Homemade Chicken Salad (Creamy Southern Chicken Salad with Eggs & Pickle Relish)
This homemade chicken salad is creamy, flavorful, and made with shredded chicken, hard boiled eggs, sour cream, and sweet pickle relish. A classic Southern chicken salad recipe perfect for sandwiches, crackers, or easy meal prep.
Homemade Chicken Salad (Creamy Southern Chicken Salad with Eggs & Pickle Relish)
What Is Homemade Chicken Salad?
Homemade chicken salad is a classic cold dish made with cooked, shredded chicken mixed into a creamy dressing, usually made from mayonnaise and sometimes sour cream or yogurt for extra smoothness. It’s simple, flexible, and built from basic pantry ingredients, which is why it’s been a go-to recipe in American kitchens for generations.
Most versions include add-ins like chopped celery, onions, sweet pickle relish, or hard boiled eggs, which give it crunch, flavor, and texture. The result is a creamy, savory salad that can be served in sandwiches, on crackers, in wraps, or scooped straight onto a plate for a quick meal.
What makes homemade chicken salad so popular is how easy it is to customize. You can keep it simple and classic, or build it up into a Southern-style version with eggs and relish for a richer, more flavorful twist.
Classic Southern Chicken Salad with Eggs
Classic Southern chicken salad with eggs is a creamy, old-fashioned version of chicken salad made with shredded chicken, chopped hard boiled eggs, and a rich mayo-based dressing, often lightened with sour cream for extra smooth texture. It’s the kind of recipe that shows up at potlucks, Sunday lunches, and family gatherings because it’s simple, filling, and always dependable.
What sets the Southern style apart is the addition of eggs and sweet pickle relish, which add richness, slight sweetness, and a little crunch in every bite. The eggs make it heartier than a standard chicken salad, while the relish balances the creaminess with a tangy-sweet finish… full disclosure, the sweet pickle relish is my favorite part!!
It’s traditionally served cold and spooned onto sandwiches, crackers, or lettuce wraps, making it an easy make-ahead dish that actually tastes better after chilling.
Adding Hard Boiled Eggs To Chicken Salad
A must have staple in Southern Chicken Salad is hard boiled eggs. Unfortunately, big huge chunks of egg is just a turn off for me when it comes to my favorite homemade chicken salad recipe. To bypass the big bites of hard boiled eggs, I prefer to mash them with a fork. By running my hard boiled eggs through the fork tines, I am still adding the subtle flavor and the body that the eggs bring to the chicken salad but I am not having to chomp down on big bites of egg. If you are a lover of hard boiled eggs, feel free to simply chop them up and add them to your chicken salad.
Chicken Salad with Shredded Chicken
Traditional chicken salad recipes will tell you that adding chunks of chicken to your homemade chicken salad is the way to go but to be honest, shredded it my preferred way to do chicken for my salad. Roasted chicken, boiled chicken or even rotisserie chicken all work perfectly fine in this chicken salad recipe just be sure to shred your chicken while it is still warm. Shredding cold chicken is more work than you would think.
How to Make Chicken Salad (Easy Step-by-Step)
To make Southern Chicken Salad, get your eggs and chicken cooking at the same time.
- Start by adding your eggs to cold water in a large saucepan along with a splash of vinegar. Heat your saucepan on High until your water boils, then cover your pan and turn your burner off.
- Do not remove your saucepan but let it continue to stay on the now turned off stove burner. Let sit for 12 minutes and then move your eggs to either a bowl filled with ice and water or run them under cold water for a few minutes until they cool down are able to be handled.
- Lightly crack your egg, peel off the shell and set aside.
- While your eggs are cooking, preheat your oven to 350 degrees, spray a baking sheet with non-stick spray and then lightly coat your chicken breasts with olive oil, salt and pepper.
- Transfer your chicken to the baking pan and bake for 30 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool for 5-10 minutes.
- Using a fork, gently pull apart and shred your chicken, moving the shredded chicken to a large mixing bowl as you go.
- Once all of your chicken has been shredded, move your eggs to a cutting board and either chop or mash your hard boiled eggs before adding them to the mixing bowl.
- Add the remaining ingredients and stir well to combine. Cover the bowl with plastice wrap and move to the refrigerator.
- Let chill for at least 2 hours but overnight is better. Serve your Southern Chicken Salad with crackers, veggies or piled high as Chicken Sandwiches.
Why This Chicken Salad Is So Creamy and Flavorful
This chicken salad works because it balances rich, creamy ingredients with just the right amount of texture and contrast. The base of mayonnaise and sour cream creates a smooth, velvety dressing that coats the chicken instead of weighing it down.
The hard boiled eggs add extra richness and body, making the salad more filling and giving it that classic Southern-style texture. Meanwhile, the sweet pickle relish brings a pop of tangy sweetness, cutting through the creaminess so it never tastes heavy.
Everything comes together around the shredded chicken, which soaks up the dressing and keeps each bite flavorful. The result is a chicken salad that’s creamy, slightly sweet, a little tangy, and balanced enough to keep you going back for another bite instead of stopping at one.
This Southern Chicken Salad is the chicken salad recipe I have been making for years. It’s my take on classic chicken salad but of course, make this easy chicken salad recipe your own. You like big chunks of celery? Chunk it up, my friend!
Not a fan of dill? Leave the dill out and your Southern Chicken Salad is still on point .. trust me, if I forget to pick up dill it at the grocery store I am not making a special trip for it. If you are not a fan of shredded chicken salad, no worries… add in your big chunks of chicken and be happy. This is just chicken salad.
Best Ways to Serve Chicken Salad
Chicken salad is one of those recipes that pulls its weight because it can show up in a lot of different meals without any extra effort. The most classic way to serve it is piled onto soft sandwich bread, croissants, or toasted rolls, where the creamy filling soaks in just enough to make every bite rich and satisfying.
For a lighter option, it works just as well in lettuce wraps or on a bed of greens, giving you the same flavor without the bread. It also pairs perfectly with crackers, pita chips, or even sliced cucumbers for a quick snack-style meal or appetizer.
If you’re planning ahead, chicken salad is also great for meal prep lunches, since it holds up well in the fridge and can be portioned out for easy grab-and-go meals throughout the week.
Storage and Meal Prep Tips
Chicken salad stores well, which is part of what makes it such a reliable make-ahead meal. Keep it in an airtight container in the refrigerator, where it will stay fresh for about 3 to 4 days.
For best texture, stir it before serving since the dressing can settle slightly as it chills. If it thickens too much in the fridge, add a small spoonful of mayo or sour cream to bring it back to a creamy consistency.
When meal prepping, portion it into individual containers for easy grab-and-go lunches. Keep bread, crackers, or lettuce separate until serving so everything stays fresh and doesn’t get soggy.
Enjoy!
SOUTHERN CHICKEN SALAD
Southern Chicken Salad
Ingredients
Roasted Chicken
- 3 large chicken breasts
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon pepper
Hard Boiled Eggs
- 5 large eggs
- 2 teaspoons vinegar
Southern Chicken Salad
- 2 ribs celery diced
- 6 green onions chopped
- 1/2 cup mayonnaise
- 1/3 cup sour cream
- 3 tablespoons sweet pickle relish
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 1/2 teaspoon pepper
- 2 teaspoons garlic powder
- 2 teaspoons onion powder
- 1/2 lemon juiced
- 1 tablespoon dill minced
Instructions
- To make Southern Chicken Salad, get your eggs and chicken cooking at the same time. Start by adding your eggs to cold water in a large saucepan along with a splash of vinegar. Heat your saucepan on High until your water boils, then cover your pan and turn your burner off. Do not remove your saucepan but let it continue to stay on the now turned off stove burner. Let sit for 12 minutes and then move your eggs to either a bowl filled with ice and water or run them under cold water for a few minutes until they cool down are able to be handled. Lightly crack your egg, peel off the shell and set aside.
- While your eggs are cooking, preheat your oven to 350 degrees, spray a baking sheet with non-stick spray and then lightly coat your chicken breasts with olive oil, salt and pepper. Transfer your chicken to the baking pan and bake for 30 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool for 5-10 minutes. Using a fork, gently pull apart and shred your chicken, moving the shredded chicken to a large mixing bowl as you go.
- Once all of your chicken has been shredded, move your eggs to a cutting board and either chop or mash your hard boiled eggs before adding them to the mixing bowl. Add the remaining ingredients and stir well to combine. Cover the bowl with plastice wrap and move to the refrigerator. Let chill for at least 2 hours but overnight is better. Serve your Southern Chicken Salad with crackers, veggies or piled high as Chicken Sandwiches.
Nutrition
