Apricot Chicken Salad with Dill and Sunflower Seeds

This colorful and flavorful Apricot Chicken Salad with Dill and Sunflower Seeds is an easy, 10-minute make-ahead recipe! It’s sweet, tangy, savory, and crunchy. It’s perfect for a paleo/whole30 lettuce wrap or served on whole grain bread.

This recipe just reminds me of warm weather and sunshine. The beautiful orange color of the apricots, the fresh, bright taste of the dill… and the cool freshness that I love about chicken salad.

Using dried apricots enables you to make this chicken salad ahead of time and keep it in the fridge all week long- without it getting soggy! Which makes it the perfect meal-prep recipe.

Plus, you can use store-bought rotisserie chicken (or leftover roast chicken or slow cooker whole chicken) to make your life super easy and whip this up in only 10 minutes.

Tips and Tricks for making Apricot Dill Chicken Salad

This recipe could not be simpler to make. All you do is add all the ingredients to a large bowl and mix together!

But there are a few tricks here to getting the BEST chicken salad possible.

• First, I recommend that you shred the chicken rather than chop it up. Grab two forks and use them to shred the chicken into pieces. If the shreds seem too big, you can run a knife over them a few times when you’re done to get them down to size. What shredding does is makes these beautiful uneven edges to which the mayo sticks SO MUCH BETTER than if you chop. The chicken salad holds its shape better when you try to put it in a sandwich, rather than having pieces of diced chicken smush out the side. It’s one of my favorite chicken salad hacks!
• The other trick is to make sure you chop the other ingredients up into small pieces. For a similar reason- if your apricots, celery, and onions are too big, you risk them toppling out of the sandwich or lettuce wrap. Plus, all the tastes will blend together so much better when the ingredients are chopped finely.

Ingredient Substitution Suggestions

• Feel free to substitute the dried apricots for fresh- although, it won’t hold up quite as well if you make it ahead of time, since the liquid from the fresh apricots will cause them to become soggy and the liquid to seep into the rest of the salad.
• I also think this apricot chicken salad would be GREAT with dried cranberries or dates, or other dried fruit. I love a little sweetness in chicken salad.
• And you can easily substitute the sunflower seeds with sliced or slivered almonds, chopped pecans or walnuts, or other seeds such as pumpkin.
• Finally, you can substitute the mayonnaise with Greek yogurt or sour cream, if you prefer.

Try these other easy Chicken Salad recipes:

• Fiesta Chicken Salad (mayo-free)
• Chicken Salad with Grapes and Walnuts
• Tzatziki Greek Yogurt Chicken Salad
• Curried Chicken Salad with Apples and Raisins
• Cherry Tarragon Chicken Salad

Be sure to check out these other easy lunch recipe ideas.

Did you make this Apricot Dill Chicken Salad Recipe? Please comment below and Rate this Recipe!

Apricot Dill Chicken Salad with Sunflower Seeds

This Apricot Dill Chicken Salad is packed with flavor and a crunch from sunflower seeds! Perfect on lettuce wraps for paleo/whole30 or whole grain bread for easy sandwiches.

5 from 4 votes

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Course: Salad

Cuisine: American

Prep Time: 10 minutes minutes

Total Time: 10 minutes minutes

Servings: 4 servings

Calories: 392kcal

Author: Elizabeth Lindemann

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Ingredients

• 2 cups cooked, shredded chicken such as rotisserie
• 1/3 cup dried apricots chopped
• 1/4 cup fresh dill roughly chopped
• 1/4 cup sunflower seeds
• 1/2 cup mayonnaise
• 2 ribs celery diced
• 1/3 cup red onion diced
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper

Instructions

• Add all ingredients to a large bowl. Mix together well.
• Serve on whole grain bread for a sandwich or romaine or butter lettuce leaves for a low-carb, paleo, lettuce wrap option. Or, serve with crackers for an appetizer.

Notes

• This can be stored in an airtight container in your refrigerator for up to five days.
• You can use fresh apricots if you prefer! I recommend peeling them, and eating the chicken salad immediately, since they will get more soggy the longer they sit.
• You can also use other dried fruits in this- such as cranberries or dates or figs.
• Instead of sunflower seeds, you can use almonds, pecans, or walnuts.
• Try subbing Greek yogurt or sour cream for the mayonnaise if you don't like mayo.
• The provided nutrition information does not include any added sodium from seasoning to taste, any optional ingredients, and it does not take brands into account. Feel free to calculate it yourself using this calculator or by adding the recipe to Yummly.

Nutrition

Calories: 392kcal | Carbohydrates: 10g | Protein: 20g | Fat: 30g | Saturated Fat: 4g | Cholesterol: 64mg | Sodium: 541mg | Potassium: 433mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 7g | Vitamin A: 755IU | Vitamin C: 4.1mg | Calcium: 38mg | Iron: 1.8mg

Nutrition Information Disclaimer

The provided nutrition information is my best estimate and reflects one serving of the recipe (total servings indicated at top of recipe card). It does not include any added sodium from seasoning to taste, any optional ingredients, and it does not take brands into account. I use an automatic API to calculate this information. Feel free to calculate it yourself using one of these tools:

Very Well Fit Nutrition Information Calculator

My Fitness Pal Recipe Nutrition Calculator

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