Hot Chicken Salad is a retro favorite that makes a quick and easy family meal. This is southern comfort food at its best with a creamy chicken filling and crunchy potato chip topping.
What Is Hot Chicken Salad?
This chicken salad is more of a casserole than a chicken salad. It has a creamy mayonniase base and is served warm rather than cold.
Diced Cooked Chicken
It only takes a few minutes to get this casserole prepped for the oven. Start with 4 cups of cooked chicken. You can use all chicken breast meat or use the meat off of 1 rotisserie chicken for ease. You could also use turkey instead of chicken. This is a great recipe for using up leftover Thanksgiving turkey. Baked, grilled or poached chicken all work well.
The chicken gets mixed with a cup of mayonnaise, a can of condensed cream of chicken soup, a tablespoon of fresh lemon juice to perk the flavors up, celery, grated onion, chopped water chestnuts, shredded cheddar cheese, and slivered almonds. It’s super creamy but the celery, almonds, and potato chips add lots of crunch.
What I love about this recipe is it turns one of my favorite lunches, chicken salad, into a warm, comfort food meal that’s perfect for fall weather.
Variations
- Use leftover turkey instead of chicken.
- Add some diced pimentos.
- Add 2 sliced green onions for extra onion flavor.
- Add some French-fried onions to the topping.
- Use Dill Pickle-Flavored Chips for the topping.
- Use cream of mushroom soup in place of cream of chicken soup.
How To Serve Hot Chicken Salad
Hot Chicken Salad is a super creamy and rich casserole so you’ll want to keep the portions small and serve it with a green salad. It is a great chicken casserole for when you need to bring a casserole to someone who is unwell or grieving.
How To Store
Leftovers will keep in an airtight container in the refrigerator for 3 days but the potato chip topping will get soggy. It also freezes well. You can make a double batch and freeze half of it. Freeze without the potato chip topping. When ready to eat, let it thaw in the refrigerator overnight and then add 5 to 10 minutes to the bake time. Place the potato chip topping on just before baking.
More Chicken Casserole Recipes
- Chicken Poppy Seed Casserole
- Chicken Cordon Bleu Casserole
- Chicken Pot Pie Bubble Up
- Chicken Spinach Rigatoni
- Cheesy Chicken Dorito Casserole
Hot Chicken Salad
Ingredients
- 4 cups cooked diced chicken
- 1/2 cup finely chopped celery
- 1 tablespoons grated onion
- 1 cup mayonnaise
- 1 (10.75-ounce) can condensed cream of chicken soup
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
- 1/2 cup slivered almonds
- 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
- 1 (8-ounce) can water chestnuts, drained and chopped
- salt
- 1 1/2 cups coarsely crushed potato chips, plain or ruffled
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease an 11X7-inch casserole dish.
- Combine all ingredients except salt and potato chips in a large bowl. Stir well.
- Taste the mixture and add salt to taste. You will probably want to add between 1/4 and 1/2 teaspoon depending on the saltiness of your chicken and your preference for salt level.
- Transfer mixture to prepared pan. Sprinkle crushed potato chips on top.
- Bake 25 minutes. Serve warm.
Notes
Nutrition
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Originally posted September 5, 2017.
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An all-time shower favorite!
I am hoping to make this as a cold chicken salad on croissant rolls. Will leave out the soup, potato chips, and perhaps some of the cheese. Do you think it will work? Would love to have a hot and cold recipe
It is one of our favorites and the only thing I do differently is make it in two pie pans – bake one and freeze one (without chips on top) for another yummy meal. This is also a great dish to take to others and it never fails to please!
Yummy!
I’ve made this before minus the cream of chicken soup and adding more mayo. I thought I’d give this recipe a try but I have to admit I prefer it without the soup.
Love this!
My mom made this and now I do but we use roasted slivered almonds instead of water chestnuts. And because my husband and I love cheese, I always add more than 1c of shredded cheddar. If there’s leftovers, I reheat and then add fresh crushed chips as the chips don’t reheat well.
Did I miss the calories? This is outstanding
Can this be frozen? Thanks
Don’t think so…mayo separates when frozen.
I freeze this all the time. The consistancy doesn’t change. Stays yummy
This is delicious! I used leftover Thanksgiving Turkey. I use more onion and celery but otherwise the same as the recipe
This is exactly the recipe my great aunt from the deep south used to make. Absolutely ridiculous as far as heart health goes. We just had this and I will pretend like I’m going to eat salads for a week to make up for it, because it’s just as delicious as I remember! Must remember that if I’m going to add cooked rice, it still needs another half-cup broth. Something about the mix of mayo in here (I admit I halved it, and it was still prominent) and lemon juice that just makes the whole thing pop.
Now excuse me while I roll myself over to my bed and fall into it.
My mother and I made Hot Chicken Salad for many years. She often made hers with left-over turkey after Thanksgiving. But we never used cream soup or water chestnuts in ours and used chopped green onions. But I think the next time I make it, I’ll add the water chestnuts and I might try the cream of chicken or mushroom soup too. Sounds tasty. Has anyone ever added frozen green peas?
I add cheddar cheese with the potato chips also
I think I would top dish with buttered Ritz crackers insted of pot.chips
I have been making this recipe for years for my extended family. The only difference. I add not over cooked rice with extra chicken broth to keep it moist.
This recipe is YUMMY!
very delicious chicken salad.
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Look very delicious! I like it! The instructions in your post very useful with me! Thanks your post!
my husband loves chicken and he always demands to new taste with chicken. It is nice concept to make a salad.
I hope you continue to have such quality articles to share with everyone! I believe a lot of people will be surprised to read this article! Thanks for your post!
Frozen Hot Chicken Salad, What will the Cook time be in the Oven