Cashew Curry Chicken Salad

Cashew curry chicken salad uses just a few ingredients, is full of crunch, and boasts a wonderfully warm spice flavor. Delicious served hot or cold, this easy recipe is a great choice for using up leftover cooked or rotisserie chicken.

This curry chicken salad recipe isn't anything groundbreaking, but it continues to be in our regular dinner rotation even 9 years after first posting it here on the blog. Needless to say it needed a little photo upgrade!

Most of the time this is what I make for dinner the night I bring home a rotisserie chicken.

Reasons to Love Curry Chicken Salad

It has SO many qualities worthy of a weeknight meal recipe:

• it's quick to make
• it uses mainly kitchen staples (with ingredient wiggle room)
• it's just as good eaten warm or straight-from-the-fridge cold
• it can be served lots of different ways: on a green salad, a sandwich, a wrap, in a bowl by itself...

It's one of those recipes that has you excited to eat lunch the next day because you can't wait to dig into the leftovers. That kind of good. 🙂

Recipe Ingredients

• Chicken: You'll need roughly 4 cups of shredded chicken to make curried chicken salad, but there's even wiggle room on that measurement. If using a rotisserie chicken I won't even measure, rather I'll just use all of the meat, white and dark. Chicken breasts or thighs you cook yourself will of course work, too. Shred or chop finely.
• Mayonnaise: I use lite mayo but any kind you prefer is fine. Plain Greek yogurt is a good substitute for all or a portion of the mayo if you'd like more tang (like I do in these healthy chicken salad lettuce wraps), as is sour cream.
• Vinegar: This provides an acidic note that matches up nicely with the creamy chicken salad dressing. Apple cider vinegar is my preference, but red wine, white wine, champagne vinegar, or even white vinegar are all good.
• Celery: For crunch.
• Onion: White or red onion, for more crunch.
• Curry Powder: This is the most impactful ingredient and brings a warm and earthy flavor. A pre-mixed blend of various spices, standard supermarket curry powder or a slightly spicer Jamaican-style curry powder are equally delicious.
• Cashews: Their salty, almost creamy taste works well in a creamy, cold chicken salad. These can be omitted to be nut-free.

Easy Recipe Instructions

Prep Ahead - While this isn't an exceptionally long recipe from start to finish, two parts of this curry chicken salad recipe can be prepped ahead: shredding the chicken and whisking together the dressing.

1. Prepare the Chicken

• Rotisserie Chicken - Use the dark and white meat from one rotisserie chicken. Either discard the skin or slice it into small bits and incorporate them into the mixture for extra flavor. Keep in mind that rotisserie chicken comes in a variety of seasonings (some of which may not mesh with curry chicken salad), and that the skin can be fairly salty.
• Chicken Breasts - You'll need about 2-2.5 pounds of raw chicken breast. For time purposes I use the Instant Pot if I'm cooking chicken breasts at home for use in shredded chicken recipes. You can see my method listed out in one of our Game Day favorites, healthy buffalo chicken dip. The paddle attachment of a stand mixer makes quick work of "shredding" it.
• *Big Shortcut* - The lengthiest part of this recipe is shredding the chicken. I've noticed Costco sells refrigerated packages of pre-shredded chicken.

2. Combine All Ingredients

Whisk together the dressing ingredients (mayo, vinegar, curry powder, salt, and pepper), add the chicken, celery, onion, and cashews, and give everything a big stir.

Take a taste and adjust the seasonings before serving. This curry chicken salad is great served warm, at room temperature, or chilled right from the fridge.

Recipe Tips and Tricks

• Serving Suggestions - Add a big scoop to a leafy green salad, serve in large butter or Bibb lettuce leaves to make lettuce wraps, wrap in tortillas for extra-portable chicken salad sandwiches, or serving on fresh, crusty bread for an open-face sandwich.
• Storage - Store leftover salad in an air-tight container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.
• Can You Freeze Chicken Salad? - I would not freeze this recipe as the mayonnaise-based dressing will change in texture after it's been frozen and thawed. Add-ins like the celery, onion, and cashews will also soften and lose their appealing crunch.

Related Recipes

While the first two are self-explanatory, curry powder plays a delicious role in my creamy chicken and rice soup and the spice blend I use to coat air fryer cauliflower.

If you’ve enjoyed this recipe, I’d love for you to leave a star rating in the recipe card and/or a comment review below!