Ingles Chicken Salad Recipe: Easy & Healthy

Ingles Chicken Salad Recipe is a beginner-friendly recipe.

It is made from a simple combination of shredded cooked chicken, mayonnaise, a little honey, and vinegar. It has ingredients you probably already have in your kitchen.

Ingles Chicken Salad can be served as an appetizer or with crackers as a small meal. Ingles Chicken Salad is a great recipe to serve during a party or as finger food.

What Is Ingles Chicken Salad Made Of?

Ingles Chicken Salad Recipe is a very simple chicken salad recipe. To make it, you start by first cooking the chicken. When it cools down, shred the meat and set it aside.

Next in the Ingles Chicken Salad recipe, combine mayonnaise, honey, and vinegar with some salt and pepper. Fold this mixture into the shredded chicken. Finally, add your desired herb(s).

Ingles Chicken Salad Recipe

Ingredients:

• 2 cooked chicken breasts, lean and cooked boneless, skinless and shredded
• 3 cups of shredded lettuce leaves (the best to use will be iceberg)
• 1/2 cup of chopped walnuts, very coarsely chopped to make 1/4 cup (chopping nuts is the most time-consuming part)

Dressing Ingredients:

1/4 cup mayonnaise, 2 tablespoons white vinegar, 2 tablespoons honey, and salt to your taste.

Method:

1. First, prepare the dressing by mixing all the above ingredients together in a medium-sized bowl.
2. Once you are done with the dressing, you can now begin making your Ingles Chicken Salad.
3. Place the lettuce leaves on a large plate.
4. To make your Ingles Salad, divide the shredded cooked chicken over the salad a few slices at a time.
5. Next, sprinkle with the walnuts. Drizzle with the dressing and serve immediately.

Serve With:

1) Ingles Salad recipes taste best with a protein-rich side dish. Thus, I suggest you serve it with grilled chicken breast or grilled fish.

2) It can also be served as an entree for lunch or dinner. A complementing side dish can be potato or pasta salad, buttered green beans, or seasonal fruit like blueberries and strawberries.

Tip:

Ingles Chicken Salad is an ideal recipe for a small party, picnic, or potluck. The easiest way to make large amounts of this dish is to triple the recipe.

Ingles Chicken Salad Dressing

Ingredients:

1/4 cup mayonnaise, 2 tablespoons white vinegar, 2 tablespoons honey, and salt to your taste. This is the same dressing that we use for our Ingles Salad. (See above)

I had some sauce leftover from my last homemade barbecue chicken entree, and I decided to use it in my Ingles Salad as I was out of mayonnaise.

I did not give much thought to what I was doing or how it would taste as I was just super thirsty and wanted a drink.

I mixed the sauce with honey, vinegar, and salt as I did for my salad, wondering if it would work. To my surprise, it worked out just fine!

The taste is something else! It was so yummy that I didn’t even want to go back to the salad with mayonnaise!

When you try out this recipe at home, let me know how you like the ranch-style dressing that defies everything we think about salad dressing. Will you keep trying it out and add ingredients of your own to make it even better?

Ingles Chicken Salad Nutrition

Ingles Chicken Salad is nutritious, low calorie, and rich in protein. It contains 350 calories per serving. 100 grams of chicken is 820 calories. Of these, about 287 calories are from protein.

This recipe contains 9 grams of fat (56% calories from fat), mainly oleic acid and palmitoleic acid (both polyunsaturated fatty acids). These fatty acids have been linked to reduced risk of cardiovascular disease, cancer, and stroke.

The dressing ingredients are not low in calories, but it is not a lot either. There are about 25% calories from fat. If you reduce the amount of mayonnaise and honey, the calories will go down.

An alternative to mayo is ranch salad dressing which has only half the amount of fat. Ranch salad dressing also tastes good with chicken salads, and I am sure you will like it once you try it out!

Health Benefits Of Ingles Chicken Salad

Salads are good for your health because they are nutrient-dense, and they provide you with fewer calories than most meal options. Ingles Chicken Salad is a healthy choice if you are on a diet as it provides sufficient protein and is low in fat.

Ingles Salad is also great if you have high cholesterol or triglycerides (blood fats) because it can help lower them.

Another benefit of this salad is that it does not contain trans-fatty acids, increasing the risk of heart disease and diabetes.

This dish has a high amount of polyunsaturated fat, which improves blood vessels and mussels’ health, keeps skin soft, and improves brain function.

Ingles Salad also has a high content of B group vitamins, which help convert food into energy, support the immune system, and keep the nervous system healthy.

Ingredients in chicken, especially cooked chicken, are good for you as they contain riboflavin (vitamin B2), niacin (vitamin B3), and selenium. Chicken is also good zinc, iron, potassium, and phosphorus source.

When making Ingles Salad at home, avoid adding too much lettuce. It has about 15% calories from fat, and that should be your target for a lunch meal or part of a larger meal.

The dressing also has about 15% calories from fat. To avoid this, you can use a different type of dressing or reduce the amount of mayonnaise and honey in your dressing.

How Long Does Ingles Chicken Salad Last?

Ingles Chicken Salad Recipe can last for about 2 days in the refrigerator when stored properly. The dressing does not have preservatives, so it must be refrigerated within 4 hours after making the dish. As long as the ingredients are well-chilled, the salad will stay fresh for a few days.

How To Freeze Ingles Chicken Salad?

Ingles Chicken Salad is best served when it is fresh out of the oven, so freezing is not recommended. However, when in a rush to eat it, you can freeze the salad by freezing it in individual portions and pack them in a freezer-friendly container to be defrosted at your convenience. It can be eaten within several months’ time after thawing at room temperature.

The Bottom Line

The Ingles Chicken Salad Recipe is a dish that is sure to impress. It is made of simple ingredients and can be eaten as an appetizer, snack, or meal. It has a tangy flavor and is also very easy to make. The only challenging part of this recipe is chopping the nuts. It takes longer than you would expect it to. But, the end results are so satisfying that you will not mind putting in the effort.

Ingles Chicken Salad may not be the healthiest dish in the world, but it definitely is a healthy dish. You can make it lighter by using diet mayonnaise and reduced sugar honey instead of regular honey.

However, dressing is not that essential, so if you really want to get all the nutrients out of this recipe, then enjoy it.