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.
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More Chicken Casserole Recipes
- Chicken Poppy Seed Casserole
- Chicken Cordon Bleu Casserole
- Chicken Pot Pie Bubble Up
- Chicken Spinach Rigatoni
- Cheesy Chicken Dorito Casserole
- King Ranch Chicken Casserole
- Chicken Florentine 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.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Originally posted September 5, 2017.
Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links.
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