Copycat Trader Joe’s White Chicken Deli Salad – an easy lunch recipe that’s healthier than traditional chicken salad.
Wow, wow, WOW!
Holy Stromboli, this stuff is good!
Do you ever wish you could just eat other people’s food? I mean…I do. Can we talk about it?
Periodically, I go through spurts of time that I get a little womp womp over my cooking steez, and need to take breaks to replenish the ol’ creativity tank.
Recipe Development Burnout doesn’t happen to me frequently, but I when it does, I look to other bloggers, cookbooks, and/or restaurants to fuel my inspiration. Enter: copycat recipes. Enter: Trader Joe’s. Enter: the best chicken salad you will ever eat.
Whenever I go to Trader Joe’s, I make a beeline for their Curried White Chicken Deli Salad. I’d be lying if I said I don’t scarf the whole container in one sitting each and every time.
It just goes down that easy.
The last time I mowed through my coveted salad, I inspected the carton for ingredients and it dawned on me that I should 200% make that stuff at home. And so I did. And so I have a new obsession.
Chicken, raisins, carrots, green onion, and cashews make up this salad. I used a combo of yogurt and mayo for the dressing to lighten it up a bit and keep things real fresco.
If you want to be a genius, you’ll quadruple the recipe because there’s just no way it will last the night. The next time I make this, I’m going to shred the chicken so that the salad is easier to stick on bread for a chicken salad sandwich. If you’re looking for a quick and easy lunch recipe that you can prepare ahead of time and take to work, you just found it!
If you love protein salads like this, check out my Cucumber Dill Avocado Tuna Salad and my Mayo-Free Egg Salad.
This times infinity.
Copycat Trader Joe’s Curried Chicken Salad
Ingredients
- 1 pound boneless skinless chicken breasts poached for 3 to 8 minutes
- ¼ cup whole milk Greek yogurt
- ¼ cup mayonnaise
- 2 teaspoons lemon juice
- 2 teaspoons mustard
- 1/2 teaspoon pure maple syrup
- 1 tablespoon yellow curry powder
- 3 green onions sliced
- ½ cup raw cashews
- ½ cup raisins
- 1 cup grated carrot
Instructions
- Heat a large pot of water and bring it to a full boil. Add the raw chicken breasts and reduce heat slightly. Cook for 5 to 8 minutes (depending on thickness of chicken), or until chicken is cooked through. Place chicken on a cutting board, chop into cubes, and allow it to cool.
- Whisk together the yogurt, mayo, lemon juice, mustard, maple syrup, and curry powder until well-combined.
- Add the green onion, cashews, raisins, and grated carrot to a large mixing bowl, along with the cooled chopped chicken. Pour the curry dressing over everything and mix well until everything is coated.
- Eat in abundance!
Nutrition
I hear you! It’s so easy to get stuck in a rut with our cooking. All the more reason to go out for dinner. Research, right?
I was just thinking that I need to go out to eat soon to help spark the old think tank. That’s probably my favorite way to draw new inspiration.
I’ve never tried a Trader Joes salad but I’m confident that your version is 100x better. It looks so fresh and flavorful!
Thank you for the TJ’s copycat recipe. I live in Atlanta and I love their Curried Chicken Salad. Not to be rude, but I make my own CCS occasionally and I add dried cranberries and apple plus some chopped pecans to mine ant it is delicious that way… otherwise my ingredients are almost identical to the TJ version.
*Read while eating a Trader Joe’s Curried Chicken Salad sandwich at work*
Love this! On my drive home from picking up this salad last night I was thinking about making it myself. You cut out some ingredients I didn’t like in it! Love how you lightened it up with yogurt too.
Shae at http://www.currenthabits.com
Oh my, what are you bringing us now!? What a treasure, thanks for sharing Julia! 😀
http://lazypenguins.com/worlds-most-expensive-red-wines/
A treasure indeed!!
This is one of my favorite things at TJ’s! Also, wanting to eat other peoples food is like the story of my life. I mean, all I do is look at other food bloggers recipes all day long. So yeah, can I come and live with you for a while…please!!!
I like to think of eating other people’s food as “research”…so it’s still somehow helping the blog…in fact, it’s pretty much NECESSARY!
This is my favorite things at TJ’s! this is the perfect food.
I absolutely love that salad! Made it once at home, and it turned out well. I’ve got to try this recipe, it sounds yummy 🙂
I attended a party in Victoria, BC the other night and everyone brought a dish. One of them was a curried chicken and kale salad. I could get enough of it! After a bit of a Google search I came across your site and copy cat recipe. Now I am going to be a “copy copy cat recipe”. Thank you for sharing I can’t wait to get at it tomorrow afternoon.
This looks amazing! Any suggestions for a non-dairy alternative to yogurt? I don’t mix meat and dairy. Thanks!
Hi Nina,
You could do store-bought or homemade aioli or mayonnaise, or use a non-dairy yogurt 😀
I had not made poached chicken before, but now it will be a regular. I varied plain water with broth, peppercorns, herbs, and a splash of white wine. The recipe is easy and delicious…good for a weeks worth of lunches (I doubled recipe). Thank you!!
You’re very welcome! I’m so glad you like it, Kathryn! xo
Food of the Gods. Best thing I’ve ever tasted. Thank you!!!!
I’m so happy you like it, Kate!! It’s hands down my favorite chicken salad recipe 😀 xoxo
They take it on and off the shelves and it drives me crazy! I tried this recipe today and it was killer. Swapped in golden raisins and doubled all the ingredients because I really love the stuff. I also opted to season my chicken with SPG and roast in the oven instead of poach. Will be popping a pic for Insta today. @tabletalkagency
Rob at http://www.tabletalkagency.com
Yaaaaas! I’m so thrilled to hear it, Rob! I absolutely love the TJ’s curry chicken too. Thrilled you like the recipe as well! xoxo
Has anyone tried freezing this? I am eating mine from TJs right now and thought, hey, I bet someone has figured out this recipe! So thanks for that! If I do quadruple it, tho, I would like to freeze some.
Hi there! I haven’t tried freezing the chicken salad yet, but I imagine it would be okay. I would test it with a small amount and see how it thaws…my only concern is that the chicken may be a bit dry after freezing/thawing. It’s worth trying a little of it to test it out! Let me know how it goes! xoxo
You can get away with this for Keto if you ditch the cashews for almonds, go real easy on the carrots and make the raisins a rare find in the salad.
Ah yes, smart thinking! I love the idea of making it low-carb! 🙂
I planned a luncheon around using Trader Joe’s curried chicken salad, but, disappointingly, they had none on the shelf☹️ I came across your recipe and made my own instead. Such a delicious dish!!!
No more needing to head to TJ for this….
Yaaaaay! What a success story! I’m so thrilled to hear it, Laurie! Also psyched to hear there are other people out there who love that TJ’s salad as much as I do, lol! xoxo
Hi
I have loved this and been making it for a while now.
I would like to know if it can be frozen and will still be fine when thawed out. I was going to leave the cashews out until thawed.
Thanks!
I haven’t tried freezing this recipe myself so I’m truthfully not sure how it would turn out when thawed. I just googled whether or not chicken salad can be frozen successfully and it looks like the answer is yes. Because there’s a decent amount of fat content from the mayo, it should help protect the chicken and thaw nicely. I hope this helps! I’m happy to hear you’ve made the recipe multiple times, Shannon! That’s a win for me!