Napa Almond Chicken Salad (Panera Copycat Recipe)
Love chicken salad sandwiches?
One of my favorites is Panera Bread’s tangy and sweet Napa chicken salad featuring red grapes, almonds, and crunchy celery, all mixed together with a creamy lemony dressing. It’s a completely delicious and fresh tasting meal worth swooning over.
The good news is, it’s easy and affordable to make a similar salad at home for your entire family, and today I’m sharing my DIY version!
Have leftover cooked chicken?! This is a perfect way to use it!
I boiled a couple chicken breasts and then chopped them into small cubes for this batch, but you can use rotisserie chicken or any shredded chicken you may have on hand.
Please feel free to omit or adapt any of these ingredients or amounts to taste. I love mayo, but your family may prefer plain Greek yogurt instead. I personally love the sweetness of grapes and the crunchiness of almonds, but, again, all that can be adapted!
Napa Almond Chicken Salad (Panera Copycat Recipe)
yield: 6 SERVINGS
Ingredients
For the Salad:
- 2 cups chicken, cooked and chopped
- 1/2 cup grapes, sliced
- 2 green onions, sliced
- 1 celery stalk, chopped
- 2 tablespoons fresh parsely, chopped
- 1/2 teaspoon dried rosemary
- salt & pepper to taste
- 1/4 cup sliced almonds
For the Dressing:
- 1/4 cup real mayonnaise
- 2 tablespoons sour cream
- 2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
- 1 teaspoon agave sweetener (or sweetener of choice)
- 1 teaspoon lemon zest
Directions
1
In a large mixing bowl, combine all ingredients for salad.
2
In a separate small dish, whisk together all ingredients for dressing.
3
Pour dressing over salad and combine well. Refrigerate.
4
Serve with sandwich bread or as desired.
5
Note: This salad should be used within 3-5 days and kept properly refrigerated.
Additional Notes
Recipe idea adapted from CarriesExperimentalChicken.com
What a perfect make-ahead lunch!
Chicken salad, in general, is one of my favorite make-ahead lunches. The leftovers remain delicious, and you can take it with you on the road or in a cooler to the beach to make sandwiches. My family loves this yummy Napa Almond Chicken Salad, and I think yours will, too!
Thank you! This is my go-to order at Panera. I’m excited to make it at home!
Is it?! Yay!
Lina you and I are on the same wavelength today. I was googling Panera’s copycat salad and broccoli soup today and found a few good recipes to test out. I found a copycat of their chocolate chip cookies looking forward to those. This chicken salad looks delicious
Oh yum! Yes we are -ha. I think you’ll like this one!
Lina, it is hotter than heck here and this recipe is perfect! Thanks for posting it.
Enjoy Deb! Thanks for stopping by!
Thank you! Do you have the nutritional info on this? Or do you know the net carbs if I leave out the grapes?
I don’t have it for this recipe at this time, but my fitness pal site/app is a good one to plug in numbers. May want to omit sweetener too.
Sounds terrific!
Thanks!
LOVE the copycat recipes! Keep ’em coming!
Yum! Wish you would make the recipes easily printable. I’m old school and like to print out recipes not use my computer to access them. Just my personal request. 😉
Made this with Costco canned chicken. It’s better than Panera’s and is best without bread. Best chicken salad ever!
Oh good I’m so glad!
Panera does not use any onion in this salad. That’s why I like it so much