On days when all you crave is a refreshing salad to help lift your mood instantly, our chicken and egg salad recipe is the one for you. It includes pan-seared chicken breasts, eggs, fresh watercress, beetroot, and almonds tossed in a velvety and creamy dressing.
The great news is you can customize the add-ins and veggies to create your favorite version!
How Healthy is Chicken and Egg Salad Recipe?
Loaded with tons of high-quality protein from chicken and eggs and micronutrients from vegetables, this salad is everything that the hearts of healthy-eaters desire.
Our chefs opt for skinless, boneless chicken breast with the excess fat trimmed and hard-boiled eggs as salad toppings—both are low-calorie and protein-rich. We also carefully measure the seasonings and condiments used to ensure today’s salad is diet friendly.
As for the greens, we go for a mix of fresh watercress and beetroot. While fresh watercress is an excellent source of vitamins (A, C, and K), the humble beetroot is a powerful dietary-nitrate booster.
Nutritionally, each serving contains 257 calories, 2.9 g of saturated fat, and around 294 mg of sodium, strictly following our nutrition guidelines.
Main Ingredients
This salad doesn’t require anything more than a few pantry staples. The list of ingredients includes:
- Chicken: We quickly pan-sear chicken breasts to attain the slightly charred outer layer and perfectly moist interior before cutting them into small cubes. However, if you have some leftover shredded chicken or ground chicken, toss them into this salad instead to reduce the prepping time.
- Eggs: Hard-boiled eggs are one of those ingredients that are great for snacking alone, incorporating in salads, or transforming into main dishes.
- Watercress: When served raw, the bright and peppery taste of watercress is reminiscent of mustard and broccoli. The more mature the watercress is, the stronger its flavor will become. Hence, we suggest going for young watercress to make this salad more kid friendly.
- Beetroot: The sweetness and earthiness of cooked beetroot pair excellently with the mild bitterness of many greens (watercress, arugula, spinach, and kale)
- Nuts: A scattering of roasted almond bits offers extra crunch and nuttiness in every bite.
- Seasonings: We enhance the flavor of chicken with garlic powder, paprika, and black pepper.
- Dressing: The combination of Japanese mayonnaise, sesame oil, sesame seeds, soy sauce, and Tahini paste creates a rich, nutty, and slightly tangy condiment that tightens all the salad ingredients together.
How to Boil Eggs for This Salad
There is a big difference between a perfectly done hard-boiled egg and an overcooked one. When halved, the former reveals a light-yellow egg yolk, whereas the latter has some discoloration—a greenish-gray ring around the yolk.
Here is our step-by-step instruction to help you master the art of boiling eggs.
Step 1: Use refrigerated eggs (around 40°F or below) to ensure we begin with the same base.
Step 2: Bring a pot of water to a boil.
Step 3: Boil one egg at a time for 10-12 minutes so that the water’s temperature won’t drop too low.
Step 4: When the timer goes off, immediately transfer the cooked eggs into the bowl of ice water and let them sit for 2 minutes before peeling.
If you want a more insightful look at this section, click here.
Some Creative Chicken Salads in Our Archive
This Pittsburgh chicken salad recipe will change the way you think about salads. It puts together chicken slices, lettuce, cucumbers, tomatoes, onion, cheddar, and french fries for a really addictive treat.
This one, with its crunchy greens and crunchy meats, is a visual and gastronomic feast. Put the breaded chicken breast in the air fryer and consider everything done.
Chicken and Egg Salad Recipe
Our chicken and egg salad recipe features succulent chicken and perfectly cooked eggs paired with a rainbow of vegetables, guaranteeing each bite is both healthy and tasty.
- cook TIME 20 mins
- prep TIME 12 mins
- total TIME 32 mins
- COURSE Side Dish
- CUISINE American, Global
- SERVINGS servings
- CALORIES 257 kcal
INGREDIENTS
- 8 oz skinless boneless chicken breast
- 2 large eggs (hard-boiled)
- 3 oz watercress (thick stalks removed)
- 6 oz beetroot (cut into quartered slices)
- 0.5 oz almonds (roasted, roughly chopped)
- 1/2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tsp sesame oil
- 2 tbsp Japanese mayonnaise
- 1 tbsp Tahini paste
- 1 tbsp reduced-sodium soy sauce
- 1/2 tsp paprika
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp unsalted roasted white sesame seeds
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
- 2 tbsp parsley (chopped)
INSTRUCTIONS
Prep:
Bring a pot of water to a boil over high heat. Once boiling, lower the heat, gently add the eggs to the pot, and cook for 10-12 minutes. When the time is up, transfer the hard-boiled eggs into a bowl of ice water and let them rest for 2 minutes before peeling. Halve the peeled, hard-boiled eggs.
Place the watercress on a cutting board. Use a large, sharpened knife to trim away and discard the thick stalks. Remove any yellow leaves and limp sprigs.
Use a vegetable peeler to remove the beetroot’s skin. Cut the beetroot into thin slices, then quarter them.
Air-fry almonds at 325°F for 10 minutes, then chop them roughly.
Roughly chop the fresh parsley.
Cook:
Marinate the chicken breasts: On a large platter, add 8 oz skinless, boneless chicken breast, 1/2 tsp paprika, 1/2 tsp garlic powder, and 1/2 tsp black pepper. Gently massage the seasoning onto both sides of the chicken breasts.
Boil the beetroot: Bring a pot of water to a boil and add 6 oz quartered slices of beetroot. Cook for 12 minutes or until tender-crisp. Remove the beetroot from the heat and set them aside to cool.
Cook the chicken breasts: Place a large non-stick pan over low heat add 1/2 tbsp olive oil and add the well-seasoned chicken breasts. Pan-sear each side of the chicken breasts for 4 minutes (8 minutes in total). Remove the chicken breasts from the heat, allow them to cool down, then cut them into small cubes.
Make the dressing: In a small mixing bowl, add 1 tsp sesame oil, 2 tbsp Japanese mayonnaise, 1 tbsp Tahini paste, 1 tbsp reduced-sodium soy sauce, and 1 tsp unsalted roasted white sesame seeds. Mix well.
Cut the chicken
Assemble the salad and serve: With 3 oz of watercress, make a bed of greens on a shallow platter for your chicken and egg salad. Atop, add the cooked beetroot, cubed chicken breasts, hard-boiled eggs, and almonds, then drizzle the dressing all over. Garnish with 2 tbsp chopped parsley. Toss the salad well and enjoy!
NUTRITION
Tuyet Pham
Head Chef, Culinary Consultant
Luna Regina
Writer, Author
- KSBandtheboysA protein-packed twist on classic egg salad!