Chickpea & Chicken Salad Recipe

No more boring chicken salad! Instead, notch it up with chickpeas, olives and Indian-style spices in a light yogurt dressing. (No mayo!) This is definitely a "savory" chicken salad, hearty and filling with tons of protein. It's the kind of no-fuss recipe you’ll want to make on repeat — great for lunch, light dinners, or piling into pita for something portable. Good news: it's just as good straight from the fridge as the next day. For Weight Watchers? It's very point-friendly, all the ingredients except one (olives) are zero points! Let’s get to chopping!

Approachable, Homestyle Whole Food, Simply Prepared with Pantry Ingredients. Little Effort, Big Reward. Another Quick Supper, a Kitchen Parade Specialty. Fun Picnic Food. Budget Friendly. Great for Meal Prep. High Protein (23 Grams in 200+ Calories). Weight Watchers Friendly. Naturally Gluten Free. Rave Reviews. So Good!!

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COMPLIMENTS!

• "... love the spice combination, 'different' but not weird, if you know what I mean ..." ~ Anonymous
• "This is a great recipe and I've been making it for a few years now." ~ Anonymous
• What're you waiting for?!

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Health Guidance from the USDA

The new food pyramid unveiled last spring (2005) by the U.S. Department of Agriculture offers, well, modest improvement. It does include daily exercise and emphasizes vegetables by separating them from fruit.

But MyPyramid.gov (2025 update, now called MyPlate) is filled with useful tips about food choices and portion sizes.

Vegetables are sorted into easy-to-remember groups including green vegetables (broccoli, spinach, leafy greens); orange vegetables (carrots, sweet potatoes, squash); and starchy vegetables (corn, peas, potatoes).

Dried beans crop up twice, first with vegetables and then as a protein source under "meat and dried beans".

Beans are a great meat extender, especially if your aim is to limit cholesterol and increase fiber.

Me, I’m happy to have an unusual mélange of flavors and textures that makes up easily, "tastes" good to me and is good "for" me too.

That's because while food advice may change, what doesn't change is the need for quick, healthy and economical suppers made from common pantry ingredients. Chickpea & Chicken Salad? In spades, people, in spades.

All that and when the entrée is so virtuous, feel free to tempt you and your family with a dessert of what the USDA calls "discretionary calories"!

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Recipe Overview: Chickpea & Chicken Salad

• For more than 20 years, this has been a go-to chicken salad, not for sandwiches so much, even though it makes a great pita filling. Instead, it's a main-dish salad, usually served with a few greens, maybe with some hummus on the side. It’s packed with protein, bright crunch and pantry-friendly ingredients and ends up anything but boring. It may be made up to a day ahead of time; to serve the same day, allow about 90 minutes for the flavors to meld in the fridge.

• When to Serve = A light lunch, easy to carry to a park bench, a picnic blanket or (dang it, grown-up life) your desk at work. A simple supper, served atop lightly dressed greens.
• Diet Needs & Choices = This is a whole-food high-protein meat salad, with the protein sourced from lean meat (the chicken), plants (the chickpeas) and dairy (the yogurt). It's also naturally gluten-free but please, if you're cooking for someone with celiac or a gluten sensitivity, be extra cautious about cross contamination, your hands, your fridge environment, your counters, your knives, your bowls, your stirring spoons.
• Distinctive Ingredients = Cooked Chicken + Chickpeas + Olives + Yogurt + Lemon or Lime
• Plant Fillers = red bell pepper + red onion + parsley
• Seasonings = caraway + cumin + cayenne + salt & pepper
• Tasting with our Eyes = For a platter, I like to use the "cap" of the bell pepper (including the stem) as a garnish. Otherwise, a little extra parsley sprinkled over top never hurts in the Pretty Department.
• Kitchen Tools = a mixing bowl & spoon + a lemon zester, I use a microplane (affiliate link), there are soooo many size and shape choices anymore! + measuring spoons + a knife & cutting board + a colander
• Hands-On Time = Allow about 25 minutes to assemble the salad.
• Fridge Time = Allow at least 90 minutes (longer is okay too) for the flavors to meld in the refrigerator.
• Texture = A salad like this is real amalgam of mixed textures, from the meaty bites of chicken and olives to the firm chickpeas to the wet bell pepper to the grassy parsley to the creamy dressing.
• Taste = Again, this salad is a real amalgam, a collection of flavors that stand out on their own but also meld together.
• Techniques = Prep the salad without any special techniques, just a little knife action.
• Shop Your Pantry = This recipe is a pantry-friendly recipes, calling for ingredients many cooks keep on hand all the time.
• Watching Our Waistlines = This recipe is a calorie-friendly recipe, just a bit over 200 calories for a full 23g of protein in each cup.
• Staying Cost Conscious = This recipe is a budget-friendly recipe, all the ingredients are easy to find at a usual grocery store, no need to seek out or order anything special.
• Makes = 6 cups as written.
• Small Households = Because it's easily halved, this recipe works especially well for those Cooking for One or Two. You will end up with about a half can of leftover chickpeas, maybe make a half batch of Simple Hummus?
• So good! I hope you love it!


• If you're really after a chicken salad for sandwiches, be sure to check out my very own, well, yeah, Chicken Salad for Sandwiches.
• Not quite what you're looking for? Check out my other salad supper recipes.

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Why I Love This Recipe & You Might Too

• SIMPLE INGREDIENTS It's so easy to pick up a rotisserie chicken. After that? Everything's usually on hand.
• EVERYDAY INGREDIENTS And everything's usually on hand because these are staple ingredients in my kitchen, ones I rarely let run out.
• THE SPICES really do make this salad, especially the cumin. (Hint: cumin is definitely my favorite savory spice.)
• JUST A LITTLE BIT DIFFERENT The usual chicken salad is mayo-based, I'm definitely smitten with my Chicken Salad for Sandwiches. This recipe has no mayo: without being "weird," it's just a little bit out of the ordinary, a nice change.
• USEFUL It works for simple salad suppers for the two of us but can also be served on a platter for a lunch gathering, say.
• Ready to get started? Here's your recipe!

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QUICK SUPPER: CHICKPEA & CHICKEN SALAD

Hands-on time: 25 minutes
Time to table: about 2 hours
Makes 6 cups

Rinse and drain the chickpeas first-off so they'll be ready to go just at the end.

DRESSING
• 1 cup (246g) non-fat yogurt (Greek or plain either one)
• Zest & juice (about 2 tablespoons) of a fresh lemon or fresh lime
• 1 teaspoon caraway seed or ground caraway
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin (key ingredient, don't skip or skimp!)
• 1/4 teaspoon (or to taste) cayenne pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon table salt
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper

SALAD
• 1 red bell pepper, chopped
• 1/2 cup finely chopped red onion
• 1/4 cup finely chopped parsley
• 1 cup (132g) good olives, pitted and halved
• 3 cups (375g) cooked chicken, chopped
• 1 15-ounce (425g) can chickpeas (garbanzo beans), rinsed & drained
• Salt & pepper to taste

DRESSING Mix all the Dressing ingredients in a large bowl, stirring well.

SALAD Combine all the salad ingredients except the thicken and chickpeas, stirring well. Stir in the chicken and chickpeas and stir well again. Taste, then season as needed with salt and pepper.

REFRIGERATE Cover and refrigerate for at least 90 minutes (longer is okay, too) before serving for the flavors to meld.

SERVING SUGGESTIONS Funny thing, I do like to serve this salad with hummus on the side! Usually it's the wonderful Roasted Eggplant “Hummus" (Eggplant & Chickpea Dip & Spread) but some times it's my Crazy-Smooth Crazy-Good Hummus. I do love-love-love good hummus!

BUFFET Chickpea & Chicken Salad makes for a great buffet salad too, I usually spread it on arugula on a platter with slivers of Spiced Pickled Red Onions.

ALANNA's TIPS For cooked chicken, use leftover grilled chicken breasts, leftover Fast Roast Chicken or my favorite, a rotisserie chicken from the grocery store. A whole rotisserie chicken usually yields exactly three cups of cooked chicken. If the yogurt is a little wet, drain it through a strainer first. I love to cook chickpeas from dried chickpeas (it makes especially good homemade hummus, see How to Cook Dried Chickpeas Especially for Hummus aka "Jerusalem Chickpeas") but for this salad, I prefer the firmness (to say nothing of the convenience) of canned chickpeas.

FOR MORE INFO If you "skipped straight to the recipe," please scroll back to the top of this page for ingredient information, ingredient substitutions, tips and more. Confused about salt, these days? No wonder, it is confusing. Check my FAQs for an explanation. If you print this recipe, you'll want to check the recipe online for even more tips and extra information about ingredient substitutions, best results and more. See https://www.kitchenparade.com/2005/06/chickpea-chicken-salad.php .

NUTRITION INFORMATION Per Cup: 217 Calories; 6g Tot Fat; 1g Sat Fat; 46mg Cholesterol; 622mg Sodium; 16g Carb; 4g Fiber; 3g Sugar; 23g Protein. WEIGHT WATCHERS Old Points 4 & PointsPlus 5 & SmartPoints 5 & Freestyle 1 & myWW green 4 & blue 1 & purple 1 & future WW points CALORIE COUNTERS 100-calorie serving = 2/3 cup (8g protein). This recipe has been "Alanna-sized".

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Seasonal Eats: Mid Summer Across the Years

KITCHEN PARADE
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If you like Kitchen Parade's recipes, you'll love A Veggie Venture, my food blog about vegetables with more from-scratch recipes using whole, healthful ingredients, home to the famous Alphabet of Vegetables and vegetables in every course, seasonal to staples, savory to sweet, salads to sides, soups to supper, simple to special.

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Chicken Salad: So Many Surprises!

• THE RECIPE Mango Chicken Salad A quick chicken salad in a light yogurt sauce, studded with chunks of fresh mango.
• ANOTHER TAKE Lemon Chive Chicken Salad Chicken breasts poached in lemon water, light and summery. (PIN This)

• THE RECIPE Southwestern Chicken Taco Salad Plates A summery Quick Supper, no cooking required, just assembly. (PIN This)
• ANOTHER TAKE Mexican Chicken Salad Rotisserie chicken tossed with lime-yogurt vinaigrette, black beans, jicama, corn and tomato. (PIN This)

• THE RECIPE Chicken Greek Salad with Simple Hummus A Quick Supper, just assemble and serve, another good reason to eat at home!
• ANOTHER TAKE Asian Chicken Salad Rotisserie chicken with greens and veggies in a soy-ginger-lime vinaigrette.

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Shop Your Pantry First

(helping home cooks save money on groceries)

~ cooked chicken ~
~ chickpea recipes ~
~ yogurt recipes ~
~ lemon recipes ~
~ bell pepper recipes ~
~ olive recipes ~

~ All Recipes, By Ingredient ~
~ How to Save Money on Groceries ~

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Kitchen Parade is written by second-generation food columnist Alanna Kellogg and features fresh, seasonal dishes for every-day healthful eating and occasional indulgences. Quick Suppers are Kitchen Parade favorites and feature recipes easy on the budget, the clock, the waistline and the dishwasher. Do you have a favorite recipe that other Kitchen Parade readers might like? Just send me a quick e-mail, you'll find my current address in the FAQs. How to print a Kitchen Parade recipe. Never miss a recipe! If you like this recipe, sign up for a free e-mail subscription. If you like Kitchen Parade, for more scratch cooking recipes using whole, healthful ingredients, you're sure to like my food blog about vegetable recipes, too, A Veggie Venture. If you make this recipe, I'd love to know your results! Just leave a comment below.

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