Crunchy Kale and Chicken Salad
This Crunchy Kale and Chicken Salad is full of flavor, texture, and a tangy-sweet homemade dressing. It's perfect for your weekly meal prep!
Servings: 4 servings
Calories: 446kcal
Equipment
- Mixing bowl
Ingredients
Salad
- 1½ cups cooked chicken chopped, $4.33*
- 6 cups kale chopped, $2.38**
- 1 cup celery chopped, $0.37
- ⅓ cup almonds sliced or slivered, $0.79
- ⅓ cup golden raisins $0.41***
Dressing****
- ½ cup mayonnaise $0.50
- 3 Tbsp apple cider vinegar $0.18
- 1½ Tbsp honey $0.27
- ½ Tbsp Dijon mustard $0.09
- ¼ tsp salt $0.02
- ¼ tsp black pepper freshly cracked, $0.02
Instructions
- Chop the cooked chicken into small, bite-sized pieces. Clean the celery and chop into similar small bite-sized pieces.
- Remove the kale from the stems, tear it into 1-2 inch pieces, rinse well in a colander, and drain well.
- To make the dressing, whisk together the mayonnaise, vinegar, honey, Dijon, salt, and pepper.
- To build the salad, start with a base of kale, top with the chopped chicken and celery, almonds, and raisins. Drizzle the dressing over top, toss until everything is coated, then enjoy.
See how we calculate recipe costs here.
Notes
*You can use any cooked chicken in this recipe. Leftover roasted, grilled, shredded, or rotisserie chicken all work fine! You can also cook a chicken breast in a pan and then let it cool for 5-10 minutes so it doesn't wilt the greens. Slice 1 chicken breast (about 0.75lb. total) in half to create 2 smaller filets, and cook in a skillet over medium-low for 5 minutes, then flip and cook until the internal temperature reaches 165ºF.
**If you're not into kale, you can swap it out with your favorite greens. I think a crunchy green like Romaine or finely shredded cabbage would probably be best, but you could use any green that you like to use for fresh salads.
***I love the mildly sweet golden raisins in this recipe, but you could swap them out with dried cranberries, chopped apples for more crunch, or even fresh grapes (sliced).
****If you don't want to make the homemade dressing, a store-bought honey mustard or poppyseed dressing would be great with the creamy, tangy, and sweet flavors in this salad. I personally prefer homemade because I can adjust it to my tastes, but store-bought is an easy shortcut!
Nutrition
Serving: 1serving | Calories: 446kcal | Carbohydrates: 28g | Protein: 23g | Fat: 28g | Sodium: 444mg | Fiber: 2g