Curry Chicken Salad with Grapes

This Chicken Salad with Grapes recipe was one of the very first recipes I photographed and posted here on Wholefully! In the decade since, we’ve updated the photos and the text, but the recipe remains the same—because it’s timelessly delicious!

This chicken salad combines tender cooked chicken (using meat from a rotisserie chicken makes this a breeze to prep), fresh fruit, nuts, and a creamy dressing. The secret ingredient that takes this salad over the top? Curry powder! If you’ve never tried curry powder in chicken salad, you’ll be pleasantly surprised at how layered the flavor of this salad becomes when you add just a touch of curry powder.

The resulting chicken salad doesn’t take like curry (if you want something with intense curry flavor, check out my Chickpea and Cauliflower Curry)—instead, it gives the chicken salad a depth and warmth that is incredibly delicious!

How do you make curry chicken salad?

Mixing up this Curry Chicken Salad with Grapes is a breeze—all you need to do is combine all of the ingredients in a large bowl, and toss to combine. Prepping this salad does require a bit of chopping, but this salad holds well in the fridge, so you can get a lot of meals out of one session of chopping fruits and veggies.

Can you meal prep chicken salad?

This curry chicken salad is a meal prep staple in our house! In fact, the flavor of this salad gets even better after a bit of a rest in the fridge. I tend to make a double batch of the salad and keep it stashed in the fridge for easy lunches or light dinners.

How do you eat chicken salad?

My favorite way to eat chicken salad is on a bed of salad greens—the chicken salad turns into the dressing and salad toppings all-in-one! You can also eat the chicken salad dipped into crackers, wrapped into a tortilla or pita, spread on a sandwich, or even just scooped up with a fork. Yum!

How long is chicken salad good for?

In theory, this could last in the fridge as long as five days. But I have to be honest, it’s so delicious, it’s never lasted that long in our house. We’re usually lucky if there is any left after 24 hours!

Can you freeze chicken salad?

You can freeze this curry chicken salad, but with a few modifications. Apples, grapes, and celery don’t freeze well—their texture turns mushy after a trip in the freezer—so I recommend making the salad as listed, but leaving out those ingredients if you plan on freezing the salad. When it’s time to defrost your chicken salad and serve, you can add in fresh chopped apples, grapes, and celery.

What can I use instead of mayo?

I think homemade mayo can’t be beat in this recipe, but if you’re mayo-adverse, full fat plain Greek yogurt will also work in this recipe in place of the mayo.

My protips for awesome chicken salad:

• Let the chicken salad rest in the fridge to meld the flavors for at least 30 minutes before serving—but the best flavor happens the next day!
• Using meat from a rotisserie chicken makes this super speedy to pull together.
• The intensity of curry powder varies greatly between brands, so start with a small amount (we list 1/2 teaspoon), and add more if you want a more intense flavor.
• Make sure you’re using curry powder here and not curry paste. Curry paste is strongly flavored and will overwhelm the flavor of the other ingredients.