Easy Vinaigrette in a Jar. Add in some shredded carrot, chopped mango or apple, and sunflower seeds. Or serve it rolled up in a lettuce wrap for a healthy gluten-free option.

• Chicken Curry Dip - Serve it in a bowl as a dip with crackers and cucumber slices.

Curry Chicken Salad makes an excellent lunch menu when entertaining! Serve it with a light soup like this Carrot Ginger Coconut Soup or this Spring Asparagus Soup. You can also add a Simple Fruit Platter or Roasted Carrot Hummus with veggies and crackers to dip!

If you made this recipe, I'd love to hear how you liked it!  Be sure to leave a star rating by clicking the stars in the recipe card, or leave a comment below!

Follow Sungrown Kitchen on Pinterst, Instagram, and Facebook for loads of garden recipes!  Subscribe Here for new recipes delivered straight to your inbox!