Canned Chicken Salad Recipe

This canned chicken salad recipe is creamy, flavorful, and ready in just 10 minutes. Made with cheddar cheese, crispy bacon, creamy Miracle Whip, tangy mustard, hard boiled egg, and crunchy pecans, it’s a fresh take on classic chicken salad with canned chicken. It’s a high protein, healthy chicken salad that’s great for sandwiches, wraps, or quick lunch and dinner ideas. Pin this easy summer dinner idea now so you’ll have it ready for busy days!

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Why this is the best canned chicken salad recipe

This is a healthy chicken salad recipe. This canned chicken salad is made from mostly whole, healthy ingredients, and it's loaded with protein, which makes it a good fit for almost any diet plan.

This is a great meal prep recipe. It makes a LOT of salad, so you can mix it up on the weekend, portion it into containers for the week, and eat it for lunch all week long. I don't recommend making your sandwiches ahead of time because the bread will get soggy.

This recipe tastes amazing! The salad dressing is perfectly seasoned, and the bacon, cheddar cheese, pecans, and eggs add just enough variety to make the canned chicken sing. These ingredients come together like magic to make an unforgettable chicken salad that's way better than what Grandma used to make.

This is a simple recipe. It has more than 5 ingredients, but the ingredients are very common and easy to find. Most of these items are pantry staples, and what you don't have at home is available at any normal grocery store.

This recipe is very easy. There are a few steps, but nothing is complicated or requiring special techniques. Whisk together the dressing ingredients, pour it on, toss the salad. That's all there is to it.

This recipe is allergy friendly and good for special diets. As written, this recipe is gluten-free, but it does contain dairy, eggs, and tree nuts. You can easily adjust it to be dairy-free, egg-free, and/or nut-free, if you need to, just by leaving out that ingredient or replacing it with something that fits with your needs. This recipe as written is low carb, high protein, bariatric-friendly, and keto-friendly. As always, please check the labels on your unique ingredients to ensure they fit with your dietary needs and preferences.

What you'll need to make canned chicken salad

Equipment

There is no special equipment needed for this recipe. Just a couple of mixing bowls, a spatula, a can opener, and some measuring cups and spoons.

Ingredients

See the printable recipe card at the bottom of the page for all measurements and nutrition facts.

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Dressing

• Miracle Whip or mayonnaise - I prefer Miracle Whip, and that's what I use most of the time. If you prefer plain mayo, you can also use that. The flavor will be different, but it will still be good. One time, I was almost out of Miracle Whip and used half MW and half mayo, and that was great as well.
• Horseradish mustard or dijon mustard - Horseradish mustard is my favorite of all the mustard varieties, so I use it for almost everything (except not deviled eggs, which need plain yellow mustard). If you don't have horseradish mustard, don't go buy it just for this recipe. Use Dijon if you have that, or use whatever kind of mustard you have in the fridge. It will taste great.
• Garlic powder - I am normally a fresh garlic snob, but in this recipe, fresh garlic will overpower the other flavors. It's best to use a little bit of garlic powder.
• Onion powder - This is not the same as dehydrated onion or onion flakes. This is a granule, similar to garlic powder. I like the flavor of onion powder. If you really like raw onion, you could skip the onion powder and add half of a diced red onion to the salad. (I hate crunchy bits in my salad, so I would never do this. But I know a lot of people like it that way.)
• Celery salt - I hate celery with the passion of a thousand suns, but I think this salad needs a little celery flavor to balance out the rest of the flavors. Thus, I use a tiny bit of celery salt. If you like raw celery, feel free to dice a stalk or two and add that to your salad.

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Canned Chicken Salad

• Canned chicken breast - I mean, this is canned chicken salad, so obviously you need a couple of cans of chicken. You should drain it thoroughly first, and if you want to cut down on the salt and fat content, you can rinse it. (I do not rinse it, but I know people who do.) If you are looking for a recipe for chicken salad using freshly cooked or leftover chicken, head to my rotisserie chicken salad recipe instead of this one.
• Crumbled bacon - When a recipe needs a couple strips of bacon, I fry the whole pound, crumble what I don't need, and put that in an airtight jar in the freezer for later. It lasts for months this way, and then when I have a recipe like this one that calls for a handful of crumbled bacon, I can just grab my jar, measure out what I need, and add it to my recipe with no additional bacon frying. I highly recommend this method because it simplifies so many recipes!
• Shredded cheddar cheese - I love sharp cheddar cheese tossed into salads like this, but if you don't like cheddar, feel free to leave it out or substitute another type of cheese.

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• Coarsely chopped hard cooked eggs - That link will take you to my hard boiled eggs instructions. The best hard-cooked eggs aren't really boiled at all, so if you cook yours by boiling the eggs, take a look at those instructions. Your eggs will come out much better, tastier, have a better texture, lack the green ring, and peel easier if you use those instructions. I promise! The link includes Instant Pot and stovetop instructions. I have done it both ways (because I didn't have an Instant Pot for years), but the Instant Pot method is by far the easiest and most reliable method.
• Chopped pecans - I hate raw vegetables in my chicken salad, but I do like a little crunch, and I get that from chopped pecans. You could use any chopped nut, from walnuts to almonds, or you could leave them out.

How to make chicken salad with canned chicken

1. Add all the dressing ingredients to a small bowl.
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2. Whisk until well blended.
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3. Add the chicken to a large bowl. Use a fork to break the chunks apart.
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4. Pour the dressing over the chicken and stir to coat all the chicken.
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5. Canned chicken is exceptionally fragile. The more you mix it, the smaller the chunks of chicken will become, and, if you mix it a lot, you will end up with something like shredded chicken salad. If you want it to be super chunky, mix it as little as possible.
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6. Crumble the bacon into the chicken.
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7. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix well.
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8. Serve with crackers, in a lettuce wrap, or as a sandwich filling.
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9. To make the best canned chicken salad sandwich, place a large scoop of the chicken salad on a slice of bread or croissant. Add a lettuce leaf, a slice of fresh tomato, and a slice of cheddar cheese before topping with a second piece of bread. Toast if desired.
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Variations & substitutions

The best chicken salad recipe is very versatile. You need canned chicken (of course), but you can use mayonnaise or Miracle Whip. You can use whatever kind of mustard you have. You can use whatever cheese you want, or leave the cheese out. You can use whatever nuts you want to, or leave them out. If you don't like bacon or want to reduce the fat content, use turkey bacon or leave the bacon out.

You can serve this chicken salad recipe on bread, croissants, stuffed into pita bread, on cucumber slices, or on crackers.

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You can make the whole recipe lighter by using Miracle Whip Light and low-fat cheese. You won't notice much of a difference in flavor.

I mean, if you leave everything out but the chicken and dressing, it will be a sad and bland chicken salad, but it WILL still be chicken salad.

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Storing leftovers

Chicken salad with canned chicken will stay fresh for up to five days if stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator.

I do not recommend freezing canned chicken salad, but if you have successfully done it, feel free to leave a comment below, and I'll reconsider my opinion.

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Try these other easy lunches and light dinners:

• Rotisserie Chicken and Egg Salad
• Leftover Turkey Salad Sandwiches
• Egg and Olive Salad Sandwich Recipe
• Thai Peanut Chicken Salad
• Steak Tostada Salad
• BLT Salad with Homemade Lemon-Mayo Salad Dressing
• Roasted Beet Salad with Feta
• Asian Ramen Noodle Salad

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