Chicken Salad Chick restaurants offer this delicious side dish as one of their signature side dishes; this copycat salad uses sweet grapes in a creamy dressing with crunchy toasted pecans for an easy dish that makes an impressive presentation at potlucks and picnics!
Make this ahead and store in the fridge until ready to serve, adding brown sugar and pecans just before. For best results, don’t add them too early!
Chicken
Chicken Salad Chick restaurants feature this mouthwatering recipe as one of their signature side dishes, featuring succulent fresh juice grapes combined with creamy dressing for an irresistibly tasty treat that pairs perfectly with multiple meals. It is easy to prepare, too.
Remove the grapes’ stems, pat dry thoroughly, and place in a large mixing bowl. Next, combine cream cheese, sour cream, sugar and vanilla essence before using an electric mixer to beat until all components have combined into a creamy consistency.
Pour the mixture over the dried grapes and mix gently until all the grapes are evenly covered, before covering and refrigerating until you’re ready to serve it. Garnish it before serving by topping with brown sugar and crushed pecans (optional). This dish makes a tasty side dish to accompany chicken dishes like fried or grilled, roasted vegetables or other main courses.
Grapes
Delicious grapes combined with creamy vanilla sauce and pecans creates an irresistibly delicious side dish or light dessert perfect for potlucks, picnics and Easter brunch.
Cream cheese, sour cream, granulated sugar and vanilla make up the base for this recipe. Wash and dry grapes before gently mixing them with this dressing mixture to fully cover them and chill until serving time.
This dish can be prepared up to 24 hours in advance, though the grapes should be added right before serving so their juices won’t dilute the cream cheese dressing and keep your dish looking and tasting fresher.
Celery
Celery boasts an engaging grassy herbaceous taste with peppery, bitter, and salty notes reminiscent of grasses such as lettuce. Celery provides plenty of antioxidant nutrients which may support healthy digestion and lower cholesterol.
Celery is an excellent source of Vitamin C, fiber, potassium, calcium and folate. When selecting celery for purchase, look for fresh stalks with bright green coloring that are free from patches of brown or yellow spots and have satisfying firmness upon touch.
This copycat recipe is ideal for potlucks and picnics, and can be made up to three days ahead. For a lighter option, swap out sour cream and sugar with Greek yogurt. Pecans add an extra special touch; feel free to substitute walnuts or almonds as desired.
Red Onion
One of the great culinary mysteries of our time is why some foods (red onions, red cabbages and grapes) are mislabeled as “red” when in reality they’re actually purple; this stems from how English classifies color classification.
Copycat of Chicken Salad Chick’s popular side dish, we combine Fuji apples for crispiness with seedless grapes and pecans for sweetness, all topped off with dry ranch salad dressing mix for an added savory flair.
Cream cheese, sour cream and sugar are blended until smooth with an electric mixer to form the base for this sweet and creamy salad. Once chilled, this mixture is then tossed with chopped grapes before being refrigerated again before garnishing it with brown sugar and pecans as an appealing presentation before being served alongside many meals.
Dressing
Creamy dressing made with sour cream, cream cheese and sugar for a satisfyingly creamy flavor. For an alternative way of serving this classic dessert dish that still packs an impactful sweet and tangy punch, switch half of the sour cream out for Greek yogurt for an equally decadent experience. I have also found great success using Whole Earth Sweetener (a blend of stevia, monk fruit extract and erythritol) as an effective sugar alternative with great results.
Once the salad has been assembled, transfer to a large serving bowl and decorate it with brown sugar and pecans before covering tightly with plastic wrap for storage in the refrigerator until ready to serve.
This recipe makes an excellent side dish for family picnics, casual gatherings and potlucks. It is easy to prepare and can stay fresh in the fridge for three days; freezing storage may also work but may compromise some texture and flavor elements of this salad dish.