Chicken Salad Sandwich REcipE Secret Ingredient: Ranch Dressing
You may be a little skeptical on this secret ingredient, but we can promise that you’ll love it. Who doesn’t love ranch dressing?!
The ranch dressing in this chicken salad sandwich recipe gives it a creamy texture while the dry dressing mix packs it with extra ranch flavor. It may sound like a lot, but you will need both of these ingredients to give this chicken salad the very best flavor.
Ranch dressing and ranch dressing mix can be found on the same aisle in your grocery store. The ranch dressing packets are usually found above or below the ranch salad dressing in 1-ounce packets. This recipe calls for 1/2 cup prepared ranch dressing and 1/2 packet of the dry ranch dressing mix. We usually use the Hidden Valley dry ranch mix, but store brand works just as great.
A lot of chicken salad sandwiches have vinegar in them that can make them taste pretty acidic. I love how creamy this Chicken Salad recipe is and my picky eaters agree!
How to Make Chicken salad your way
We love chicken salad with grapes, but some don’t. That’s ok! We’ve had a lot of readers send us in their own versions of this recipe. Here are a few ideas to switch up your chicken salad and make it your own!
- Lemon juice/zest
- Peppered mayonnaise
- Turkey, ham, or tuna instead of chicken
- Chopped hard boiled eggs
- Jalapeños in place of celery for an extra kick
- Sliced olives
- Mandarin oranges
- Crumbled bacon
- Sprouts
We’ve even had a few readers tell us they prefer to place their chicken and vegetables in the food processor before mixing with their liquid ingredients, to get that restaurant style Chicken Salad Sandwich texture.
How to make chicken salad with Boiled Chicken
This recipe calls for 3 1/2 cups diced, cooked chicken. We’ve found it easiest to boil our chicken for this chicken salad recipe, but any cooking method will work.
Here’s how we boil our chicken for chicken salad:
- Allow chicken breasts to fully thaw and rinse in cold water.
- Fill a pot with water and place chicken in pot. Make sure your chicken is fully submerged in the water.
- Place pot on the stove and bring to a boil over high heat.
- Once boiling, reduce heat to low and allow the chicken to simmer for 20-25 minutes or until the internal temperature of the chicken reaches 165 degrees.
- Remove pot from heat and drain liquid. To assure your chicken is cooked, cut through chicken and make sure the middle is white and the juices run clear.
Another shortcut we love in this recipe is using rotisserie chicken. Most grocery stores sell already pulled and packaged rotisserie chicken in their deli, making this chicken salad even easier to throw together.
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We love to serve our chicken salad with these sides:
Serves: 8
1 hr, 10 Prep Time
1 hr, 10 Total Time
Save RecipeIngredients
- 3/4 cup mayonnaise
- 1/4 cup buttermilk
- 1/2 cup prepared ranch dressing
- 1/2 (1 ounce) package dry Hidden Valley Ranch dressing
- 1 1/2 Tablespoons dry dill weed
- 5 boneless skinless chicken breasts (cooked and shredded)
- 1 cup slivered almonds
- 1 1/2 cups red grapes (halved)
- 3 stalks celery (diced)
- 8 croissant rolls
Instructions
- In a large mixing bowl, combine mayonnaise, buttermilk, prepared ranch dressing, dry ranch mix and dill weed.
- Gently mix in cooked chicken, almonds, grapes and celery.
- Refrigerate for at least 1 hour and serve on croissants.
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Watch us make our Mom’s Chicken Salad Sandwiches in this video!
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