Chicken Cranberry Salad is a beautifully simple, fresh green salad to toss together for a light lunch. Make it with either cooked chicken or leftover turkey. It's one of those things that you can look forward to as a treat the day after a big holiday meal!
I love that this salad is a healthy way to use leftover turkey. The recipe is free from gluten and dairy and uses only a little of the natural sweeteners.
What Goes into This Recipe
- Cooked Poultry - Use either chicken or turkey. This might be leftover from a grocery store rotisserie chicken or Roast Chicken or Turkey you have cooked for a previous meal. Maybe you cook some boneless, skinless chicken specifically for adding to salads.
- Poppy Seed Dressing - Use either store-bought salad dressing or make you own Poppy Seed Dressing.
- Dried Cranberries - I prefer to use pure dried cranberries that haven't had any sugar added to them.
How to Make Chicken Cranberry Salad
Toss pecans with some maple syrup and salt. Then toast them in the oven for a few minutes.
Slice up some cooked chicken or turkey.
Arrange lettuce in a bowl. Top it with chicken, cranberries, and pecans. Drizzle some salad dressing over it, and it's ready to serve.
Recipe FAQ's and Tips
Leftover turkey will keep in the fridge for 3 or 4 days, if it hasn't been left sitting out too long after serving.
You can prepare the pecans, slice the meat, and have washed lettuce, dried cranberries, and salad dressing ready to go. I don't recommend actually assembling the salad early, because lettuce with salad dressing on it doesn't keep well.
Leftover turkey is great in salads like this one. You can make Chicken Salad and serve it in a sandwich, or you can reheat sliced turkey in gravy and serve it on leftover mashed potatoes that have been fried in butter or oil
If you have more leftover turkey, you might also like...
- Chicken Salad with Mango, Red Pepper, and Green Onions
- Mango Avocado Salad with Chicken (or turkey)
- Chicken Waldorf Salad
- Easy Chicken Salad
This Chicken Cranberry Salad recipe is for two servings. Feel free to half, double, or triple it according to your needs.
It's easy to recalculate my recipes for different numbers of servings! Click on the number of servings, change it, and the ingredient measurements (but not the metric ones 🙁 ) will adjust accordingly! 🙂
Recipe
Chicken Cranberry Salad
Equipment
- Chef Knife
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons (14 g) pecan pieces
- ½ teaspoon (3 ml) maple syrup
- dash sea salt
- 8 ounces (227 g) cooked chicken or turkey
- 6 cups (150 g) fresh spring greens mix
- 4 tablespoons (32 g) dried cranberries
- 2 tablespoons (60 ml) Poppy Seed Salad Dressing
Instructions
- Toss pecans with maple syrup and salt. Spread onto a parchment lined baking sheet. Roast in a preheated 350°F (177°C) oven for about 8 minutes, watching them closely. Remove them from the pan to cool.
- Meanwhile, slice the cooked chicken.
- Arrange lettuce on plates to serve. Top it with chicken, cranberries, pecans, and salad dressing.
Video
Notes
- Use either cooked chicken or turkey for this salad.
- The pecans and salad dressing can be prepared up to a day or two ahead.
- Assemble the salad just before serving to keep the lettuce fresh.
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