Low Fat Rotisserie Chicken Salad

Rotisserie chicken is a great protein source when you don’t feel like cooking. And with summer right around the corner, it’s time to start building out your warm weather recipe arsenal. This low fat rotisserie chicken salad is one of my favorite ways to elevate pulled rotisserie chicken into something more.

The recipe makes seven servings with 15 grams of protein and only 2 grams of carbs, 5 grams of fat, and 115 calories each. That leaves plenty of calories for pairing with crackers, croissants and whole grain breads, salads, or keeping it low calorie with lettuce wraps.

How to Make Healthy Chicken Salad with Rotisserie Chicken

If a picture is worth a thousand words, a video is worth a million. Rotisserie chicken salad is simple enough, but I basically cover all the ingredient notes I’ve written below in video form here. In case you’re like me and would rather listen than read!

Ingredients for Low Fat Chicken Salad

Everyone likes their chicken salad a bit different. Know that you can use this base recipe as a starting point and easily customize to fit your flavor palate.

For example, I’m in the no-fruit-in-my-chicken-salad camp. But adding some sliced grapes or dried fruit does add a lot of sweetness that in theory goes nicely with the acidity and saltiness. Just tread lightly with the dried fruit to avoid adding too many calories.

Note: This Chicken Salad calls for grapes and apples, in case you need a fruity example.

You can also add fresh herbs like parsley, tarragon, or dill.

Here’s everything I like to use:

• Pulled Rotisserie Chicken – The nutrition facts use pulled rotisserie chicken breast without the skin. If you want to use homemade chicken, check out my Traeger smoked chicken salad, slow cooker pulled BBQ chicken, or Mexican shredded chicken (for a Tex-Mex chicken salad spin).
• Diced Celery, Scallions or Chives, and (optional) Jalapeño or Poblano Pepper – You can plug and play fresh herbs and veggies here. Celery is a classic chicken salad ingredient, but I wouldn’t be mad at a Tex-Mex pepper heavy version.
• Light Mayo and Fat Free Greek Yogurt – Feel free to increase the amounts of the creamy components if you like an extra creamy chicken salad. It’s hard to replicate the tanginess of light mayo, but you could probably get away with a higher yogurt to mayo ratio to further reduce the fat.
• Dijon Mustard – Plain yellow mustard will work fine, but dijon adds that little extra.
• Hot Sauce – Go with a fermented hot sauce, if possible.
• Lemon Juice – It’s here for freshness and acidity. Quality vinegars would work as substitutes.
• Chopped Bacon – This provides salty, umami flavors and much needed (in my opinion) crunchy texture. Roasted nuts and mushrooms could work as substitutes.

How to Serve Rotisserie Chicken Salad

The healthiest chicken salad in the world can easily be ruined by serving with the wrong things. If you have calories to spare, you simply can’t beat a warm croissant in my opinion. But if you’re here for a healthy chicken salad recipe, I’m guessing you don’t have those extra calories in your budget.

So let’s talk lower calorie pairings for chicken salad:

• Lettuce wraps are the no brainer option for keeping calories to a minimum. Let’s have some fun and call it “protein style” like my healthy In-N-Out burgers copycat.
• A dollop of this rotisserie chicken salad goes great on top of a mixed greens salad with cucumber, cabbage, carrots, tomatoes, and your choice of dressing.
• You can find tons of low carb, macro friendly crackers on the market these days. Check out this list of 11 healthy store bought crackers.
• Similar to crackers, there are plenty of high protein bread options in most grocery stores. This is a great way to get lots of fiber in your diet as well.

And because I hate to tease a croissant, here’s a well-reviewed recipe for low butter croissants. I’m guessing something like reduced fat crescent rolls could also be an option.

Okay, that’s a lettuce wrap! I’m happy to answer any recipe or ingredient questions you might have in the comments below. And don’t forget to come back and leave a recipe review when you’re chowing down on tasty rotisserie chicken salad this summer.