This spring chicken salad recipe makes a fantastic year-round salad with what are traditionally considered spring vegetables, such as sugar snap peas, cucumbers and cabbage. Fragrant with fresh mint and dill, drizzled with a garlicky lemony Middle Eastern style yoghurt dressing, and sprinkled with sesame seeds and sumac, this salad uses leftover rotisserie chicken, but you could always use poached chicken.
If you’re a fan of shredded chicken salads – and if you are, we have loads of shredded or pulled chicken recipes, such as this bang bang chicken salad and chicken salad with peanut sauce, peanuts, sesame, and coriander, some of our best chicken breast recipes and some of our most popular chicken recipes – you’ll love this spring chicken salad with vibrant spring green vegetables, such as sugar snap peas, crisp juicy cucumbers and crunchy purple cabbage.
I’ve been using leftovers from a rotisserie chicken, which I buy once a week, as my mum doesn’t have a working oven. We eat warm juicy chicken legs the first night with one of my potato salads – such as this warm German potato salad or potato salad with anchovies, capers and chives. Then I’ll slice the chicken breasts up to use in a salad – such as this fig, prosciutto, buffalo mozzarella, and chicken salad – or use two forks to pull apart the chicken breast meat.
I use the leftover pulled chicken in grilled cheese sandwiches the first day for lunch, then split the rest between shredded chicken salads, or use the pulled chicken in a soup, such as this wonderful rice soup with green vegetables I’ve been making recently, or a Southeast Asian style rice soup or congee or chicken noodle salad. We have lots more leftover rotisserie chicken recipes here, as well as poached chicken recipes if you have leftover poached chicken breasts.
This salad recipe is next in my series of recipes for fancy filling salads I’ve been making since spring began that I’ve been sharing that includes this Italian melon, buffalo mozzarella and prosciutto salad (a fancier version of prosciutto e melone, the classic aperitivo snack and appetiser from Italy), and this refreshing Greek watermelon feta salad with fresh mint and dill, These are easily assembled salads that are perfect for a meal for two, but can be easily scaled up to feed four, six, eight or more people.
Now before I tell you more about this Mediterranean style spring chicken salad recipe, I have a favour to ask. Grantourismo is reader-supported. If you’ve enjoyed our recipes, please consider supporting Grantourismo. For instance, you could buy something on Amazon, such as one of these classic cookbooks for serious cooks or cookbooks for culinary travellers; book a cooking class or meal with locals on EatWith; or buy a handcrafted KROK, the best mortar and pestle ever.
And if you’re looking for more cooking inspiration, we have many hundreds of recipes from around the world in our archives from places we’ve lived, worked and travelled. Note that you can save your favourites by clicking on the heart on the right of any post to create your own private account. Now let me tell you more about this quick and easy spring chicken salad recipe.
Spring Chicken Salad Recipe with Crunchy Cabbage, Greens and Herbs
Maybe I should have called this a ‘springtime chicken salad recipe’, but I called this a ‘spring chicken salad recipe’, not because it’s made with a spring chicken, i.e. a young chicken, but because I started making this chicken salad with spring vegetables – snap peas, cucumbers, cabbage, sometimes green beans and zucchini – at the start of spring. And I haven’t stopped.
The winters are so long in southern Australia (yes, I’m still in Australia…), and days and night so cold – I’ve struggled with the cold weather in Australia more than Europe, where everywhere is heated – that as soon as the buds blossomed on the bare tree branches, wildflowers began sprouting on the grassy verges, and spring veggies appeared on the supermarket shelves, I started making the sort of salads Terence and I make in Cambodia.
But because Mum can’t eat the kind of Southeast Asian levels of spice that Terence and I do in Siem Reap, I’ve been making a lot of Mediterranean-inspired salads. I’ve given my spring chicken salad Middle Eastern flavours by assembling it on a bed of roca leaves (or rucola, arugula or rocket, if you prefer), showering it with fresh fragrant dill and mint, sprinkling on sesame seeds and sumac, and drizzling on a garlicky, lemony Middle Eastern yoghurt-based dressing.
Whenever I tuck into a bowl of this spring chicken salad, I’m reminded of being somewhere in the sunny eastern Mediterranean like Lebanon or Syria, or Southeast Turkey or Cyprus, where we used to spend a lot of time, both on holidays and researching and writing travel books. I like to close my eyes and imagine we’re sitting at an alfresco café table overlooking the turquoise sea, with glasses of white in hands. Sigh…
Like this Italian melon, buffalo mozzarella and prosciutto salad, and a recipe for a fig salad with mozzarella, prosciutto and chicken that I’m going to share next, this Mediterranean style spring chicken salad has been on steady rotation in recent weeks as the end of summer all too-rapidly approached, and I started cooking warming soups again…
While I love this spring chicken salad just the way it is, it’s nothing if not versatile. It’s a great way to use up produce in the fridge vegetable drawer. While the salad is a fantastic use of rotisserie chicken leftovers, you could do what Terence and I do and poach plenty of chicken breasts to use in salads, as well as soups and noodle dishes. Dress it with a classic vinaigrette or use fresh basil or flat leaf parsley.
Now let me share a few tips to making this spring chicken salad recipe.
Tips to Making this Spring Chicken Salad Recipe with Crunchy Cabbage, Greens and Fragrant Herbs
I only have a few tips to making this Mediterranean style spring chicken salad recipe, as it’s a quick and easy chicken salad that comes together quickly.
The Dressing
If I’m using leftover rotisserie chicken, then I’ll make the dressing first so that the flavours meld together. If I’m poaching chicken breasts, I’ll put those on the stove first and make the dressing while the chicken is poaching.
I love to make a Middle Eastern style dressing for this spring chicken salad recipe, but you could always use a classic salad vinaigrette, which I seem to always have in a mason jar in the fridge.
To a small bowl, transfer the creamy Greek-style yoghurt, extra virgin olive oil, lemon juice, minced garlic, and salt, and whisk vigorously until well combined. Taste, adjust the seasoning to suit your palate, and refrigerate until you’re ready to dress your salad.
The Chicken
If you’re using leftover roast chicken or rotisserie chicken, you can either pull the chicken apart using your hands for chunky pieces of chicken, or for finer shredded chicken, you can use two forks to pull the chicken apart. Your choice.
If you’re going to poach chicken breasts for this salad, do as Terence does and poach more chicken breasts than you need, as they will keep in the fridge for a few days. There are so many uses for poached chicken breasts, from Southeast Asian salads, rice porridges and noodle soups to Mexican tacos, chillies and chilaquiles.
Terence has great tips to poaching chicken breasts in this post on our best poached chicken breast recipes, but an important tip: it’s essential to use a digital kitchen meat thermometer to check the internal temperature of the chicken breasts. Make sure to poke the meat thermometer into the thickest parts of the chicken breasts. When it reaches 74°C/ 165˚F remove the chicken breasts.
Assemble the Salad
To assemble the salad, spread some baby rucola leaves on a serving plate to create a light leafy base, arrange the chicken breast pieces on top, then the shredded purple cabbage, blanched snow peas, and finely sliced baby cucumbers, sprinkle on some fresh mint leaves and fresh dill sprigs, drizzle with the dressing, shower with sesame seeds, sprinkle on the sumac, and you’re done.
Serving the Salad
Like most salads, I like to serve this salad at the centre of the table with crusty bread or warm sesame-sprinkled Turkish bread. Back home in Siem Reap with Terence, we’d be tucking into this with his home-baked sourdough, which I look forward to doing again. Enjoy!
Spring Chicken Salad Recipe with Crunchy Cabbage, Greens and Fragrant Herbs
Ingredients
Dressing
- ½ cup Greek yoghurt - or creamy natural yoghurt
- 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil - or to taste
- 2 tbsp lemon juice - or to taste
- 2 garlic cloves - minced
- 1 pinch salt - or to taste
Salad
- 2 cups baby rucola leaves - also called roca, rocket and arugula
- 2 large chicken breasts sliced - from leftover rotisserie chicken or poached chicken,
- 2 cups purple cabbage - shredded using a mandoline slicer
- 12 snow peas - blanched
- 4 baby cucumbers - finely sliced
- ½ cup fresh mint leaves
- ½ cup fresh dill
- 1 tsp sesame seeds
- ½ tsp sumac
Instructions
- Make the dressing: to a small bowl, transfer the creamy Greek-style yoghurt, extra virgin olive oil, lemon juice, minced garlic, and salt, and whisk vigorously until well combined. Taste, adjust the seasoning to suit your palate, and refrigerate until you’re ready to dress your salad.
- Assemble the salad: spread the baby rucola leaves out on a serving plate, arrange the chicken breast slices, shredded purple cabbage, blanched snow peas, and finely sliced baby cucumbers on top, sprinkle with fresh mint and fresh dill, drizzle with the dressing, shower with sesame seeds, and sprinkle on the sumac.
- Distribute between plates or serve the salad at the centre of the table for guests to help themselves, with sea salt and cracked black pepper, and any extra dressing in a small jug.
Nutrition
Please do let us know if you make this Mediterranean style spring chicken salad recipe, as we’d love to know how it turns out for you.
