Chicken Salad: Deconstructed Guacamole Style

It’s not a secret that I love avocados. I buy 4 or so a week on a regular basis, and then I add chunks of them to salads, I spread them on burgers and sandwiches, and I love them as guacamole and chips. It’s no surprise then that when looking for a twist on chicken salad, I naturally just used all the ingredients I’d put in guacamole into the chicken and topped it with the avocado slices.

Start with a roasted chicken. You could make your own, or if you have a good deli near you, feel free to grab a rotisserie chicken from them. Better yet, you could just collect some leftover chicken from a different meal or add a few breasts or pieces next time you’re grilling. However you procure your chicken, you’re going to need to shred it.

I prefer shredded chicken in my chicken salad to chunks. It sticks together more, provides more surface area for the dressing to stick to, and if you’re using all chicken breasts, it ends up drying out less because the chicken is fully coated. Note: Those are Ole’s bear claws. He wants to tell you about them, but that’s for a different post.


We used sweet peppers that we had in the fridge for this. They needed to be eaten in short order, but you could also substitute with the bell pepper of your choice.

Meet my spring onions. Aren’t they cute? I knew you’d love them.


I did add cilantro to this because, well, I add it to my guacamole whenever it’s available. This came directly from my garden, but it can easily be left out if you’re a hater of cilantro.

Tomatoes, diced finely, also make an appearance.

You can add additional or fewer jalapeños to match your heat tolerance. I probably could have added two more for me, but I’m not sure the kids would have appreciated it as much.

Mix all the shredded and diced ingredients into a bowl.

In a separate bowl, mix together your mayonnaise, lime juice and spices. We went with garlic, cumin, salt and pepper and a bit of cayenne.

Stir this into your chopped ingredients and set aside to let it rest. Salads like this are always better if they rest and marinate for a bit. This one is no different, and feel free to make it ahead.

Salad just wouldn’t be salad without a bit of crunch on the side, so croutons are a must. Use whatever day-old bread you have lying around that needs to be used up, but an artisan loaf or heartier bread will work best. Start by heating olive oil in a pan.

Toss in bread cubes and stir to coat.

Sprinkle salt and pepper, cayenne and garlic over the bread cubes and continue cooking until edges brown. You could also make these in the oven, but I don’t see why you’d turn your oven on. It’s plenty warm without it, thank you.

Serve over a bed of lettuce. Whatever you have available will be just fine. We happened to have butter lettuce on hand.

Chicken salad over lettuce, croutons and avocado slices. Delightful on its own. Not pictured? The limeade-infused iced tea that we had with this, finishing off a perfect hot weather meal.