Healthy Grilled Chicken Waldorf Salad
on May 09, 2016, Updated Aug 23, 2024
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You won’t find any mayo in this crunchy and fresh Healthy Grilled Chicken Waldorf Salad! Loaded with apples, grapes and pistachios it’s perfect for using up leftover grilled chicken!
Salads that are coated in a creamy dressing such as chicken, tuna, potato or macaroni salads are ones that I generally won’t touch at a restaurant or buy from the store. Two reasons. One they are usually so thick and gloopy with mayonnaise that you can’t taste anything other than that and two I am always afraid it wasn’t prepared or stored properly and that there’s a good possibility I could get food poisoning if I eat it. I know I’m probably being paranoid, but both of my grandpas worked for the health department and did health inspections at restaurants, schools and grocery stores. I’ve heard enough horror stories to where I just steer clear of these kinds of salads and make my own versions at home.
Chicken salad is one of my favorites to make at home, especially this Healthy Grilled Chicken Waldorf Salad. I love grilling the chicken rather than poaching it because it has so much more flavor when prepared this way, not to mention during the warmer months of the year our fridge always has leftover grilled chicken in it. Chicken Waldorf Salad is one of those great recipes that not only uses leftovers, but take only a few minutes to throw together.
There are tons of ways to make a chicken salad, but the Waldorf version usually contains apples, celery, walnuts, sometimes grapes or raisins and is dressed in a mayonnaise based dressing. I love this salad for all the crunchy add ins, but I’m not a fan of all the mayonnaise. I enjoy a little mayonnaise, but I don’t like the idea of tossing an entire salad in it. To make this grilled chicken Waldorf salad healthy I substituted plain Greek yogurt for the mayo. Sometimes when you make a healthy substitution like this there’s a major difference in the way the finished product tastes, but that wasn’t the case with this.
The salad was perfectly creamy and with the addition of dijon mustard, fresh lemon juice and fresh chives the switch wasn’t even noticeable. Another small change that I made to this Waldorf chicken salad was using pistachios instead of walnuts. Walnuts aren’t my favorite nut, I think they taste a little bitter. Pistachios on the other hand I love and could eat those all day. They’re the perfect size for the salad so you don’t even have to chop them up. The salad can be served as a sandwich, on top of your favorite greens, or if you’re feeling extra lazy just grab a fork and eat it out of the bowl!
Healthy Grilled Chicken Waldorf Salad
Ingredients
Salad
- 2 grilled chicken breasts, diced
- 1 apple, diced
- 1 cup halved grapes
- 1/4 cup diced celery
- 1/4 cup shelled pistachios, I used unsalted
- 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
- Kosher salt and black pepper to taste
- Lettuce or bread for serving
Dressing
- 1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt
- 1/2 teaspoon lemon zest
- Juice of half a lemon
- 1 tablespoon minced chives
- 1 teaspoon dijon mustard
- Kosher salt and black pepper to taste
Instructions
- In a large bowl add all of the salad ingredients and toss together.
- In a small bowl whisk together all of the dressing ingredients.
- Pour the dressing over the salad and fold together until everything is combined. Serve on top of a salad or as a sandwich.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
More Salad Recipes
Barley Salad with Chickpeas and Cherries
Buffalo Chicken Salad with Spicy Ranch Dressing
Grilled Chicken and Goat Cheese Salad with Blackberry Vinaigrette
Fabulous! I love that you used Greek yogurt instead of mayo and incorporated so many great colors and textures!
Thank you! I love using Greek yogurt over mayo in almost all of my recipes.
NOTHING is better than a salad in the spring! I LOVE this!
Thanks Brandy! :-)
I love Waldorf salad but adding mayo gives me the creeps. Can’t wait to try this!!
Mayo tends to do that to a lot of people I think. Thanks Jessie! :-)
Love the changes you made in this waldorf salad! Looks so delicious!
This is a great way to use up leftover grilled chicken from last night–here comes lunch :)
Thanks Kristen!
I’ve never had a waldorf salad but I’ve always wanted to try it! Yours looks gorgeous!
Thanks Rachel! Once you try a Waldorf salad you’ll be hooked!