Hello and Welcome! Chicken Salad is a perfect vacation recipe. It’s easy to put together; you can tailor it to use the veggies on hand, and with a store-bought rotisserie chicken, there’s no cooking! I had intended to do a yellow curry, but the local grocery store only had red curry powder, but I did find turmeric, which gives this salad a bright yellow color. So today we have Red Curry Chicken Salad. Let’s get right to it!
I like to start chicken salad with pulling the chicken and prepping the veggies. I have celery, scallions, cilantro and a fresh Hatch chili. You can use bell pepper in lieu of the Hatch chili. I tasted this particular chili before adding it to the bowl, just to see how hot it was. Hatch chilis vary in their heat from chili to chili, and this one is pretty mild.
The Red Curry Dressing
Once I have everything prepped and in a large mixing bowl. I will mix up the dressing in a separate bowl so I can taste it as I go, adding more of anything it needs before it hits the chicken and veggies.
For the dressing, I am starting with a 1/2 cup of mayonnaise. I have zested one lime to add at the end. To the mayo, I am starting with one tablespoon of red curry powder.
Then I have 1 teaspoon of turmeric. Mix that together well, to incorporate the powder seasonings and taste it. Add more curry powder if needed.
Squeeze in the juice of half that lime, give it a good stir and taste it again. Now add a pinch of sea salt, cracked black pepper, the lime zest and red pepper flakes if you feel it needs a bit more spiciness. I am not measuring any of these spices. I am just going with a pinch of everything at first. Mix this well to incorporate and taste it again. Add more of anything it needs.
If you’ve added too much of anything, you can add a little more mayo. Chicken salad is pretty forgiving in this way. And by mixing up the dressing in a separate bowl, you can tinker with the flavor and add just the right amount of the dressing to the chicken and veggies, without overwhelming the salad with the dressing.
You don’t have to add all the dressing to the salad at once; start with two-thirds at first and start mixing. Squeeze the juice from the other half of lime and see how well the dressing coats the chicken and the veggies. If you need more coverage, add the remaining dressing.
When everything is evenly coated in the dressing, give it another taste. I wanted a bit more spice, so I aded another pinch of red pepper flakes. Then, this is optional, add some dried cranberries to the salad. I really like the pop of sweet-tart flavor the dried cranberries bring to this Thai-Inspired Red Curry Chicken Salad.
Thai-Inspired Red Curry Chicken Salad
This is such a great salad to have in the fridge on vacation, you can make a sandwich with it, have it on crackers, or just have it by itself. It travels well for a picnic, or a day at the beach.
Alex opted for a sandwich, while I went with crackers. No matter how you choose to enjoy it, it’s a super flavorful, easy to make vacation staple. A great variety of textures play well with each other in this version of chicken salad: crunchy celery and the Hatch chili is a nice burst of juiciness. The cilantro is really nice with the red curry flavor and of course, the dried cranberries have that sweet/tart pop.
Red Curry Chicken Salad is a great version of chicken salad; but if you are looking for something a little more traditional, try my Easy Chicken Salad for Two. Any time is a good time for a quick and easy chicken salad – whether you’re on vacation or just avoiding cooking during these last weeks of summer. So give this one a try and let me know what you think! Reach out on Instagram or Pinterest to let me know how it comes out for you. Take care and be well everyone! xo Kelly
Red Curry Chicken Salad
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Loading...Creamy Red Curry dressing with turmeric coats rotisserie chicken, scallions, peppers, celery and cilantro, with dried cranberries for a sweet/tart pop.
Ingredients
- Red Curry Chicken Salad
- 1 Rotisserie Chicken, meat pulled
- 3-4 Ribs Celery, diced
- 1 Mild Hatch Chili or Green Bell Pepper, diced
- 1/2 Bunch Cilantro, chopped
- 3-4 Scallions, thinly sliced
- 1/4-1/2 cup Dried Cranberries
- Thai-Inspired Red Curry Dressing
- 1/2 cup Mayonnaise
- 1 tbsp. Red Curry Powder
- 1 tsp. Turmeric
- Zest from 1 Lime
- Juice from 1 Lime, divided
- Sea Salt, to taste
- Fresh Cracked Black Pepper, to taste
- Red Pepper Flakes, to taste
Instructions
Place prepped veggies, cilantro and pulled chicken in a large mixing bowl.
Thai-Inspired Red Curry Dressing
In a separate, smaller bowl, combine mayonnaise, red curry powder and turmeric. Taste and add more of either spice, if needed.
Add lime zest and juice from half of the lime. Add a pinch of sea salt, black pepper and red pepper flakes, mix to thoroughly combine. Taste and add more of any seasoning to taste.
Red Curry Chicken Salad
Transfer 2/3 of dressing to large mixing bowl with veggies and chicken and mix to coat everything in the dressing. Add the juice from the remaining half of lime, mix and add the remaining dressing, if needed, to fully coat all of the ingredients.
Taste for seasoning and add more of anything you think it needs.
Add the dried cranberries and mix to combine. Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.
