High Protein Chicken Salad With 42–48 g a Serving

A high protein chicken salad has 42–48 g of protein per serving when you use 120 g of cooked chicken breast per person. The dressing decides the energy. The classic mayonnaise version comes to 491 kcal a serving, and the same salad with Greek yogurt comes to 344 kcal. I worked both out from the USDA record for braised chicken breast and the records linked below.

What makes a chicken salad high in protein?

The chicken does, and the portion decides how much. Braised breast has 32.1 g of protein and 166 kcal per 100 g, so 120 g gives 38.5 g (32.1 × 1.2) for 199 kcal. The Dietary Guidelines set 1.2–1.6 g of protein per kg of body weight a day. That’s 84–112 g for a 70 kg adult, and how much protein you should eat a day shows where the range comes from. A finished serving of this salad (42–48 g with dressing) covers 37–57% of it.

After the chicken, the dressing moves the numbers most. Regular mayonnaise has 0.96 g of protein and 680 kcal per 100 g. Plain nonfat Greek yogurt has 10.3 g and 61 kcal. Swap one for the other and the protein goes up while most of the energy goes away.

How do I make high protein chicken salad for two?

Dice cooked chicken breast and mix it with celery, red onion, grapes and chopped almonds. The table shows the base for two servings. Weights match the state each USDA record describes, so weigh the chicken cooked.

Ingredient	Grams	Protein	Energy
Braised chicken breast, diced	240 g	77.0 g	398 kcal
Celery, raw	80 g	0.4 g	12 kcal
Red onion, raw	40 g	0.4 g	17 kcal
Red seedless grapes	80 g	0.7 g	62 kcal
Raw almonds, chopped	20 g	4.3 g	117 kcal
Lemon juice	15 g	0.1 g	3 kcal
Base for two		82.9 g	609 kcal

Now the dressing. I tested three on the same base. The classic uses 55 g of regular mayonnaise, about 4 tablespoons. The middle one uses 28 g of mayonnaise, 60 g of Greek yogurt and 10 g of yellow mustard. The third uses 120 g of yogurt and the same mustard. The per-serving columns add the dressing to the base and divide by two.

Dressing	Per serving protein	Per serving energy	Protein per 100 kcal
Classic mayonnaise	41.7 g	491 kcal	8.5 g
Half mayonnaise, half yogurt	44.9 g	421 kcal	10.7 g
All Greek yogurt	47.8 g	344 kcal	13.9 g

Look at the yogurt version. It gives 6.1 g more protein and 147 kcal fewer than the classic one, with the same chicken and the same vegetables, so all of the difference comes out of one bowl of dressing.

The price of the swap is flavor. All yogurt is tangy and thinner. The half and half version is the one I make for people who say they don’t like yogurt. Mustard rounds off the tang, and a pinch of black pepper finishes it. The same swap works in a hot dish too: high protein buffalo chicken dip uses cottage cheese and Greek yogurt where the classic uses cream cheese and ranch.

How much chicken do I need per serving?

About 120 g cooked, or 150 g if you train hard, which is 38.5 g or 48.1 g of protein. The table scales the same braised record. The last column is an estimate from two records. Raw breast has 22.5 g of protein per 100 g and braised has 32.1 g. If cooking keeps the protein, 100 g of raw meat ends up as about 70 g of cooked meat. That isn’t a measured yield, so weigh your own once. For the 240 g of cooked chicken in the recipe above, I’d start with about 340 g raw.

Cooked chicken breast	Protein	Energy	Raw weight to start from (estimate)
100 g	32.1 g	166 kcal	143 g
120 g	38.5 g	199 kcal	171 g
150 g	48.1 g	249 kcal	214 g
200 g	64.2 g	332 kcal	285 g

The records explain the gap: braised breast is 65.3 g water per 100 g and raw breast 74.8 g. Log 120 g of cooked chicken against the raw record and you undercount the protein by about 30%. Weigh the chicken in the state the record describes. Write that state down.

What should I serve it with?

Whatever you like, but know what it adds. Take the all-yogurt serving (47.8 g, 344 kcal) on three bases. Bread and pita are USDA records for wheat bread and whole-wheat pita, and romaine is the raw lettuce record.

Served on	Added protein	Added energy	Plate total
60 g romaine leaves	0.6 g	10 kcal	48.4 g, 355 kcal
2 slices wheat bread (58 g)	6.2 g	159 kcal	54.0 g, 503 kcal
1 large whole-wheat pita (64 g)	6.3 g	168 kcal	54.1 g, 512 kcal

Bread adds about 6 g of protein and 160 kcal. Lettuce adds almost nothing. Pick on taste and hunger. If you want a different base for the chicken, high protein pasta salad puts it with pasta, and high protein egg salad does the yogurt swap with eggs. For a light lunch, lettuce is enough. If this is the whole meal and you’re hungry again at four, bread earns its place.

How long does chicken salad keep?

It keeps three to four days in the refrigerator. The USDA says leftovers keep for 3 to 4 days, and cold perishable food such as chicken salad should stay at 40°F or below. Divide a big batch into shallow containers so it cools fast. The USDA warns that a big pot takes a long time to cool, which gives bacteria time to multiply. Cook the chicken to an internal temperature of 165°F before you dice it. Get it into the refrigerator within 2 hours.

If you wonder where 48 g lands against your own day, the protein calculator turns your height and weight into a target. Its floor is 60 g, and above that it counts 1.2 g for every kg of a reference weight.

Make the base on Sunday and dress each portion on the day, so the almonds stay crunchy. When I log a batch in Calsa, I add the chicken, celery and dressing as separate lines of one recipe, so the serving matches what went into the bowl.