Chicken Salad With Pineapple

This Chicken Salad With Pineapple is delightfully refreshing, combining bright and refreshing flavors like pineapple, cilantro, and dijon mustard. It’s great by itself or with croissant sandwiches.

Made with Greek yogurt instead of mayonnaise, lemon juice to brighten it up, plus celery and slivered almonds for a nice crunch, this pineapple chicken salad recipe recipe is easy to make and the perfect healthy lunch option.

Make lunch time easy with some of my other favorite lunch recipes like Air Fryer Shrimp And Peppers, Lemon Orzo Salad With Garlic Butter Shrimp, Pesto Chicken Power Bowls, and Whole30 Egg Roll In A Bowl.

Chicken Salad Croissants Recipe

A perfect variation to traditional chicken salad…with a great twist! This Hawaiian chicken salad recipe brings more life and flavor to the traditional dish and there is no mayonnaise!

Perfect for quick and easy lunches, you can serve this on its own over a bed of leafy greens, in lettuce wraps, or pair perfectly with a buttery croissant.

This dish is typically enjoyed in the summertime, and is one of the best simple recipes for a picnic or outdoor gathering (I love bringing them to breweries or vineyards). However, you can enjoy a chicken salad croissant sandwich any time of year! If fresh pineapple isn’t available, grab some canned pineapple instead.

The addition of sweet pineapple in chicken salad makes it more vibrant and flavorful, and is a nice change from the traditional seedless red grapes.

Creamy dressing for chicken salad is typically made with mayonnaise. However, in this recipe, you’ll see that I used greek yogurt. I found this to be the best ingredient to make a creamy and simple dressing for anyone who doesn’t like mayonnaise! Using greek yogurt as opposed to mayonnaise also makes it healthier and lowers the calories.

Ingredients You Will Need

Chicken: you will need 2 cups shredded chicken breast. Speed up the process! I recommend picking up a rotisserie chicken from the store and shredding it.

This recipe is a great way to use up any leftover rotisserie chicken you might have from another recipe.

Fruits and vegetables: bring in those fresh flavors with pineapple, crunchy celery, cilantro, red onions, butter lettuce leaves, and lemon juice. Sometimes I like to add diced red onion too.

You can also use chopped green onion, parsley, or dill in place of cilantro.

Almonds: I love a little crunch to my chicken salad. To achieve that perfect crunch, flavor, and texture, I like to use sliced almonds. Looking for another nut? You can also use sliced macadamia nuts or pine nuts.

You can also add water chestnuts or a diced bell pepper for extra crunch.

Yogurt: I used 1/2 cup of plain greek yogurt, full fat. I don’t recommend using low-fat Greek yogurt. I tried this recipe with 2% fat greek yogurt and didn’t think that it was as good.

Mustard: Dijon mustard adds a nice bold flavor to the chicken salad mixture with notes of wasabi-horseradish that marry nicely with the other ingredients.

Croissants: round butter croissants work best because they have a larger surface area to hold the chicken salad. I use these on my salmon salad sandwiches too!

How to make chicken salad with pineapple

1. Combine chicken salad ingredients. In a large bowl, stir the shredded chicken with the pineapple, celery, almonds, and cilantro. If you are using red onions, add them here.

2. Make the dressing. In a small bowl, whisk the Greek yogurt with lemon juice, dijon mustard, and salt. I like to add a little fresh cracked black pepper in here sometimes too.

2. Combine chicken salad and dressing. Pour the dressing over the chicken mixture and stir gently to combine.

Assemble the sandwiches. To assemble the sandwiches, lay 2-3 pieces of lettuce over the bottom half of each croissant. Spread one quarter of the chicken salad over the lettuce and top with the other half of the croissant.

Serve and enjoy!

How do you cut a sandwich for croissants?

Cutting a croissant may seem difficult, but it is actually rather easy!

Make sure you have a sharp knife. A serrated knife will work best for this because it will prevent tearing the bread.

Place your knife in the middle of the croissant (direction going horizontally) and carefully move it back and forth to slice the top half off.

Should you toast croissants?

Much of this is personal preference, you do not have to toast your croissants if you don’t want to. I prefer mine toasted, but they are perfectly fine cold with a sandwich.

If you are looking to toast your croissant, I recommend air frying the whole sandwich at 350 F for 1-2 minutes or placing the sliced croissants in the oven at 375 F for 3-5 minutes. You can also place sliced croissants (sliced side down) in a hot pan over medium-high heat for 1-2 minutes.

How long does chicken salad last?

Your leftover chicken salad will keep in the fridge for about 3-4 days.

Do not keep your chicken salad out at room temperature. Bacteria will grow rapidly at room temperature. If you do keep it at room temperature (for example, making it and serving it) it should not be kept out for more than 2 hours.

I recommend plating two dishes, one to keep out and one for the fridge and rotate the dishes every 2 hours or so to keep the chicken cold.

More Chicken Recipes you will love

And don’t forget to download my e-book if you haven’t already – it is chock-full full of easy rotisserie chicken or leftover chicken recipes!

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