• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

My Homemade Roots logo

  • Home
  • Browse Recipes
  • Garden and Home
  • About
  • Contact
  • Get Updates
  • About
You are here: Home / Fall / Cranberry Apple Chicken Salad

Cranberry Apple Chicken Salad

Spread the love

This recipe for Cranberry Apple Chicken Salad is a lunchtime favorite in our house and for good reason. This is no ordinary chicken salad. Chicken, cranberries, apples, and celery all come together in a sandwich filling that’s creamy but with a little bit of crunch and a hint of sweetness. It’s just loaded with bold bright flavors and full of tasty goodness!



Bowl of Cranberry Apple Chicken Salad

And what I love about this Cranberry Apple Chicken Salad (beyond its deliciousness), is that it’s a good alternative to deli meat. Let’s face it, deli lunch meat is pricey for the good stuff and the cheaper deli meats are loaded with fillers and sodium. It’s just not something I make a habit of buying every week. So I love that I can make this flavorful but simple chicken salad with staple ingredients I typically have in my pantry and fridge. In fact, I like to keep a few cans of chicken in my pantry just for making chicken salad. And while this is totally a recipe you can make from canned chicken, but you can also use leftover chicken or even a rotisserie chicken to make this homemade chicken salad, too. 

So before we get to the recipe, let’s talk about a few of the ingredients:

Mayonnaise – Use whatever homemade or store-bought mayonnaise is your favorite. If you want to lighten up the recipe, go ahead and use low-fat mayonnaise. 

Mustard – I prefer using stone-ground mustard with visible mustard seeds in it. Smooth Dijon mustard will also work in this recipe, but for the sake of flavor, I would avoid using regular yellow mustard. 

Dill – I often use dried dill for this recipe, because I always have dried dill in my spice cupboard. I also find that dried dill is one of those herbs that really retains its flavor when dried, so I have no problem using it in place of fresh. But fresh dill really is lovely, so if you happen to have some, go ahead and use it in your chicken salad. You’ll need to use more of the fresh herb than the dried, so use one tablespoon of chopped fresh dill (or more if you love dill). 

Onion – Any onion will do in this chicken salad, but I love to use a sweet red onion for this recipe. 

Dried Cranberries – I prefer to use sweetened dried cranberries because they add a hint of sweetness to the salad, but if you prefer a little bit of tart, go ahead and use unsweetened dried cranberries. 

Apples – Use your favorite apple here. Something that is nice and crisp like a Honeycrisp apple works very well. You choose to either peel the apple or leave the skin on.



Top view of a bowl of Cranberry Apple Chicken Salad

Cooks’s Tips:

  • Instead of adding all of the ingredients to the mixing bowl at the same time, mix your sauce separately in a separate bowl or large measuring jug. This allows you to taste and adjust the seasonings if necessary (like maybe a little bit of salt and pepper, or an extra dollop of mustard). 
  • I like my chicken salad to be creamy but not overly so. If you like your chicken salad to be a bit on the wetter side, just add another spoonful or two of mayonnaise. 
  • There are a few members of my family who don’t enjoy the stringiness of raw celery. If this is you, too, you can fix this by using a vegetable peeler to lightly peel your celery which will remove the strings. This is a better alternative to leaving out the celery which really gives this chicken salad a lot of flavor and texture. 
  • I don’t specify how much salt to add because it’s really a matter of your taste and will vary depending on the type of chicken you are using. If you’re using fresh chicken that you poached yourself, chances are good that you’ll want to add a generous pinch of salt. But if you’re using rotisserie chicken or canned chicken, which already contains quite a bit of salt, you may find that your chicken salad only requires a few grinds of pepper and no additional salt at all. 
  • I like to serve this Cranberry Apple Chicken Salad either on a sandwich or on a bed of mixed greens. It’s also delicious on crackers for a quick lunch or snack. 

If you try this recipe, I hope you love it! Leave a review for this recipe or give it a rating in the comments below.

My Homemade Roots

*This post contains affiliate links, which means I will earn a commission at no additional cost to you if you click through and make a purchase.*

 

Bowl of Cranberry Apple Chicken Salad

Cranberry Apple Chicken Salad

Yield: 6 Servings
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Total Time: 15 minutes

Ingredients

For the Sauce

  • ⅔ cup mayonnaise
  • 2 tablespoons stone-ground mustard
  • 1 teaspoon dried dill (or 1 tablespoon chopped fresh dill)
  • 1 teaspoon sugar (optional)
  • Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

For the Chicken Salad

  • 1 large or 2 smaller celery stalks, finely diced
  • ½ medium onion, finely diced
  • ½ cup dried cranberries, coarsely chopped
  • 1 medium apple (peeled or unpeeled), finely diced
  • 2 (12.5-ounce) cans of chicken, or roughly 3 cups of shredded cooked chicken

Instructions

  1. In a small mixing bowl, mix together all of the sauce ingredients until smooth. 
  2. In a larger mixing bowl, combine the remaining chicken salad ingredients. Gently stir the sauce into the chicken salad until well-combined. Season to taste with salt and freshly ground black pepper. 
  3. Chill for one hour before serving.
© My Homemade Roots

You may also like...

  • Key West-Style Chicken
    Key West-Style Chicken Marinade

    This Key West-Style Chicken is easy enough for a weeknight meal but is also perfect…

  • Juicy and Flavorful Pulled BBQ Chicken
    Slow Cooker Pulled BBQ Chicken

    Now I know that there are BBQ purists out there who might be a bit…

  • Old-Fashioned Chicken and Dumplings

    About once a week or so, usually on a Saturday or Sunday, I like to…

Filed Under: Fall, Fast and Easy, Gluten-free, Lighter Fare, Sandwiches Tagged With: apple recipes, chicken salad recipes, cranberry recipes

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Linda Doris says

    October 30, 2020 at 1:52 am

    Thank You Melissa
    This was the best Chicken I ever had
    Will be my making it often

    Reply

Leave a Reply to Linda Doris Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Let’s Get Social

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • RSS

About Me

Hi, I’m Melissa!
Appalachian gal here. I create new recipes, and also revive the vintage ones. I just adore my veggie garden, and preserving the bounty of the harvest. A well-stocked and organized pantry brings me joy. You’ll also find me working on at least one or two DIY projects at any given time. I’m happy to have you here, so grab a cup of coffee, or a glass of sweet tea, and stay and visit awhile! Read More…

My Amazon Pick: Enameled Cast Iron Covered Casserole Skillet

Browse by Category

My Homemade Roots Amazon Shop

Popular Posts

  • Fried Noodles and Cabbage
    Fried Cabbage and Noodles
  • Pumpkin Gobs aka Pumpkin Whoopie Pies
    Pumpkin Gobs
  • Quck and Easy Hamburger Buns
    Quick and Easy Hamburger Buns
  • Homemade Squash Casserole
    Squash Casserole
  • The Best Old-Fashioned Ginger Snap Cookies
    Old-Fashioned Ginger Snaps
  • PA Dutch Pepper Slaw | My Homemade Roots
    PA Dutch Pepper Slaw

Follow Me on Pinterest

COPYRIGHT ©2017-2020, My Homemade Roots. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

View Our Privacy Policy

View Disclaimers and Affiliate Disclosure

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it.OkPrivacy policy