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This tasty walnut chicken salad combines crisp greens with sweet cherries, crunchy nuts, and creamy gorgonzola cheese, tossed with juicy chicken pieces in a light and tangy vinaigrette.
I love recipes like this walnut and cherry chicken salad or my mango chicken salad as easy meals. They’re also great paired with soup or a sandwich for a bistro-style lunch or dinner!
Inspiration for this salad came years ago when a relative brought over a classic creamy chicken salad studded with cherries and walnuts. Fast forward, and I’m forever obsessed with my green, leafy version of a cherry and walnut chicken salad. It’s quick and easy to make like any good salad should be. The juicy chicken chunks make it perfect to tuck into as a light lunch or hearty side dish. If you have leftover chicken in your fridge, it’s a sign. Make this salad ASAP!
Why I Love This Walnut Chicken Salad Recipe
The flavors are delicious. I love the contrast of crunchy walnuts and sweet dried cherries with sharp blue cheese and a fresh vinaigrette. It’s so satisfying.
It’s ready in minutes. If you already have your chicken cooked and ready, the salad comes together in 10 minutes or less. It’s easy to meal prep, too, and take to-go during the week.
It’s super versatile. For lunch, dinner, or a side dish, this chicken salad does it all. Any season, all the time! It’s even great rolled up inside lavash bread as a chicken salad wrap.
Ingredients You’ll Need
The beauty of this salad is that the ingredients keep it simple, but there’s loads of flavor to go around. Check out some notes here, and scroll down to the recipe card for a printable list of ingredients and recipe directions.
- Chicken – I like to use cooked boneless skinless chicken breast as it’s easy to dice up. I’ll often make this salad whenever I have leftover baked chicken breast or a whole roast chicken to get through.
- Greens – Choose any combination of your favorite salad leaves. I like a blend of baby lettuce and spinach, or I’ll pick up a bag of spring mix from the store.
- Gorgonzola Cheese – Firm, crumbly gorgonzola is a kind of blue cheese from Italy. I love it paired with walnuts in recipes like this chicken salad and my orzo salad. If you aren’t a fan, crumbled feta or goat cheese makes a good substitute.
- Cherries – Dried cherries taste great any time of the year. When fresh cherries are in season, I’ll remove the pits and chop them up to use instead.
- Walnuts – This recipe uses chopped raw walnuts. Pecans are another good option.
- Dressing – I include how to make an easy Dijon vinaigrette, but you can dress your walnut chicken salad with any salad dressing you like.
How to Make a Walnut Chicken Salad
My cherry chicken salad with walnuts comes together just like any other salad. First, arrange the greens in a bowl. Then, it’s a matter of nestling the chicken over top and adding the rest of the toppings. In this case, crumbled gorgonzola, dried cherries, and walnuts for crunch. Whisk together the dressing, drizzle it over the salad, and toss! It’s as easy as that.
The Best Chicken Salad Dressing
The light Dijon vinaigrette that I use for this walnut chicken salad is one of my all-time favorites. It’s ridiculously simple. To make it, combine oil and vinegar with Dijon, salt, and pepper and give it a good whisk or a shake in a tight-lidded jar to emulsify.
Feel free to adjust the ingredients to taste. The recipe is actually inspired by the dressing used in the famous La Scala chopped salad. If you’d like, go ahead and include freshly grated parmesan like the original!
More Add-In Ideas
A walnut chicken salad is a great one to customize depending on which ingredients are in season. As always, I’d love to hear your ideas! In the meantime, here are some of mine:
- Spring and Summer: Fresh cherries and fresh berries, like strawberries or blackberries, make a nice add-on to this salad when they’re in season. In grilling weather, it’s delicious with grilled chicken, or I’ll swap chicken for steak for a version of a steak salad.
- Fall: Sliced apples, pears, and toasted pumpkin seeds or pecans are a tasty way to transition this salad recipe into the fall. I also like to add roasted butternut squash.
- Winter: Try add-ins like cabbage, kale, or other winter greens, like Brussels sprouts. Dried cranberries also work great in place of cherries.
Serving Suggestions
This chicken walnut salad is a great light lunch. I like to pair it with a cozy bowl of soup, like this cream of zucchini soup, or a grilled cheese sandwich. If I’m planning a date night dinner at home, this salad makes a pretty starter leading into cheesy crock pot French onion soup and our favorite chardonnay, with chocolate mousse for dessert.
Year-round, I’ll serve this salad as a fancy-without-even-trying side dish. It goes with pasta when we entertain, or I’ll take it along to our neighborhood picnics and potlucks!
Can I Meal Prep This Salad?
Absolutely. Back in my big-city-office days, I used to make a to-go version of this walnut and cherry chicken salad the night before to take to work in the morning. It makes a great mason jar salad, or you can store it in an airtight container.
To prep this salad in advance, start by adding a few spoonfuls of dressing to the container. Then, layer the rest of the salad in this order: walnuts, cherries, chicken, and blue cheese, ending with the salad greens—do not toss it or mix it together. Seal the container, keep the salad in the fridge, and shake it before serving.
Storing Leftovers
Unfortunately, once dressed, this chicken salad won’t stay fresh for long as the leaves tend to wilt and become soggy after a day or two in the fridge. If you know you’ll have leftovers, do your best to store the salad without the dressing (see my meal prep tips above). Enjoy!
More Chicken Salad Recipes
- Tex Mex Chicken Salad
- Southwest Chicken Salad
- Apples and Cheddar Chicken Salad
- Cranberry Chicken Salad
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Walnut Chicken Salad
Ingredients
For the Salad
- ¾ pound chicken breasts, cooked and cut into cubes
- 4 cups mixed greens
- 8 to 10 ounces fresh baby spinach
- 1 cup crumbled gorgonzola cheese
- 5 ounces dried cherries, you can use fresh cherries, if you prefer
- 1 cup chopped walnuts
For the Dressing
- ⅓ cup extra virgin olive oil
- 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar, or to taste
- 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
- salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Instructions
- Assemble the salad. Place mixed greens and spinach in a large salad bowl. Top with chicken, cheese, cherries, and walnuts.
- Make the dressing. Combine oil, vinegar, dijon mustard, salt, and pepper in a mixing bowl and whisk until well incorporated. Taste and adjust for vinegar, salt, and pepper.
- Combine. Add the dressing to the salad and toss to combine.
Notes
- Chicken options. Use this easy baked chicken breasts recipe to cook your chicken. If you’d like to use thighs, grab this recipe for stovetop chicken thighs.
- Fruit options. If fresh cherries are in season, you can use those if you like. But if you can’t get any type of cherries, use dried cranberries or fresh berries.
Nutrition
Nutritional info is an estimate and provided as courtesy. Values may vary according to the ingredients and tools used. Please use your preferred nutritional calculator for more detailed info.
You have such good humor about everything that happened to you during the week. Bring on the salad, because I want to load up on ham and such during Christmas, too!
I try to eat a salad every day as a meal… this one would be perfect. 🙂
Aww. Your poor daughter. That’s awful. 🙁
It sounds like a tough week. I hope next week is better!
The salad looks great, though. 🙂
oh my goodness, what a week you’ve had! sounds like a cocktail recipe might be a good idea. 😉
This salad is gorgeous and I love the flavors. I’ll take it over a creamy chicken salad any day!
Oh no!!! My daughter was 3 1/2 when in tears she asked why she didn’t have beautiful straight hair like her best friend. In preschool!! Preschool!! I thought I had time too! Good thing is she grew out of it. Anyway, this salad is super killer. The textures. Yum.
We can not get enough of salads around here! I love that you added cherries to this!
This salad is EXACTLY what I want for lunch today – I love everything in it!
I’m all about a gorgeously textured salad, I want to inhale this!
I freaking love this salad Kate. I adore cherries so I’m all over this one.
I’m all for salad in december. It’s all about balance. OH and what a stinky week but it’s okay tomorrow is Friday, it can only go up from there.