Curried Chicken Salad: Nut Free, Easy, and Versatile

My recipe for curried chicken salad can be eaten in a sandwich, over a salad, or with rice, pasta, or crackers. This is great for meal prep over the weekend in order to have lots of meal options during the week.  Use canned chicken for a no-cook option.

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Inspired by Afternoon Teas

My mom told me about going to afternoon tea with her friends when she lived in Hong Kong and it sounded like a fun thing to do with friends. We have enjoyed some great mother-daughter afternoon teas together in San Francisco.

The teas come with stack of sweets, scones with jam and clotted cream, and little sandwiches. I love the little sandwiches. I made a chicken salad sandwich for an afternoon tea with friends. But it seemed the filling needed more flavor and a little bit of curry powder made the flavors pop.

It’s possible that afternoon tea services were inspired by Coronation chicken. A curried chicken served on a salad of rice and peas was one of the dishes served at Queen Elizabeth’s coronation luncheon.

Use Any Kind of Cooked Chicken

I have made this curried chicken salad recipe with 2 or 3 cans of chicken. Canned chicken is a huge timesaver and convenient, especially when you need a quick meal or a high protein snack.

This recipe is also a great way to use up a leftover rotisserie chicken. Our family likes to eat the dark meat first and usually have lots of leftover chicken breast which is perfect for this recipe.

Or you can use any cooked chicken that has been cooked plain, such as baked, grilled, or Cantonese-Style Poached Chicken.

Add Lots of Celery and Scallions

I like to add a lot of celery and scallions to increase the vegetables in the sandwiches. If you finely dice the celery and finely slice the scallions, the veggies are less chunky and easier to mix. Feel free to use less, if desired.

How do you like your celery? I like to pick out celery that is light green and has big wide juicy stalks. In my opinion, they’re usually a little bit more tender and milder in taste, which is why I can add a lot of celery.

Bonus: Make Two Recipes from a Whole Chicken

The cost of buying 2 chicken breasts is about the same as buying a whole chicken. When you buy a whole chicken, think of it as buying the chicken breasts and getting the rest of the chicken for free.

Making this curried chicken salad from a whole chicken is very practical if you plan ahead to also make some chicken soup and/or chicken congee also.

Basically, I set aside the chicken legs to make soup later and cook the rest of the chicken in my Instant Pot with enough water to cover the chicken for 30 minutes.

Then I chop the cooked and deboned chicken meat to make this chicken salad. To make soup or chicken congee, I strain out all the bones and add chicken legs and other ingredients to the pot.

How to Serve Curried Chicken Salad

You can serve this chicken salad in a sandwich. Cut the crusts off and cut into quarters for a dainty tea sandwich or make a regular sandwich. On a cold day, you can add a slice of cheese and make a chicken melt sandwich with the filling.

If you have cooked pasta or cooked rice, you can heat up some cooked pasta or cooked rice with the chicken salad for a tasty and cheesy quick meal.

Or you can serve it over your favorite salad vegetables and enjoy it as an entree sized salad.

Another low effort way to serve this curried chicken salad is to eat it with cut vegetables and/or crackers. Use the cut veggies and/or crackers as a scoop, no spoon needed.

Storing the Chicken Salad

I assemble this chicken salad in a large mixing bowl because it makes a big batch, and you need space to mix without ingredients flying out of the bowl. But when I finish mixing it, I store the chicken salad in two medium-sized glass food storage containers.

The reason I split the chicken salad into two containers is to save space. We might finish half of the chicken salad in one day, and then we won’t have a large half-empty container of chicken salad the next day.

The other reason is that the second box stays fresher without temperature changes from taking the chicken salad in and out of the refrigerator.

Why Add Curry to Chicken Salad?

What are the health benefits of adding curry to chicken salad? Curry powder is actually a blend of spices which may contain turmeric, coriander, fenugreek, cinnamon, cumin, black pepper, ginger, and cardamom.

Tumeric, an orange colored spice, is well-known as an anti-inflammatory and antioxidant ingredient due to curcumin, a compound naturally found in tumeric. We can enhance the bioabsorption of curcumin by adding black pepper to curry or other tumeric containing foods.

Who knew that eating curry is not only tasty, but also good for us?

Nut-Free Curry Powder

I recommend buying curry powder from spice brands that you trust are free of top allergens, such as Spicely or McCormick. You want to use trusted brands that manufacture in allergen-free facilities or have robust allergen management protocols.

For example, Morton and Bassett does not market themselves as an allergy friendly company but I like that they added peanut allergen testing in addition to testing for gluten after the huge recall due to peanuts in cumin.

Avoid products with allergen advisories (“may contain […]” and similar) on them. Another company recalled their curry due to peanuts after routine inspections in 2023.

Allergy Aware Curry Chicken Salad

This recipe is relatively free of top allergens except for perhaps egg in mayonnaise. If allergic to eggs, use your favorite egg-free mayonnaise. It’s been a long time since I’ve had to buy egg-free mayo and manufacturing processes and recipes may have changed so be sure to double-check.

• Follow Your Heart has a detailed allergen chart linked in their FAQ, I love that kind of transparency.
• I also notice that Hellman’s makes a plant-based mayo but I haven’t tried it.

I also add some shredded mozzarella or cheddar cheese to the recipe. If allergic to milk, feel free to omit or substitue with dairy-free cheese.

If you are wondering what other brands that I like to use, I have many of them listed in my post, What’s in Nut Free Wok’s Cupboard? Nut-Free Ingredients.

This recipe is free of peanuts, tree nuts, fish, shellfish, soy, wheat, and sesame as written.

5 from 1 vote

Print

Curried Chicken Salad: Nut Free, Easy, and Versatile

My recipe for curried chicken salad can be eaten in a sandwich, over a salad, or with rice, pasta, or crackers. This is great for meal prep over the weekend in order to have lots of meal options during the week. I add a lot of celery and scallions, feel free to adjust the amounts as desired. Use canned chicken for a no-cook option.

Course afternoon tea, Appetizer, lunch, Snack

Cuisine English, Hong Kong

Keyword curried chicken salad

Prep Time 15 minutes

Total Time 15 minutes

Servings 8

Author Sharon (NutFreeWok.com)

Ingredients

• 2 chicken breasts, cooked and chopped (approximately 4-5 cups)
• 2 cups celery, finely diced (approximately 8 stalks)
• 1 cup mayonnaise
• 2 tablespoons curry powder more if desired
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 2 bunches scallions finely sliced

Instructions

1. In a large mixing bowl, combine the chopped chicken, diced celery, mayonnaise, curry powder and freshly ground pepper the mayonnaise and curry powder are almost evenly distributed. Add the sliced scallions and mix gently to combine.
2. Transfer to an airtight container and refrigerate until ready to serve.

Related Recipes:

• My favorite chicken soup recipes are Instant Pot Chicken Soup with Corn and Vegetables, which is veggie packed and very hearty.
• The other chicken soup recipe that my family also likes is Instant Pot Chicken Corn Egg Drop Soup.
• Curry fans will want to try this Japanese Beef Curry Recipe, from The Gluten Free Instant Pot Cookbook Review

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