Dill Chicken Salad – Healthy and Easy!

Dill chicken salad is healthy, easy to make! It’s great on a croissant, a wrap, a salad, or on its own!

Chicken salad is one of my favorite things to make when I’m meal prepping. It keeps well in the fridge and is perfect for a quick lunch or dinner. It’s healthy, packed with lean protein, and so delicious whether you eat it on bread or as a salad.

I have a few recipes for chicken salad and if you haven’t tried them already, be sure to check out my healthy chicken salad with walnuts and grapes (I also make this without walnuts and it’s great), curried chicken salad, or my southwest chicken salad (you’re going to love the flavors in that one!).

I wanted to make a chicken salad that was a little different from the norm. I had a big bunch of dill in the fridge, extra that was left over from my dill potato salad. I think I hit on a winner with this recipe.

The dill in this chicken salad goes great with the creamy dressing. It’s fresh, flavorful and a taste of spring no matter what time of the year it is. I keep the rest of this chicken salad fairly straight-forward: diced celery for crunch and finely minced green onions for flavor.

In a perfect world with no calories, I’d be enjoying this chicken salad on a soft croissant every single time. However, it’s good on its own, on a pile of lettuce, or in a wrap. What’s your favorite way to eat chicken salad?

About This Recipe

The dressing is a combination of Greek yogurt and mayonnaise, my go-to combination for chicken salad recipes. The yogurt keeps it light (and adds extra protein) and a little mayo mellows out the tanginess of the yogurt.

This recipe is pretty versatile. If you like more vegetables in your salad, feel free to add them. Radishes, cucumbers, or green bell peppers are good choices.

I’ll get you started on the recipe here. Look for the printable recipe card near the bottom of the post for complete instructions, measurements, and nutrition information.

What You’ll Need

• Cooked Chicken: Although the recipe is written for boneless skinless chicken breasts, really any type of cooked chicken will work. You’ll need three to four cups. If you have rotisserie chicken left over, that is fine. Prefer dark meat? Try boneless skinless chicken thighs. Leftover turkey is good, too. Check out the Make-Ahead Ideas for ways to prep chicken to use in recipes like this one.
• Celery: Crisp green celery adds a nice crunch to the salad, giving it a good texture.
• Plain Greek Yogurt: You can use any type of plain Greek yogurt, full fat, nonfat, or 2%. Choose what you like best. Just make sure it’s unflavored.
• Mayonnaise: Again, choose whatever brand you like best.
• Fresh Dill: Dill is the standout flavor in this salad so fresh dill is the best choice. Dry dill is okay if fresh dill isn’t available but remember you’ll need a lot less (about 1 tablespoon dry). Have extra fresh dill? Make lemon salmon with dill or dill vegetable dip.
• Green Onion (Scallion): Start with one green onion, finely minced. If you really like onions, go ahead and increase the amount. Use both the white and green parts.
• Dijon Mustard: This flavorful mustard is so good in dressings. If you’re not a mustard fan, decrease the amount slightly.
• Apple Cider Vinegar: Just a hint of vinegar adds a bit of acidity to the dressing. If you don’t happen to have apple cider vinegar, another type of vinegar is fine (white vinegar, white wine vinegar, rice vinegar).
• Salt & Pepper: Begin with the amounts listed on the recipe card, taste the dressing, and add more to your taste.

How To Make This Recipe

It’s so easy. Cut the chicken into small pieces or shred it if you prefer it that way. Chop the celery, and mix it with the chicken in a large mixing bowl.

Finely chop the fresh dill and green onion. Set those aside for a minute.

Next stir up the dressing ingredients. For easy clean up, measure the yogurt in a large measuring cup. Next, add the mayonnaise on top of the yogurt – no need to get out another measuring cup.

Add the mustard, vinegar, salt and pepper. Give the dressing a good stir right in the measuring cup until it’s well-blended. Fold in the dill and green onions.

Using a rubber spatula, scrape the contents of the measuring cup into the mixing bowl with the chicken and celery. Gently fold everything together until the chicken is coated with the dressing.

If you’re not serving the salad right away, cover the bowl and refrigerate it. Stir it again before serving it.

Serve the salad as a sandwich filling on a croissant, wrap, or bread. It can also be served on a bed of chopped lettuce or on a single leaf of lettuce, with a garnish of fresh dill sprigs or toasted sliced almonds or sunflower seeds.

Make It Your Own

• Add more vegetables to the salad. Cut up cucumbers, sliced radishes, or chopped green bell pepper are all great additions. Diced tomato or halved cherry tomatoes are wonderful, too, but add them right before serving so your salad doesn’t get too juicy.
• Love lemon? Replace the cider vinegar with fresh lemon juice and add 2 teaspoons finely grated lemon zest to the dressing. It tastes great with the dill and adds a great fresh bright flavor to this chicken salad
• Add cheese. Crumbled feta cheese goes particularly well with this salad.
• Add nuts or seeds. Top the salad with toasted sliced almonds or sunflower seeds.
• Looking for a non-dairy chicken salad? Try avocado chicken salad. The creamy dressing is made with avocados and it’s so good!
• Not crazy about chicken salad? Try egg salad or chickpea salad.

Make-Ahead Ideas

Keep cooked chicken in your fridge or freezer for recipes like this. Buy a large family pack of chicken and cook it all up at once. Cool it down, cut it into chunks, and store it in freezer bags. It will keep for up to 4 months. It thaws pretty quickly and will be ready to use in all kinds of recipes. It’s a real time-saver!

• Instant Pot shredded chicken – You can shred or cube the chicken depending on how you want to use it.
• Roasted bone in chicken breasts – I find that bone in chicken has more flavor.
• Air fryer chicken breasts – It’s so easy to make chicken in your air fryer. If you prefer, make air fryer chicken thighs.
• Roasted Chicken – Roast a whole chicken for dinner and save the leftovers for a recipe like this one.

Storage Tips

Stored in an airtight container, chicken salad will keep in the refrigerator for three to four days. It’s perfect for an an easy lunch. If you pack a lunch, store the salad in individual size containers so you can grab one and go in the morning.

One thing to note is that since the dressing is made with yogurt, the chicken salad tends to separate slightly when you store it, especially when if you choose nonfat yogurt. That’s totally normal. Just give the salad a good stir when you’re ready to eat it.