Pesto Chicken Salad
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This easy Pesto Chicken Salad is absolutely delicious, made in just five minutes and only has four ingredients! Whip up a batch today for lunch, brunch or your weekly healthy meal prep.
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Pesto Chicken Salad Recipe
This pesto chicken salad is such a delightfully delicious recipe to make for lunch or your weekly meal prep. It’s a great recipe to add a punch of flavor and fun to lunchtime. Basil pesto fans are going to love it for sure!
Pesto is so herby and savory, and it pairs wonderfully with the chicken and sweet sun-dried tomatoes. The dish is balanced beautifully with a little creamy mayo to make the best chicken salad EVER. You can serve it on top of salad greens, on a sandwich, or with some crackers.
It’s actually a wonderful use for Instant Pot shredded chicken. It’s one of my favorite ways to use leftover chicken actually. This pesto twist on classic chicken salad is just so tasty.
Like my apple walnut chicken salad or dill pickle chicken salad, this is another easy lunch recipe you’ll love to make time and time again! Plenty of protein and so much flavor!
Why You’ll Love this Recipe
Grab that leftover roasted chicken and then let’s get started on the most flavorful chicken salad:
- You only need four ingredients to make this recipe, and they’re all easy-to-find grocery essentials. It’s one of my favorite ways to make any easy meal in no time!
- It only takes five minutes to make basil pesto chicken salad. There’s no cooking involved in making it! Just grab your ingredients and mix them together, and you’re ready to serve!
- This is a wonderful meal prep recipe! Make it at the beginning of the week, separate into meal prep containers and then store for the week ahead.
Ingredients
These four simple ingredients are all that you need to make this easy chicken salad recipe:
- shredded chicken
- mayonnaise
- pesto: Homemade really takes it up a notch!
- sun-dried tomatoes
Substitutions and Variations
Optionally, add one tablespoon of minced red onion for more flavor and crunch. Yellow onion or green onion would be tasty.
I recommend sun-dried tomatoes packed in oil for more flavor, and when possible, buying sulfite-free tomatoes.
Store-bought pesto and homemade basil pesto will both work great! Grab whichever is easiest for you.
For the Whole30 diet, use my compatible dairy-free pesto, compatible mayo, and sugar-free and sulfite-free tomatoes. For low carb, make sure you use sugar-free tomatoes and sugar-free mayo.
If you don’t like or don’t have mayo, you can substitute unflavored, unsweetened Greek yogurt.
Add extra ingredients if you want! Sliced cherry tomatoes, fresh basil, red pepper, pine nuts and chopped pecans are all yummy.
How to Make Pesto Chicken Salad
Follow these step-by-step instructions to make the ultimate chicken salad! It’s so yummy and always turns out great:
If your sun-dried tomatoes are jarred in oil, drain the oil. If they’re halved or julienned, then dice them into small pieces.
Add the chicken, mayo, pesto and sun-dried tomatoes to a large mixing bowl.
Mix all the ingredients together until they’re fully combined.
Lightly season the chicken salad with pepper to taste. The pesto is usually salty enough to flavor the chicken salad, so it probably won’t need any salt.
And that’s it — you’re done! You can enjoy the chicken salad right away, or cover and store it in the refrigerator until you’re ready to eat it.
How to Store Leftover Pesto Chicken Salad
Leftover refrigerated chicken salad can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for 3-4 days. For best taste, I would not recommend freezing chicken salad. Mayonnaise will separate once it defrosts, so the texture of the chicken salad would not be creamy or appealing.
What to Serve with Pesto Chicken Salad
Serve this flavorful chicken salad on toasted nut free keto bread, lettuce wraps, or with crackers or slices of cucumbers. It’s the perfect accompaniment with pita chips and tortilla chips too!
This easy chicken salad recipe goes great with tasty sides like broccoli bacon salad, deviled eggs and air fryer roasted green beans. A dessert like strawberry dump cake or key lime cake is great with this meal too.
Tips for Success
With these few simple tips and tricks, you can ensure your creamy peso chicken salad turns out great:
- Don’t have any leftover chicken on hand? Grab a store-bought rotisserie chicken and shred that to use in this delicious recipe.
- A creamy basil pesto sauce is typically already pretty salty. Because of that, make sure you don’t add any salt until after you taste test.
- Make sure to shred the chicken into really thin pieces. Large chunks tend to stand out in chicken salad!
FAQ
I recommend serving this chicken salad cold for the best flavor. Chicken salad is meant to be a cold dish and I find that the flavors taste the best after it’s sat in the fridge for about 24 hours.
Your chicken doesn’t necessarily have to be cold, but it really shouldn’t be hot. Piping hot chicken will likely make the mayonnaise lose a bit of stability and make the chicken salad thin instead of thick and creamy!
More Healthy Lunch Recipes
I’d love to hear about your experience making this recipe! Please leave a comment and rating below!
Pesto Chicken Salad
Equipment
- Wide Mouth Mason Jar
- Sun-dried Tomatoes
Ingredients
- 2 cups cooked chicken cooked and diced or shredded
- 1/3 cup pesto
- 3 tablespoons mayonnaise
- 2 tablespoons sun-dried tomatoes diced
- 1 pinch black pepper to taste
Instructions
- If the sun-dried tomatoes are jarred in oil, drain the oil, then dice the tomatoes into small, bite-sized pieces.
- Add the chicken, mayo, pesto, and sun-dried tomatoes to a bowl.
- Mix all the ingredients together until they’re fully combined. Lightly season the chicken salad with pepper.
- Once the chicken salad is mixed together, you can add more pesto and/or mayo to taste, one tablespoon at a time, until it's the consistency you prefer.
- Serve and enjoy right away or cover and store in the refrigerator until you’re ready to eat it, up to 4 days in advance, per USDA.
Notes
- Optionally, add 1 tablespoon of minced red onion for more flavor and crunch.
- I recommend sun-dried tomatoes packed in oil for more flavor, and when possible, buying sulfite-free tomatoes.
- For Whole30: Use my compatible dairy-free pesto, compatible mayo, and sugar-free and sulfite-free tomatoes.
- For Low Carb: Use sugar-free tomatoes and sugar-free mayo.
