Today I want to show you how to make an easy cranberry chicken salad that’s great for lunch, dinner, and even a holiday table. Whilst it’s not a classic chicken salad, it is incredibly delicious, gluten free, grain free, top 9 free, and top 14 free. That makes this very inclusive, yet, you don’t even realize the allergens are missing.
In addition to that, you’ll find that this healthy chicken salad is loaded with lean protein, vitamins, minerals, and your onions are a fantastic prebiotic food to include in a well rounded diet.
If you’re a fan of meal prep, this is the kind of recipe that you can make a big batch of on Sunday (alongside a few others) and have it for lunch two or three times in the week (just be sure to space it out so you don’t get bored).
Also, make sure you use the table of contents, as I’ve included all sorts of different versions you can make to keep things interesting. Now, grab your ingredients and let’s get to work.
Allergy Status
Free From: Wheat/Gluten, Dairy, Egg, Soy, Tree Nuts, Peanut, Fish, Shellfish, Sesame, Top 9 Allergens, Top 14 Allergens, Apple, Avocado, Banana, Beans & Lentils, Buckwheat, Cane/Refined Sugar, Carrot, Celery, Cinnamon, Citrus, Coconut, Cruciferous, Latex Cross Reactive Foods (H/M), Legume, Lupin, Mushroom, Mustard, Nightshade, Oat, Pea & Pea Protein, Potato (Nightshade Variety), Red Meat, Rice, Seeds, Squash & Gourd, Stone Fruits, Strawberry, Sweet Potato & Yam, Tapioca/Cassava/Yuca/Manioc, Tomato, Yeast
Friendly To: AIP Paleo, GAPs, Grain Free, Paleo, SCD
Tools Needed to Make Your Cranberry Chicken
- Knife (this is my current fave knife series)
- Cutting Board
- Large Pan/Skillet
- Cooking Spoon
Cranberry Chicken Salad Recipe Ingredients
Part 1 Ingredients
- 330g Organic Yellow Onion (11.5 ounces), sliced
- Oil of Choice for Cooking
Part 2 Ingredients
- 1KG Organic Boneless Chicken Breast (36 ounces), cubed
- 4 tsp Organic Dried Basil
- 2 tsp Sea Salt
- 1.5 tsp Organic Garlic Granules
- 1 tsp Organic Dried Oregano
Part 3 Ingredients
- 3 TBSP Organic Balsamic Vinegar of Choice
- 4 TBSP Organic Maple Sugar
- 210g Organic Dried Cranberries (7.5 ounces)
- 3 TBSP Organic Dried Parsley
Ingredient Notes & Substitutions
You can change this up a bit by using white or red onion rather than the yellow onion I call for.
The chicken weight is a bit over 2 pounds/900g. If you want to use 2 pounds/900g for ease, that’s OK.
It’s OK to round up (or down) and use 7 or 8 ounces of the dried cranberries. If you’re not a huge cranberry fan, you can also reduce the amount of cranberries used.
I usually use organic extra virgin olive oil as my cooking oil, but you can use whatever you like, including dairy free butter, tallow, and so on.
Chicken Salad Directions (with pictures)
Start by prepping your onions and chicken. One of my favorite things to do to make meals easier is to prep loads of fresh produce once a week to cook with. Additionally, when I make bulk purchases at Costco, I spend a day pre-cutting and freezing meat in portion sizes I often cook with. This makes future meals come together so much faster. In fact, it feels like cheating.
Heat a large/deep non-stick pan on medium-high heat (7/10 for me). Add a little cooking oil, and once it’s hot, add your onions. Stir to coat the onions in oil. Cook for 10 minutes, stirring as needed to prevent burning, but don’t over stir and prevent browning.
Whilst your onions are cooking, place your chicken in a large bowl and add all of the seasonings (Part 2 Ingredients) and mix well. If you want to save on dishes, you can add all of the ingredients to a large baggie and treat it like shake-and-bake.
When the 10 minutes are up with onions, add all of the chicken to your pan, along with the balsamic vinegar and maple sugar. Cook for 5 minutes, then add your cranberries and parsley. Continue to cook for 5 minutes, or until your chicken is fully cooked. Your cook time will vary based on the size of your chicken cubes.
Whilst I opted to serve this as a salad, you can use this chicken alongside pasta, rice, or veggie noodles.
Cooking Tip: You want to avoid overcooking your chicken. We don’t want a good chicken salad, we want a GREAT chicken salad. One way to ensure greatness is to have tender chicken that’s still juicy, rather than dry chicken.
If you’re new to cooking chicken, grab yourself an instant read meat thermometer (this is the one I have). You can check the temperature of your chicken and when the internal temperature is 165f/74c, the chicken is done. If continue to cook past that point, in this particular recipe, that’s where you run the risk of having dry chicken.
How to Store Leftover Chicken Salad
The best way to store your leftovers is in an airtight container in your fridge for up to 5 days. This healthy cranberry chicken salad recipe tastes good hot or cold, so you can take it for lunch, or reheat leftovers for a quick dinner. Be sure to add your leftovers to your weekly meal plan so they don’t go to waste.
Whilst you can technically freeze this recipe, for best results, I’d only store this in the fridge.
More Delicious Recipes to Enjoy
- Honey Almond Meat Sauce Recipe (made with simple ingredients, and it’s incredibly tasty)
- Chocolate Hummus Recipe (you only need a handful of ingredients to make this tasty dip)
- Sweet & Spicy Meat with Leeks (this is a great meal prep recipe that you can batch cook and freeze)
- Peach & Chicken BBQ Pressure Cooker Stew (this is a super easy lunch recipe)
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Ways to Change Up Your Cranberry Chicken Salad
There are so many ways you can turn this easy meal into something new. Here are just a few ideas to get you started, and who knows, maybe you’ll find a new favorite way to eat your chicken salad.
- Make a salad dressing with plain Greek yogurt, a splash or lemon juice, and organic black pepper
- Add almond slices and crunchy celery slices for a cranberry almond chicken salad. If you’re allergic to almonds, you can use sliced organic tiger nuts instead. Tiger nuts aren’t tree nuts, but poorly named tuber root vegetables.
- Swap the cranberries for apple slices. You can also add apples and have an apple cranberry chicken salad.
- Serve as lettuce wraps (or lettuce cups) or in a pita (or GF or whole wheat tortilla) rather than on the bed of lettuce.
- Add candied pecans and sliced green onions for a cranberry pecan chicken salad.
- Sprinkle on organic chia seeds for a little extra fiber and a healthy fat boost.
Most of the ideas listed will also help make this a protein-packed lunch since the additions are high protein foods.
Lean Into Other Savory Flavors
If you’ve never heard of sumac, it’s my pleasure to introduce you. Sumac pairs super well with citrus, especially lemon. You can trade my seasonings for sumac + several Tablespoons of fresh lemon juice + pomegranate arils. Man would that taste so good.
You can go in an everything but the bagel seasoning direction if you’re a fan of sesame. Be sure to use sesame oil as your cooking oil when making that swap to really help reinforce the flavours.
Make Super Cute Appetizers
For this to work well, you’ll want to dice the chicken on the small side, rather than have strips like what’s in the picture and instructions. A small dice will allow people to enjoy the appetizer in one bite (two bites is the max). Here are some combinations to consider if you go this route:
- Chicken Salad + Round Table Crackers + Sauce Drizzled on Top (the sauce can elevate and make it look super cute)
- Chicken Salad + Grain Free Crackers + Homemade Tomato Bacon Jam + Pinch Caramelized Onions
- Hollowed Cucumber Cylinders + Chicken Salad (you’ll need to pipe it in with a disposable decorator bag)
If you love dumplings, you could make an awesome fusion dish and use this as a dumpling filling. Just make sure the chicken is diced small, or use ground chicken instead.
Add a Crunchy Side
Sometimes, a crunchy side can really elevate the texture of a dish. In the case of this cranberry chicken salad, the romaine adds a great deal of fresh crunchy goodness. However, maybe you opt for a different lettuce, or can’t have lettuce (like me). In that case, a crunchy side can take this salad from great to “I’m packing this in all my lunches for the rest of the week”.
An easy way to add extra crunch is to add a side of crackers, or something like these buckwheat crispbreads (buckwheat is not a type of wheat but a seed). You can also add something like toasted walnuts, pecans, or sprouted almonds to give this chicken salad a bit more pep in its step.
Another option is to make toast and serve it alongside your salad. It can be sourdough toast, everything bagel toast, garlic powder + fresh herbs toast, and the list foes on. Just make sure you pick flavours that will compliment the cranberries and seasonings in the recipe.
Don’t forget, if you’re living the way I did for years and don’t have a toaster, you can oven toast bread under the broiler.
Create a Creamy Texture and Add a Creamy Mayo Dressing
So, one of my kids really doesn’t like salad dressing, like, at all. So when I make salads, it’s always with ingredients that will naturally be a little saucy in the end so it’s not dry, but we also don’t use salad dressing.
However, YOU can make a delicious creamy dressing with mayonnaise as the base. Here are a few different versions you could make in your blender (for ease):
- Mayo + Dijon Mustard + Maple + Caramelized Onion + Marjoram
- Mayo + Sour Cream + Cherries + 1 Tablespoon lemon juice (to help cut thru the richness)
- Mayo + Marjoram + Oven Roasted Garlic + Thyme + Squeeze of Lemon Juice
Note: You can use egg based or egg free mayonnaise when making a creamy dressing in this style.
Create an Incredible Sandwich Instead (or a wrap).
You can skip the lettuce in this salad recipe, and use the chicken as a sandwich filling instead. There are several ways you can pull this off, and, you can elevate the bread as well to make it a special experience.
Optionally, add a few slices of pickled veggies to help cut thru the richness of the sandwich filling. Quick pickled grapes could be another fantastic choice (use seedless red grapes for awesome results).
To make sandwich filling, be sure to small dice the chicken thighs. This will make it easier to take bites of the sandwiches. Once you have the chicken cooked, transfer it to a large mixing bowl. From there, add a bit of mayo, smashed avocado, or some kind of creamy dressing to help tie everything together. Here are some ideas on how you can further jazz this up:
- Add dried apricots + walnuts or pecans or sunflower seeds to the chicken mixture.
- Glaze fresh quartered apricots in balsamic vinegar and organic maple syrup. Add that to the top of the sandwich filling.
- Serve the chicken salad sandwich on a croissant like those sandwiches at Costco.
- If you can’t have bread, use something like Sweet Potato Awesome plain sweet potato slices as a base for the sandwich filling.
When you have your chicken mixture all set, be sure to store leftovers in your refrigerator in an airtight container. Make sandwiches fresh each time so the bread (or tasty croissants) doesn’t get soggy.
Convert This to a Tasty Pasta Salad
The cool thing about this chicken is that you can easily pass on the lettuce, boil some pasta, drain it off, then toss together. Boom, now you’ve got a great pasta salad that probably tastes better than what you’ll find at your local grocery store.
If you opt for a pasta salad, add some fresh chopped veggies like zucchini, or small diced red onion. You can also top said pasta salad with a crumbling of feta cheese (there’s dairy free feta in case you need that). When you add these little bits, you really help elevate the chicken to a robust pasta salad.
Answering Your Healthy Cranberry Chicken Salad Recipe Questions
Should I use sweet cranberries or unsweetened cranberries in this recipe?
When you cook your homemade chicken salad, you can actually use either, or even a mix of the two. It’s going to come down to personal preference. Personally, I purchase organic dried cranberries that are lightly sweetened with apple juice as well as unsweetened. I use a 50/50 blend of the two, and my kids seem to like it that way.
Could I make this recipe with roasted whole chicken?
I’m going to assume you have a leftover rotisserie chicken or something of that nature. In that case, you could use a whole chicken to make this quick lunch. In your case, you’d cut/shred the chicken that you have whilst the onions cook. When you add the seasonings and cooked chicken, you’ll only need to cook it all together for a few minutes since the chicken isn’t raw. Essentially, the steps are the same, but your cook time will be greatly reduced.
Can I make this with onion powder instead of sliced white onions?
If you’re running low on time, or don’t have any onions on hand, you could use onion powder. I’d suggest 2 – 3 teaspoons. Know that this will change the overall flavour and texture of the dish. However, I think you’ll still be happy. If you can have seeds or tree nuts, you could add some (crushed up), and that can help make the texture a bit more interesting since you’re losing the onions.
Would the chicken taste good eaten as a sandwich?
Yes, this chicken salad recipe would be great on wheat bread, gluten free bread, or in some kind of bun/roll. If you opt for a traditional style sandwich, you could add lettuce leaves or salad greens along with a slice of your favorite cheese.
Could this recipe be made in a slow cooker or pressure cooker?
Yes, you can make this healthy chicken salad in a slow cooker or pressure cooker, but with a few tweaks. What you’ll do is cook the chicken and onion slices, and the rest of the Part 2 Ingredients in the slow cooker with broth or stock. Shred the chicken well when it’s done.
Heat a large nonstick pan on medium heat and add the chicken (without the cooking liquid). Add the Part 3 Ingredients and mix well. From there, serve it up with your lettuce or a carb of choice.
Tip: Save the cooking liquid and use it like a stock/broth. I like to purchase 32-ounce deli containers to save pressure cooking liquid in. I freeze it, then have deeply flavoured broth for future meals. This is also a great option if you manage a lot of less common food allergies or dietary restrictions and need to make broth/stock at home.
Should the salt be Kosher salt?
The sea salt I use is a Mediterranean sea salt from Costco, and it’s not a Kosher salt (large grain). For reference, this is the product, but you can also check the Costco website. Fun fact: they will allow you to place an order online and have it shipped if you’re not a member, and you pay a 5% fee. It’s totally worth it if you only need a few items a few times a year.
Can I make this chicken salad recipe with chicken breast?
Yes, you can use chicken breasts instead of chicken thigh. When making a version like this, it’s important to not overcook your chicken breasts (which is easy to do). Make sure you’re using an instant read thermometer, and when your chicken pieces are at 165f/7c, they’re ready to roll.
Can I swap the cranberries for other fruit?
Yup, you sure can. The great thing about chicken salads is that they’re pretty versatile. Fruits that I think are good options for this recipe:
- Apple Cubes or Apple Slices
- Apricots (I’d use dried)
- Cherries (dried)
- Mango (fresh or dried)
- Pineapple (you’d need to tweak the seasonings though for something like curry, or ginger, etc.)
- Raisins
- Tangerine Segments (for best results, supreme it so there’s little to no pith)
- Tomatoes (diced heirloom tomato could be nice, or quartered cherry tomatoes, but not sun-dried)
Is this an easy dinner for a busy weeknight?
I think this is one of the easiest dinners you can make. I mean, chopped lettuce and cooked chicken in a pan is pretty easy. What’s nice though is that it’s also versatile. You could make it as-is one night, and next week, make a strawberry + black pepper + feta version instead, and each week rotate through quite a few variations.
