Smoked Chicken Salad
A perfect smoked chicken salad recipe. Deep smokey flavor changes plain chicken salad into something spectacular! It’s keto and low-carb (without the bread, of course).
Why You Will Love This Recipe
This smoked chicken salad recipe is a great way to use leftover smoked chicken.
A smoked whole chicken is perfect for chicken salad. A deep smokey flavor changes plain chicken salad into something spectacular!
As with our Savory Chicken Salad, we don’t add nuts or fruit, making this recipe keto or low-carb! Win, win! If you’re a fan of chicken salad recipes, you should check that one out!
Instead of making a standard bread sandwich, use your favorite lettuce for a wrap.
As mentioned, we don’t go in for all that fresh fruit and nuts in our salad. As such, outside of the crunch of the celery, you get a wonderfully delicious bite of smoked chicken salad.
No weird blast of fruit or chunks of green bell pepper, just a clean smoky flavor. Good chicken salad should keep the flavor of the chicken out front, in our opinion.
The smoked chicken with the spices we use brings all those amazing flavors together to form a perfect whole.
This is what I call a classic chicken salad. Pure, with no detractors.
Ingredients Needed
Smoked Chicken – We smoke whole chickens, but if you want just to smoke chicken breasts or chicken thighs (or both), that will also work. You could even pull this off with a rotisserie chicken (which we have also done).
The rest of the ingredients are pretty standard: some mayonnaise, celery, and spices.
How to Make Smoked Chicken Salad
If you are going to start up the smoker, you might as well smoke two chickens, right?
After the chicken cools, pull the meat from the bones of the chicken.
In the bowl of a food processor, add a mix of breast and thigh meat, and pulse a few times until the meat is chopped fine.
We don’t like just using chicken breast meat only. A mixture of both dark and light meats yields much better flavor and moisture.
Measure 3 cups of chopped chicken into a large bowl. Add the 3/4 cup of finely chopped celery. If desired, add 2 or 3 diced green onions or about 1/2 cup diced red onion.
Mix the mayonnaise, celery salt, dried dill, parsley, smoked paprika, and black pepper in a mixing bowl.
Pour the dressing over the chicken and celery and stir to combine thoroughly. Season with kosher salt and pepper to taste, but we find it perfect without additional seasoning.
Cover and refrigerate for at least one hour before serving. We usually like to let it refrigerate overnight for the best flavor.
Serve on a nice fluffy, slightly sweet brioche bread or a flaky, buttery croissant! Toss a bed of lettuce down, perhaps a slice of tomato. Smoked chicken salad sandwiches for the win!
The sweetness of the bread contrasts amazingly with the smoked chicken. It really is super delicious!
This easy smoked chicken salad recipe may become one of your favorite chicken recipes. It’s one of ours!
Tips And Variations
There isn’t much I would change about this recipe. But depending on what kind of chicken you’re preparing, consider your dry rub.
- If the barbecue rub you use on your chicken doesn’t marry well with the other ingredients, you may want to use something else.
- Don’t overpower the chicken with a crazy rub, you want that smoked chicken flavor to be forward facing.
- You could toss in some green onion, and perhaps hit it with some lemon juice. Other than that, I wouldn’t mess with this recipe. It’ll have great flavor, I promise.
- Want it as a dip, serve it up with your favorite crackers.
- If you’re all about that Keto life, serve it up in some fresh lettuce wraps. Perfect!
FAQ
Yes! Store in an airtight container and refrigerate. You will find that it’s even better the next day.
3 to 4 days if stored and refrigerated in an airtight container.
Yes. All the ingredients have come together; from experience, we know it’s better the next day. We recommend allowing it to warm a bit at room temperature before serving.
Other Smoked Recipes
Smoked Chicken Salad Recipe
Ingredients
- 3 c Smoked chicken chopped or minced
- 3/4 c Celery diced small
- 1 c Mayonnaise
- 1/2 tsp Celery salt
- 1/2 tsp Dried dill
- 1/2 tsp Dried parsley
- 1/2 tsp Smoked paprika
- 1/2 tsp Fresh ground pepper
Instructions
- In the bowl of a food processor add a mix of breast and thigh meat, pulse a few times until the meat is chopped fine.
- Measure 3 cups of chopped chicken into a large bowl. Add the finely chopped celery. (If desired add 2 or 3 diced green onions.)3 c Smoked chicken, 3/4 c Celery
- In a small bowl combine the mayonnaise, celery salt, dried dill, dried parsley, smoked paprika, and pepper.1 c Mayonnaise, 1/2 tsp Celery salt, 1/2 tsp Dried dill, 1/2 tsp Dried parsley, 1/2 tsp Smoked paprika, 1/2 tsp Fresh ground pepper
- Pour the dressing mixture over the chicken and celery and stir to combine thoroughly.
- Cover and refrigerate for at least one hour before serving. We usually like to let it refrigerate overnight for the best flavor.
- Serve on a nice fluffy, slightly sweet brioche bread or a flaky, buttery croissant!