About ten years ago, after eating at a cafe in Michigan, I attempted to recreate this delectable variation on chicken salad at home. For those of us who live in areas where cherries are not easily accessible, ordering the cherries online these days makes it much simpler. If necessary, regular milk can be used in place of the buttermilk.
| Prep Time: | 15 mins |
| Additional Time: | 30 mins |
| Total Time: | 45 mins |
| Servings: | 4 |
| Yield: | 4 servings |
Ingredients
- 3 cooked, boneless chicken breast halves, diced
- ⅓ cup dried cherries
- ⅓ cup diced celery
- ⅓ cup toasted, chopped pecans
- ⅓ cup low-fat mayonnaise
- 1 tablespoon buttermilk
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon ground black pepper
- ⅓ cup cubed apples (Optional)
Instructions
- In a large bowl, combine the chicken, dried cherries, celery, nuts, mayonnaise, milk, salt and pepper and apple if desired. Toss together well and refrigerate until chilled. Serve on toasted cracked wheat bread or croissants.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 264 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 12 g |
| Cholesterol | 62 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 2 g |
| Protein | 24 g |
| Saturated Fat | 2 g |
| Sodium | 356 mg |
| Sugars | 8 g |
| Fat | 13 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
This is good, but needs a little more flavor for us. I added some lemon juice and green onions. Cherries are a nice change, and I think the apples are a must.
Very good. I doubled the cherries and apples and increased the mayo to 1/2 cup.
If you have chicken ready this is really easy and very tasty. I like the milk to thin out the Mayo. I’ll do that now for other recipes. Reduces the calories and the dressing goes further.
Delicious! This dish reminds me of a great restaurant in Charlevoix where I first had chicken salad with cherries. I added about tablespoon of finely diced red onion. Can’t wait to make this again.
This recipe for the Cherry Chicken Salad is delicious and I will make it again. I even shared some of it with one of my friends who also loved it.
This tasted amazing!!
I didn’t have cherries, or pecans (used almonds I toasted in oven) and I added some carrot shreds to give a little color.
I love this chicken salad! I discovered it a couple years ago in a Taste of Home cookbook. For those saying it’s too dry, the recipe I have calls for 1/2 cup mayo and 4 teaspoons buttermilk. My husband eats in on bread, which has more mayo on it.
wow this was so yummy! Although I did make a few changes. I used 1/3 cup pineapple tidbits instead of apples and added a teaspoon of dried chives and a few tablespoons more of mayonnaise with about 3 tablespoons of Marzetti’s poppyseed dressing and didn’t add buttermilk and also added about 1 teaspoon lemon pepper and then followed the recipe as written and served it on toast with lettuce.
Have made this twice. First time we used cherries as instructed. This option proved to increase the cost of the recipe significantly. The second time I used cranberries and found it just as tasty. Best part, much much cheaper! Love this recipe for daily lunches.
It’s simple to make and fun to eat. I definitely think you should add the apples to it b/c it does make it more delicious. It balances the tartness of the dried cherries. I will definitely make this again when I have chicken breast to use up.
Love this recipe! I’ve never cared for fruit/nuts in my chicken salad but this recipe is a delicious exception.
I replaced the cherries with dried cranberries and served it wrapped in a tortilla ~ family just loved it!!!
This is so delicious. I left out the buttermilk (not gonna buy a bunch for 1 T) and added a generous squirt of dijon mustard instead. This is my new go-to chicken salad recipe!
Loved it! Best version of chicken salad I’ve ever had. Used a ready-made rotisserie chicken and diced up the breast meat. Also added grapes. Kids didn’t even notice the celery. Served on croissant rolls. Delicious. Will definitely be adding this to our meal rotation.
Awesome recipe! So versatile too! I use a rotisserie chicken from Sams Club, I make chicken soup from the rest of the chicken and cut up breast for this salad! Thank you for sharing!
Loved it!!!
I’m from Michigan also. One of our favorite places to eat sandwiches used to be this small shop in Ann Arbor called Doughboy’s. We were so sad when they went out of business. They used to make this salad as well as one of the best egg salads I have ever had. We loved it so much we used to just eat it straight out of the carton. Thank you for giving us a recipe that brings us so close to those beloved memories!
Dried cherries are plentiful here in Michigan so I used the real thing! I’m not a very experienced cook so I had to look up exactly how to toast pecans: 1. Preheat oven to 350°F.; 2. Lightly spritz baking sheet with cooking spray.; 3. To toast pecans, put them on a baking sheet and toast them just until they become aromatic, about 5 minutes.; 4. You have to watch them carefully as they are easily scorched.
Scrumptious is right! We slow-cooked our chicken 8 hours, and used this recipe to make chicken salad. Used pink lady apples and green onions (no celery) and left out the buttermilk. Delicious! Made 4 sandwiches and used them in letttuce wraps.
This is the best chicken salad that I’ve ever had. We made it for my daughter’s wedding reception and had to increase the recipe by 10-servings so it would feed between 50-60 people. Everybody that ate some asked for the recipe, which made us (the mothers of the bride & groom) smile.