Waldorf Chicken Salad is the perfect brunch recipe—delicious, eloquent, and easy to make with tender chunks of chicken, apples, grapes, nuts, and celery in a creamy dressing. Super easy to make and will impress everybody.
Introduction
Waldorf Chicken Salad is savory and sweet while being a great combination of flavors and texture. Leftover chicken can become a simple classic meal. Think of it as a cold chicken salad recipe with grapes, nuts, and apples.
I always think of it as a fancy "brunch" recipe, but it is an excellent dish for many uses. Served on a bed of greens, in a sandwich or warp—it's a perfect brunch, homemade light lunch, picnic, or easy dinner.
What is Waldorf Salad?
Waldorf salad was created at New York City's Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in 1896 by Oscar Tschirky, the maître d'hôtel. The original recipe contained only apples, celery, and mayonnaise. Chopped walnuts later became part of the dish.
Chicken is the most common add-in, making this salad a main dish worthy brunch classic, fancy light lunch, or easy family dinner. But there are numerous variations.
👨🍳How to make this recipe
- Toast nuts for 4-5 minutes in a frying pan.
- Prep an apple, grapes, and celery. Mix in a large bowl and coat with lemon juice.
- Mix the cooked chicken, nuts, mayonnaise, salt, and pepper into the large bowl.
- Cover and refrigerate for at least one hour before serving.
📋 Ingredients
Chicken
You want about two cups of diced or shredded cooked chicken. Leftover rotisserie chicken should be fine.
You can cook the chicken any way you want, but keep it moist. If you have a couple of small or one large raw skinless boneless chicken breasts, trim and bake for about 35-40 minutes in a 350° oven to an internal temperature of 165°.
Apples
A lot seems to be made of what apple to use for this or that. I believe it is more a matter of individual taste. So probably the apples you have is fine.
I think an apple that is firmer and tarter is the best choice here. So if you are buying apples just for this recipe, then good choices are Ida Red, Fuji, Honeycrisp, Gala, or Granny Smith apples.
Nuts
While the original Waldorf salad did not have nuts, they are standard now. Chopped walnuts, pecans, or almonds are also commonly used.
Toasting the nuts does add a lot of extra taste, and I highly recommend it, but it is optional.
Dressing
Mayonnaise is the most common dressing, but Greek yogurt and sour cream are occasionally used. You can make it your own with a combination. I like to use light mayonnaise.
Other Ingredients
Celery is a must for the crunch it provides.
Grapes, like celery, are a mandatory ingredient and provide sweetness to the other savory elements. Use seedless red grapes, but green grapes are fine. Some people will substitute raisins or dried cherries for the grapes. A few versions will use cranberries.
Lemon juice is added to keep the apple from turning brown and will add a bit of taste.
I like a bit of red onion, but it is an optional ingredient.
❓FAQs
Waldorf chicken salad should be served very cold to bring out the crunchiness. Serve it on a bed of Romaine or leaf lettuce, in a wrap or sandwich, or just straight up on a plate or in a small bowl.
Recommended side dishes are a fresh fruit salad or a garden salad.
That hour does two things: it will allow the flavors to come together and improve the crunchiness when served cold.
The fresh apple needs a splash of lemon juice to prevent browning of the apple when exposed to air.
Leftover Waldorf salad can be stored in airtight containers in the refrigerator for 2-3 days. It will not freeze well.
📖 Brunch Recipes
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Step-by-Step Photo Instructions
You need about 2 cups of cooked chicken. Rotisserie or other leftover chicken works well, or bake a large breast.
Chop ½ cup of walnuts, but almonds or pecans will work. Optional: toast them over medium heat in a small nonstick pan for 4-5 minutes to increase crunchiness.
Clean, core, and chop one firm apple. Do not peel.
Clean and trim one rib of celery. Dice into relatively small pieces.
Clean and cut in half 1 cup of red seedless grapes. Optional: ½ cup finely chopped red onion (about ½ medium-sized onion).
Combine apple, celery, and grapes in a large mixing bowl. Sprinkle with 1 tablespoon lemon juice and mix well to coat.
Add onion, nuts, and ½ cup of mayonnaise—salt and pepper to taste (about ¼ teaspoon salt and ⅛ teaspoon pepper). Mix well, cover, and refrigerate for at least one hour to allow all ingredients to cool and blend flavors.
Serve on a plate, in a wrap or a pita, on crackers, on a salad, or in a sandwich.
📖 Recipe
Waldorf Chicken Salad
Ingredients
- 2 cups diced chicken
- 1 firm apple
- 1 rib celery
- 1 cup grapes
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- ½ cup chipped nuts - Walnuts, almonds, or pecans. Toasting is optional.
- ½ cup red onion finely chopped - Optional. About ½ medium size onion
- ½ cup mayonnaise - low-fat suggested
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- You need about 2 cups of cooked chicken. Rotisserie or other leftover chicken works well, or bake a large breast.
- Chop ½ cup of walnuts, but almonds or pecans will work. Optional: toast them over medium heat in a small nonstick pan for 4-5 minutes to increase crunchiness.
- Clean, core, and chop one firm apple. Do not peel.
- Clean and trim one rib of celery. Dice into relatively small pieces.
- Clean and cut in half 1 cup of red seedless grapes. Optional: ½ cup finely chopped red onion (about ½ medium-sized onion).
- Combine apple, celery, and grapes in a large mixing bowl. Sprinkle with 1 tablespoon lemon juice and mix well to coat.
- Add onion, nuts, and ½ cup of mayonnaise—salt and pepper to taste (about ¼ teaspoon salt and ⅛ teaspoon pepper). Mix well, cover, and refrigerate for at least one hour to allow all ingredients to cool and blend flavors.
- Serve on a plate, in a wrap or a pita, on crackers, on a salad, or in a sandwich.
Your Own Private Notes
Recipe Notes
Pro Tips
- This is an easy recipe to scale to your ingredients and needs.
- You need about 2 cups of cubed or shredded chicken. So leftover or rotisserie chicken works well. Or you can bake a couple of small or a large skinless chicken breast at 375° for about 35 minutes until an internal temperature of 165°.
- Walnuts are the classic nut used, but pecans or almonds work fine. Toast the nuts a bit to add flavor if you have time.
- Use a firm apple or just the apple you like. I suggest Granny Smith or Ida Red as good choices.
- Lemon juice is used to prevent the browning of the apple.
- Good refrigerated for 3-4 days. Not a good candidate for freezing.
To adjust the recipe size:
You may adjust the number of servings in this recipe card under servings. This does the math for the ingredients for you. BUT it does NOT adjust the text of the instructions. So you need to do that yourself.
Nutrition Estimate
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Editor's Note: Originally Published June 30, 2010. Updated with expanded options, refreshed photos, and a table of contents to help navigation.
Cody Taber
First things first. EXCELLENT Recipe!!!!
Hello, I randomly found your Waldorf Chicken Salad recipe about three years ago when looking for a standard recipe for the sandwich version. I say sandwich version because most people think I'm talking about lettuce, onion, tomato, chicken, ranch dressing when I say Chicken Salad.
The first time I made it, everyone loved it. The second time I made it, a couple weeks later everyone loved it. The third time I made it there was no change, everyone loved it. I've probably made it ten times and it was great every time. Each time my ratios on the ingredients were different for various reasons. Happy life, happy wife type reasons. She wanted more grapes, or more onion is a big hit.
Last night I completed the manifesto of all batches with everything having gone perfectly. This was to fulfill the desperate needs of an extremely pregnant co-worker who fell in love with this stuff a few weeks ago. She's having her baby shower today and asked me to make a batch for her and she would pay me. I knew it wasn't cheap to make but it's worth it. This batch came out so much better than any of the others, and I'm very critical of food I make. I'm not a chef by any means, I'm just the one who cooks in our family.
I've wanted to leave a comment for a long time, and just happen to have a few minutes now - it's turned into quite the long winded response.
Some notes; of which you can feel free to remove from this comment, that I've always thought when making this.
In the beginning I found myself wondering how to prepare the "cooked chicken". Chicken can be the hardest thing to get right until you learn the tricks of the trade. I think I learned most of them here. I use the seasoning you use on the Drummies (another always-a-hit recipe) I pound the breasts one at a time in a gallon freezer bag to an even thickness, maybe a half inch? I never measured. Then I trim fat, it just seems easier for some reason. Then I lay out a couple of long strips of aluminum foil on the counter so I have an easily disposable work surface. I sprinkle both side with your seasoning and then take them to the grill. The grill needs to be preheated for quite a while in my opinion; also something I think I learned here. Turning it on for 10 minutes is not the same as 20 in most cases. I start with a low flame warm up and then crank to my final cooking temp 5 minutes before I put chicken on. I was cooking ten breast halves this time because I was making a very large batch. I then turn the burners off so I can spray the grates with cooking oil without a flareup, quickly add the chicken with the rough side up first and then quickly turn the burners back on. Lid down, 7 minutes later I'm looking for all the pieces to be a bright white and juicy. I then turn them over with steel tongs (don't like nylon here). The burner closest to the propane tank; rear left, is always the hottest on my cheap home store grill, so I move those pieces front right, and the front right to rear left. Then I close the lid. I checked after three full minutes and they all looked good. I put them in a large foil lined bowl and quickly covered them tightly with foil and let them rest at least ten minutes but it became more like 20 this time while I mixed the other ingredients together. For the first time I realized the chicken was nearly perfect; no pink, very juicy, nice grill marks, and so simply flavorful with your simple seasoning. I forgot this batch had the cayenne in it, so it had a bit of a kick, but with the other ingredients it was toned way down in the end. I took the cooked pieces and with washed disposable gloves I tore the chicken apart into chunks and considered using it like that. I normally use the large kitchen knife to chop it up, but I've always disliked how the chicken was always so square in the end. The wife said I shouldn't leave it chunky because the pregnant lady was expecting it to be like she had experienced. So with that I thew about four breast halves into the Ninja for a quick chop. Well 5 seconds on number 1 and I had nearly ground chicken. I set this aside thinking I'll just use that for a separate batch of simple chicken salad. I took the remaining chuck chicken and laid it on the cutting board in a long mound and pressed the knife though all of it until I came to a consistency I liked. At this point I had mixed the apple, celery, half a large red onion finely diced, grapes halved, and the roasted walnuts. Inthe end I used the whole red onion. I then used Hellmans real mayonnaise. I've never used this brand before, I've always used Kraft with Olive Oil with the green lid. Everyone liked the end result before, but I always felt this was the wrong mayo due to the olive taste, and probably the reduced fat (half the calories of Hellmans). No measuring here, but I make sure to use a dedicate rubber spatula in the jar that never touches the food. For this large batch I used half a large container So about 15 ounces now that I look. That tuned out to be a little bit too much, but you can't take it back. So it was a good thing I had set aside that finely chopped chicken from the Ninja. I added that into the batch, and all the sudden a beam of light shone in the kitchen window; even at 10pm, the weirdest thing. The aroma (not smell) of this stuff is always amazing. The roasted walnuts, the chicken, grapes, apple, and even the celery could all be made out. One taste led to two tastes and three. Absolute perfection this time. The wife even agreed this was the best batch yet.
I pondered quite a bit what made it so much better, on top of always being really good in the past. I feel like the mayo without the olive oil taste made a big difference for my tastes, the increased fat of the Hellmans unfortunately probably added flavor too, and I really think the finely chopped chicken added a lot somehow.
Sorry to be so long winded, please edit as you see fit. I really just wanted to comment about how good it was and mention that if I was wondering about how to cook the chicken, I bet a lot of others do too. Maybe you can do a piece about that if you haven't already. I haven't seen it if you did.
DrDan
Thanks for the note and rating.
You do go on a bit but with great enthusiasm. Nothing wrong with that. The precooked chicken... I frequently have some around from other cooking's. There seems to be and extra few in the package. I sometime freeze them but frequently just cook everything in the package. Some people use rotisserie chickens. Another option would be a crock pot with some broth for about 2 hours on high until 165. But you're doing just fine.
DrDan