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This Healthy Chicken Salad Recipe is the perfect meal prep recipe for an easy lunch all week long. I love a salad that is hearty and filling. Salads get a bad reputation for just being a bowl of veggies that may taste good at the moment but leave you hungry in 30 minutes. The key is creating a salad that has filling, hearty ingredients like a healthy source of protein and grains. This recipe has just that!
Why You’ll Love This Healthy Chicken Salad Recipe
- Healthy: Just like the title states, this Chicken Salad is full of nourishing, healthy ingredients
- Versatile: You can swap the protein with a plant-based protein, and add (or subtract) any of the veggies for your fav
- Meal Prep: Meal prep this budget-friendly recipe for the week to have a healthy lunch to grab on those busy days
Ingredients
Pearl Barley – Pearl barley is harvested from ears of barley. Pearl barley is good for you and good for your heart health. It can help with your blood pressure, reduce your risk of heart disease, and so much more
Maria Koutsogiannia
Maria is the creator of FoodByMaria and your go-to Greek food expert for cozy, flavor-packed recipes. Inspired by her Mediterranean roots, she brings traditional Greek flavors, feel-good ingredients, and a whole lot of joy to everyday cooking.
Butter Beans – Butter beans are also known as lima beans and they are a healthy source of plant-based protein. You can easily swap these for other beans, but I love the buttery taste of butter beans
How to Make a Healthy Chicken Salad
- Cook the grains according to package instructions. While the grains are cooking, prepare the salad ingredients and make the dressing by whisking together all of the ingredients and set aside.
- Add all of the salad ingredients to a bowl, drizzle the dressing over, toss, and serve.
Tips and Tricks
- If you can’t find butter beans, cannellini or navy beans would be a delicious substitute
- Other delicious grains you could use in this salad are quinoa or brown rice
- Meal prep this Healthy Chicken Salad Recipe by keeping the dressing separate, and adding on top when you’re ready to consume
Substitutions
There are so many easy swaps you can make in this Chicken Salad, and here are just some I recommend:
- Butter Beans: Swap for any kind of bean you prefer such as kidney or black beans
- Chicken: You can use leftover rotisserie chicken, chicken breast, or chicken thighs. You can also substitute for any other protein you have on hand or eliminate all together
- Grains: Use whatever grains you like such as brown rice or quinoa
Best served with
- Greek Pita
- Chicken Souvlaki (remove the chicken from this recipe and just serve the salad as a side to this chicken souvlaki)
- Carrot Cake Smoothie (I love a salad paired with a smoothie for an extra healthy meal)
How to Store Leftovers
Store the dressing and salad separately to keep it longer in the fridge. If the salad is already mixed, it’ll still taste great for up to 3 days.
Common Questions
It’s important to load them up with protein. Try a lean protein like chicken and a plant-based protein like a bean. Adding in a grain can help make the salad feel more like a meal.
Hearts of palm can be a delicious alternative or sundried tomatoes. You can also omit them from this recipe completely.
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Ingredients
- 1 cup uncooked pearl barley or farro
- 2 cups shredded cooked chicken
- ½ cup crumbled feta cheese
- ¼ cup capers
- 1 cup marinated artichoke hearts, chopped in 1/2 inch pieces
- ½ cup diced green onion
- ½ cup diced shallots (about 2 shallots)
- 14 oz can butter beans, drained and rinsed
- ¼ cup chopped fresh dill
- ¼ cup chopped fresh parsley
- Optional: Add 1 cup chopped cucumber for more freshness!
For the dressing
- ⅓ cup olive oil
- ½ tbsp dried oregano
- ½ tsp salt
- ¼ tsp pepper
- juice of one lemon
- ½ tbsp red wine vinegar
- 2 garlic cloves, pressed
- 1 tbsp liquid honey
Instructions
Start Cooking- Cook the grains according to package instructions. While the grains are cooking, prepare the salad ingredients and make the dressing by whisking together all of the ingredients and set aside.
- Add all of the salad ingredients to a bowl, drizzle the dressing over, toss and serve.
Notes
- If you can’t find butter beans, cannellini or navy beans would be a delicious substitutes.
- This recipe would be delicious as a meal prep salad!
- Other delicious grains you could use in this salad are quinoa or brown rice.
- Optional: Add 1 cup chopped cucumber for more freshness!
74 people are discussing this recipe. Join in
Absolutely LOVED this recipe. It’s simple, fresh and light. I did lunch meal prep with this recipe and the salad was good for the whole week.
AWE Thank you so much Marisa! This makes me so happy!
This was absolutely the best thing I’ve made all week! The dressing is so fresh and delicious. I can hardly wait to eat this outside in the summertime with fresh garden produce! Obsessed with the blue zone recipes!
Thank you so much, Kylie!!! Let me know what else you try/have tried!!
I love this so much! I stuffed it in a pita and a scoop of tzatziki sauce. Yummm
DAMN!! What an idea. I love this so much.
I was worried there was going to be too many different flavor profiles but it came together BEAUTIFULLY. This was DELICIOUS both night of and the next day! I’ll be adding this to my dinner rotation and meal prep!!
Thank you so much, Keisha!
Easy to make and packed full of flavor! Great for a beginning of the week dinner and lunches the next few days. The way the flavors settled in together made those lunches just as amazing! 10/10 recommend!
Thank you so much for the love, Kimber!!!!!
This recipe was so good! And it will definitely feed a good amount of people. Loaded with flavor and HEALTHY. Will make again.
Another LOVED recipe into our collection of “make agains”! We put more quinoa in than barley and it was still delish. Lunches all week!
This makes me so happy!!!
Thank you!!!! That makes me so happy!