Guacamole Chicken Salad (Quick and Easy)
Guacamole? Chicken Salad? It’s both! This Guacamole Chicken Salad is so stupid good. Made with fresh avocados, cilantro, lime, jalapeño, chicken, spices, and a few other ingredients, it’s basically California in a bowl.
Why You’ll Love This Chicken Salad Recipe
- Combines one of the greatest dips of all time with chicken salad. This is a pro guacamole food blog. It’s literally one of the best dips ever. Guacamole is also incredibly good when mixed into basic chicken salad. Plus, this way, you don’t have to choose between chicken salad and guacamole.
- Super simple, fresh flavors. This recipe is pretty simple once you have everything measured out. All you need is cooked chicken, a little mayo, a few spices, and a few ingredients for the guacamole.
- Very quick and easy. There are 2 basic steps in this recipe: make the guacamole in a bowl, then add the chicken, mayo, and spices to the same bowl and mix it all together. Using pre-cooked chicken keeps this super simple and fast.
- Can be scaled up for a crowd. We love making a double batch of this for visiting friends and family. It always goes quickly!
California Avocados
If you pay attention to the stereotypes, it should come as no surprise that many Californians love avocados. In fact, California produces the majority of U.S. grown avocados. We also happen to eat a lot of guacamole and a lot of salads, including chicken salad, so this recipe is a match made in foodie heaven. It’s creamy, savory, herby, and a little spicy, and it’s full of protein and healthy fats (plus mayo, but who’s counting?).
How to Pick a Ripe Avocado
You always want to use avocados that are at their peak ripeness, not overripe or underripe. If you plan to make this guacamole chicken salad the same day you do your grocery shopping, you’ll want to pick an avocado that is already perfectly ripe and doesn’t require any extra time on your counter. A ripe Hass avocado will usually have darker skin (other varieties may not, however). It should also be slightly firm but with a little “give” or yield when you gently squeeze it in your palm. If it’s too soft, then it’s too ripe. You can also check the stem at the top. If you remove it and the avocado is green underneath, it’s not overripe. If it’s brown underneath, put the avocado back and try another.
If you’re planning on making this chicken salad later in the week, choose an avocado that’s slightly less ripe, a little on the firmer side. Keep it in your fruit bowl at room temperature for a few days. To ripen it even faster, place the avocado in a paper bag on your counter and crimp the top of the bag closed. Just don’t forget about it or it’ll get overripe and unusable. Click here to read more info about picking the right avocado.
Ingredients in Guacamole Chicken Salad
- Avocado – the avocado not only provides great flavor and healthy fats, but it also adds creaminess to this chicken salad so that you don’t have to use as much mayo. Plus, it’s the most key ingredient in guacamole.
- Red onion – we like to use red onions in this recipe, but white or yellow onions would work too.
- Jalapeño – this is an important ingredient in our guacamole, but if you don’t like spicy food, you can use less or even leave it out entirely.
- Cilantro – one of our favorite herbs, cilantro provides a fresh flavor to the guacamole.
- Lime – a little citrus flavor will help balance out the creaminess and richness of the avocado and mayo.
- Chicken – this recipe uses cooked chicken breasts to make things easier. You can rotisserie chicken or any other pre-cooked chicken that you want.
- Mayonnaise – chicken salads have to use a little mayo, but because you’re using avocado too, you don’t need TOO too much here. Just enough.
- Spices – to add even more flavor, we like to add chili powder and adobo seasoning. Both are spice blends that you can find in most supermarkets or online. Many brands make these spice blends gluten-free as well, so be sure to check if you’re avoiding gluten.
How to Make Guacamole Chicken Salad
- Make the guacamole by lightly mashing the avocado in a bowl. Mix in the red onion, jalapeño, cilantro, and lime.
- Mix in the chicken, mayonnaise, and spices, and season with salt to taste.
- Enjoy with tortilla chips, crackers, or on your favorite bread or burger bun.
Our Tips for Guacamole Chicken Salad
Serving and Storage Suggestions
We like to serve this guacamole chicken salad for lunch, as a hearty appetizer, or alongside other potluck or game day snacks. We recommend dipping tortilla chips into it as you would with regular guacamole, spread it on crackers, or even make a chicken salad sandwich out of it with your favorite bread or burger bun.
Store leftover chicken salad in an airtight container in the fridge for a couple days. Any longer than that and the avocados will start to turn brown. To help avoid that from happening sooner, you can press a piece of plastic wrap right against the chicken salad so that it touches it, which will keep it more airtight and protect it from turning brown faster.
FAQs: Guacamole Chicken Salad
Guacamole Chicken Salad Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 medium Hass avocado seed & skin removed
- ¼ red onion finely diced
- 1 jalapeño seeded & minced (or use 1/2 for less spice)
- Handful of cilantro chopped (about 2-3 tbsp)
- Juice of ½ a lime about 1 tbsp
- 1 pound cooked chicken breast chopped
- ½ cup mayonnaise
- 1 tsp chili powder if avoiding gluten, use gluten-free variety
- 1 tsp adobo seasoning if avoiding gluten, use gluten-free variety
- Salt to taste
Instructions
- Lightly mash the avocado in a bowl. Mix with the red onion, jalapeño, cilantro, and lime.
- Add the chicken, mayo, and spices. Season with salt to taste and eat with tortilla chips, crackers, or on your favorite bread.
Final Thoughts
This guacamole chicken salad tastes just as it sounds: like fresh guacamole and satisfying chicken salad. We hate difficult choices, so when given the option to choose between one snack and another, we love when we can combine them both into one incredible dish. If you make this recipe, please let us know how it turns out by rating it and leaving a comment below! We’d love to hear from you.
