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Recipes for simple, easy suppers do not get much easier than my recipe for Hot Chicken Salad. It is a recipe that comes together really easily for a quick weeknight supper and can be made ahead for a freezer meal. It’s great to come home from football practice, Scouts, or any other weeknight activity and know that by the time Little Buddy gets cleaned up from practice, I have a hot, delicious, homemade supper on the table ready to eat.
Hot chicken salad is a family favorite recipe for sure. Creamy chicken with crunchy bits of celery and a delicious buttery cracker topping, it’s hard to believe it’s ready so quickly. But it disappears just about as fast if not faster!
Here’s how I make it.
Start with rough chopping your chicken.
Now, I have a few tips on simplifying this part for you, too. I like to cook a large batch of chicken over the weekend or at night, let it cool and then put it in a zip top bag to be used in recipes later. Then, you have chicken on hand that is ready to go in any number of lunch or supper dishes.
You can also pick up a rotisserie chicken at your local grocery store in a pinch. It works well in this recipe, too.
Dice your celery.
Throw in your salt…
and pepper.
Add in some lemon juice.
And some mayonnaise.
Toss in some shredded cheddar cheese.
And some sour cream.
Mix all together and pour into a baking dish that has been sprayed with non-stick cooking spray.
Spread evenly in your baking dish.
If you are not planning on baking your hot chicken salad right now, you’ll want to wrap it tightly with plastic wrap to keep in your refrigerator until baking later or cover tightly with aluminum foil for freezing.
When you are ready to bake, evenly distribute crushed butter crackers on the top.
Dot with pats of butter and bake.
Serve with a salad, your favorite vegetable or some fruit for a full meal and then… dig in!
Hot Chicken Salad
Ingredients
- 4 cups cooked chicken chopped
- 1 cup celery diced
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon pepper
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 1/4 cup sour cream
- 1 cup mayonnaise
- 1 1/2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
- 1 sleeve Ritz crackers
- 2 tablespoons butter
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Mix together all ingredients except butter crackers and butter.
- Pour into a baking dish sprayed with non-stick cooking spray. Spread evenly.
- Crush butter crackers and spread over top of chicken salad mixture. Top with pats of butter.
- Place in oven and bake for 20 minutes until lightly browned and heated throughout.
To Freeze this recipe:
- Prepare hot chicken salad without placing the butter crackers and butter on the top.
- Wrap tightly with aluminum foil and place in the freezer.
- To cook, remove from freezer the night before and place in the refrigerator to allow to thaw.
- Add butter crackers and butter to the top and bake as instructed
Easy Weeknight Supper Tip:
- Cook a large batch of chicken over the weekend.
- Cool and place into large zip top bags and into your refrigerator to use in various dishes throughout the week or place in smaller bags in your freezer.
Nutritional Information
Enjoy!
My husband doesn’t eat bread of any kind so I was just wondering if this would taste the same without the cracker topping? It looks very delicious and I’m actually thinking about making it without the cracker topping for my husband but putting it in sandwiches for my daughter and I, what do you think?
Hopefully you get back to me, sorry if my question sounded dumb but I would hate to make such a big dish and it not turn out and have to waste it.
Thank you in advance.
You can omit the topping, if you’d like. The actual chicken salad tastes amazing. We like the additional crunch from the topping, but it isn’t absolutely required. Hope you all enjoy it!
We do not eat bread either. I have used pork panko. Or nothing and it’s still wonderful.
Came across this recipe recently and decided to give it a try. Wow! We love it! Other hot chicken salad recipes I’ve found are more like a chicken casserole with cream-of-something soups. Yours is perfect! The only change I made was adding slivered almonds. We will definitely be making this again!
I made this tonight and it was really good. But I added a pinch of red pepper to give it a little “kick”
This was delicious! Will be making again! Thanks for posting!
I’m so glad you enjoyed this hot chicken salad. One of our favorites!
Can I omit sour cream?
I see you mention subbing in yogurt instead of mayo. Is it a one to one sub? I can’t do mayo either. So 1/4 cup sour cream and 1 cup yogurt with Mustard?
Yes, Debbie. You would use the same amount of yogurt as the recipe states for mayonnaise. So 1/4 cup sour cream and 1 cup yogurt with bit of mustard. Hope you enjoy!
My grandmother made a very similar recipe, but added a couple of boiled eggs all cut up. Also instead of sour cream she used cream of chicken soup. I love the idea of slivered almonds though and swapping the soup for sour cream. Instead of crackers, toasted bread crumbs would work. Panko bread crumbs hold their texture so that would also be pretty tasty. I like chunky celery so I used to parboil the celery a bit before adding. Going to revive this dish for my family and see if it just as good as I remember from a couple of decades ago! Thanks!
My husband and I love this recipe. I add some chopped onion and to make it low carb, I use pork panko instead of crackers. So good I am making it tonight!
I’m glad you and your husband like this recipe! Thanks.
This is exactly what my grandmother used to serve at her club meetings! I can’t eat dairy or gluten, so I exchanged the sour cream for an equal amount of dairy free yogurt, and gluten free crackers and dairy free butter on top, along with dairy free cheese. Thanks for taking me back to grandma’s house!
Brooke, I’m glad this recipe took you back to memories of your grandma’s house. Thanks for telling us how you make this dairy and gluten free.