1 Easy Ingredient | What to add to Chicken Salad for Flavor in this Quick Chicken Salad

When you’re dreaming about a hot summer day, or looking for a quick dish to share, try this amazing quick chicken salad!

Quick chicken salad is gut healthy, requires ZERO cooking, and is absolutely delicious to serve on a sandwich, with crackers, or pack in your workweek lunch! With lemon, whole grain mustard, fresh kale, and cashews, this chicken salad includes lots of good for you ingredients that will leave you happily full without the bloat.

This post is all about quick chicken salad!

Healthy Micro Superstars Featured in this Recipe

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What Gut Health Benefits Makes this Chicken Salad Worth Making?

First, this chicken salad recipe uses Greek yogurt instead of mayo cutting down the calories and incorporating a healthy source of bifidobacterium bifidum. Second, quick chicken salad includes kale, a powerhouse vegetable amongst other leafy greens.

What’s the Buzz About Bifidobacterium Bifidum?

Bifidobacterium bifidum is one of the first bacteria we see in our guts! It is a substrate, or part of the club, of Bifidobacterium. 

Bifidobacterium bifidum benefits the health of the youngest among us. Breastfed newborns have a plethora of Bifidobacterium in their microbiota (Turroni et al., 2012; Yatsunenko, 2012). Why? It is able to breakdown lactase through fermentation (Turroni et al., 2012). And, lactase is primary component in breastmilk!

Bifidobacterium Bifidum Probiotic: Bringing positive benefits to your health

Probiotics are live microorganisms–generally bacteria and/or yeast…The theory with probiotics is that they mimic the effects on our intact microbiota. In other words, just like our healthy gut microbes, these probiotics should optimize our immune system, reduce inflammation, inhibit the growth of pathogenic bacteria, correct leaky gut and restore gut barrier integrity, reestablish intestinal motility, and even improve mood.

Busiewicz, 2020, p. 141

Bifidobacterium Bifidum is so important, that without it, we have an unhealthy gut. 

What Does Bifidobacterium Bifidum Do?

To learn more about all the reasons you should be eating gut healthy foods with bifidobacterium bifidum, check out my post 7 Insane Ways Bifidobacterium Bifidum Benefits Can Improve Your Health!

Kale Scores Top in Class in Nutrient Indices

Doctors have identified the healthiest foods with the greatest amount of nutrients per calorie. We can calculate this by nutrients divided by calories (Bulsiewicz, 2020). Kale gets a perfect score!

Kale also contains an omega-3 fatty acid called alpha linolenic-acid (Gunnars, 2018). Who knew you could get healthy fat from your plants?

Kale is Good for Your Eyes, Your Skin, and Your Overall Health

Kale is full of antioxidants including beta-carotene, lutein, vitamin C, and kaempferol (Sikora & Bodziarczyk, 2012). Beta-carotene and lutein support your eye health while vitamin C and other flavonoids can increase skin cell turn over leaving you with a more youthful glow. Vitamin C is popular in skin creams for this exact reason, including my favorite, Drunk Elephant Vitamin C serum. In fact, kale is so rich in vitamin C, one cup provides more vitamin C than an entire orange (Nutrition Data, 2022)!

Kale is a plant-based source of iron…The vitamin C from a lemon cranks up iron absorption and allows you to get what you need from a non-heart disease/colon cancer/diabetes-inducing source, meaning a plant.

Bulsiewicz, 2020, p. 82

Antioxidants do not only keep your skin looking fresh, they also can help prevent disease including cancer (Rajendran, 2014). While other superhero components of kale may help decrease your cholesterol and risk for heart disease (Kahlon et al., 2007).

How might kale reduce your cholesterol?

Your liver turns cholesterol into bile acids. When you eat a meal high in fat it releases these acids into your digestive system. When the fat has been absorbed, biles acids are reabsorbed into your bloodstream for later use. If there is a lot of left over bile acid, cholesterol increases (Kahlon, 2007).

Kale can trap bile acid by binding it in your digestive system rather than being reabsorbed into the blood stream. Imagine kale as a pac-man eating all the bad extra bile before it escapes. Keeping bile acid out, kale lowers your total cholesterol (Kahlon et al., 2007). And, as cholesterol decreases so does the risk of heart disease (Kahlon, 2007).

For Quick Healthy Chicken Salad, Add Cashews

Cashews are a nutrient-rich food item and can offer several health benefits. With the right varieties and proper cooking/preparation, you can make the most of their potential healthy benefits!

Did you know that cashews are not actually nuts?!

Dr. KAit

Cashews aren’t actually nuts, but seeds! Packed with essential nutrients and advantageous plant compounds, they add flavor to so many dishes.

Cashews are like most nuts, they bring you a ton of healthy benefits. In fact, doctors have found cashews could help you lower your weight, control your blood sugar, and keep your heart healthier. For example, cashew nuts are an amazing source of unsaturated fats. We know unsaturated fats are important to our longevity and can help reduce our risk of heart disease (Clifton & Keogh, 2017).

Apart from being low in sugar, cashews also provide plenty of dietary fiber and boast a high protein content which is almost equal to that of cooked meat (Ros, 2010). Cashews are not only delicious but also incredibly nutritious. They are packed with copper, which is an essential mineral for healthy energy levels, brain development and a strong immune system (National Institute of Health, 2023). Plus, they have plenty of magnesium and manganese – two nutrients important for optimal bone health.

Cashews are full of copper. Copper gives you energy, helps your brain development, and supports your immune system.

If you have a teenager, you should be feeding them A LOT of cashews.

Dr. Kait

Cashews are a great way to boost your antioxidants intake as they contain a good amount of polyphenols and carotenoids – two powerful antioxidants also present in other tree nuts.

For the research on roasted cashews compared to raw cashews, read Chandrasekara & Shahidi (2011).

A Chicken Salad Secret Ingredient to Maximize Antioxidant Absorption

In this recipe, I include both zest and juice of 1 lemon. The additional boost of vitamin C will support your gut to absorb more iron from the kale (Bulsiewicz, 2020).

Try Traditional Chicken Salad Recipe on Your Next Date Night Menu

I’m tagging this recipe for Date Night Saturday because when combined in a charcuterie board, it’s a fantastic summer night dinner to share with a bottle of wine.

Instead of cooking all day, set aside some of your precious time to connect with your beloved family and friends. Reconnect with those who bring you joy and happiness, and create some memories!

Above this board includes smoked gouda, pretzel chips, olives, and a tangy honey mustard that you will literally not be able to stop eating. Unpictured here is flaky sourdough bread baked and sliced to serve with cheese, butter, or just plain.

What to Add to Chicken Salad for Flavor? Try Honeycup Mustard!

Check out Honeycup Mustard! This honey mustard is literally so different than anything else you can find at the store. It’s perfectly tangy without being too sweet.

You can find it in several grocery stores including Tom’s and usually Kroger. Or, Amazon can deliver it straight to your door in a pack of three.

Find Symon’s General Store online here!

Quick Chicken Salads Use Precooked Chicken

The easiest way to make a chicken salad is if the chicken is already cooked. This keeps your salad prep to a bare minimum. This package of grilled chicken strips above is fantastic in a quick chicken salad, however, with inflation it has SIGNIFICANTLY increased in price. If that doesn’t matter to you, you can find the grilled precooked chicken here. Or, at your local Costco.

However, if you are looking to save money, try Aldi for their marinated chicken breasts (like cilantro lime) and bake or air fry them ahead of time. Then, you will have chicken at the ready for whatever the recipe!

Easy and Quick, Throw Together Chicken Salad Today!

This quick chicken salad with kale and cashews is super easy to make. It takes about 10 minutes to put together and my 9 year old assembled it. You can serve it at room temperature, serve it warm, or serve it cold too. Chicken salad is amazing with your favorite crackers, or crusty sourdough bread. 

With plenty of left overs to make chicken salad wraps for lunches or grilled sandwiches for dinner, you’ll have a high protein, high nutrient meal everyone can enjoy.

Try quick chicken salad today and post your comments below!

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