My summer lunches are almost always cold meat salads — chicken salad, tuna salad, crab salad, smoked salmon salad. This Cilantro Lime Chicken Salad on Avocado is light, refreshing, and oh so easy to prepare. My basic chicken salad recipe is simple. I take leftover roasted chicken and shred it with a fork, then stir in a few dollops of mayonnaise and a hint brown mustard. Sometimes I toss it with dried cranberries or raisins. Other times I add some curry and diced celery. But my all time favorite way to each chicken salad? With lime and cilantro.
The great thing about these summer salads is that they’re yummy and cool. Children devour them. Parents look on with glee. I don’t know about you, but I love seeing my family well fed.
Cilantro Lime Chicken Salad on Avocado
Yield: 4 servings
The Players
- 3-4 cups shredded, cooked chicken (from pastured hens)
- 3 heaping Tbsp. mayonnaise (where to buy soy-free mayonnaise)
- 1 Tbsp. brown mustard
- 1 Tbsp. diced onion (small red or a few green onions)
- 1 lime, juiced
- 5 Tbsp. cilantro, chopped
- salt & pepper to taste (where to find organic, non-irradiated spices)
- 2 avocados, halved and with seed removed
The How-To
Here’s the truly simple part. Mix the first 7 ingredients together in a small mixing bowl. Scoop into avocados and serve. ENJOY!
(photo by natalie lewis)
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Chipotle sauce, Chicken, bacon and broccoli. The sauce is just Mayo, Chipotles with a little adobo sauce, salt, cummin, red pepper, and garlic pepper.
HAHA!! Quick glance at this and I thought it was an outline of someones head with a picture of their brain inside it. 😛
And here I’ve been putting plain mayo and celery. I need to step it up big time. Thanks for the recipes FR and Megan!
Megan Windell — Chipotle bacon broccoli? You had me at BACON!
Amanda McCandliss — You should really try adding some curry seasoning into the mix, along with dried cranberries. Sooo good. Get creative!
We have a CSA this year so doing alot of lettuce wraps (don’t care for bread flavor wise or tortilla’s) This morning used grapeseed veganaise/grilled left over chicken/some herb that came in the CSA and Artisan Horseradish/Bacon Cheese.
I used to do Pea Salad with Bacon and Cheese but I gave up dairy 🙁
Mmm, this looks good! And Megan- could you use an alternative? 🙂
My favorite “dressing” for chicken salad? Fresh pesto.
I actually had chicken salad for lunch today! I add homemade mayo (and sometimes I use avocado instead of mayo), celery, scallions, grapes, crispy walnuts, turmeric, sea salt, and pepper.
I had chicken salad today, too! I make it like my mama always did: mayo, pepper, chopped celery & green onions, a handful of frozen peas and some shredded cheddar. Yum!
One of my favorite lunches!!!
There is a little store near one of my jobs that makes amazing chicken salad from natural/local ingredients. One day I grabbed an organic cucmumber from the farmstand and cut it into disks and ate the yummy chicken salad on the cucumber “crackers” it was so good and refreshing.
I don’t eat meat, but I think an avocado would be equally delicious filled with a fresh corn and black bean salad; yum! Thanks for the idea! http://soulicious.net/2012/05/15/corn-and-black-bean-salad/
You’re welcome!
wow that looks yummy! I’ve been chopping garlic scapes into everything these days as they are plentiful. I bet they would be good in chicken salad
Is there mayonnaise that is healthy available for purchase??? Would love to find it. I’d make my own using olive oil, but to date, I haven’t found any olive oil in the US which has a taste I like. I did not see any reference to Mayo on the resources page. Someone mentioned Radiant Life products which I have seen, but I thought I saw a seed oil in the ingredients……….
Other salads……tuna, crab, smoked salmon……I don’t eat these things anymore because sadly they are all full of toxins……how I miss them all. I can’t find smoked salmon that is made from wild caught fish, for instance. Should I smoke it myself????
Yeah! Just what I was looking for! Thanks!
Would love to find soy free mayonnaise, link takes to page on site with no product, just a pitch to advertise there.
Cilantro and lime w/ chicken salad sounds delicious. The other favorite cold salad we eat LOTS of each summer (and all seasons) is sardines. Packed with RNA and omega-3’s, I just mix it up with mayo, chopped red onion, whatever herbs I have growing, capers, a little olive oil and cider vinegar. Occasionally I add a hardboiled egg. Best fast food around!
Thanks for sharing this recipe!
•3-4 cups shredded, cooked chicken
•3 heaping Tbsp. mayonnaise
•1 Tbsp. ranch dressing
•1/4 cup chopped pecans
•1/4 cup raisins
•1/2 cup chunked pineapple
•a dash of red pepper flakes
wow and yum!!
With. Looks great
Yummy
i do not like chicken salad but i do like the idea
need to save for later….
Let’s have this soon for lunch Shirley Edgerton!
Stephanie Palmer