This creamy delicious Venezuelan avocado chicken salad gets its creaminess from mashed avocados and its vibrant latin flavors from lime juice, garlic and cilantro. A fantastic chicken salad recipe without mayo and dairy-free.
This avocado chicken salad recipe was originally designed to be the stuffing for a beloved Venezuelan dish called reina pepiada: Venezuelan arepas with chicken avocado salad. Arepas are gluten-free corn cakes, eaten in Venezuela instead of bread.
I learned the arepas recipe from my Venezuelan friend Sonia. Though I adore this chicken salad sandwiched between delicious corn cakes, warm from the oven, I also find myself making the avocado chicken salad on its own often. I love to scoop onto a simple salad for lunch or to roll up in a wrap or make a a sandwich out of it.
It's great to have a delicious healthy chicken salad recipe in the repertoire.
Let's make Venezuelan Avocado Chicken Salad!
This recipe comes together quickly, especially easy if you use left over chicken.
- In a large bowl mash the the flesh of two ripe avocados with the lime juice.
- Add the rest of the ingredients: shredded chicken, bell pepper, onion, cilantro, jalapeño, and garlic. Season with salt and pepper, to taste. That's all there is to it.
You can adjust the amount of tanginess and heat by adding more lime juice and jalapeño.
Over the years I've adapted Sonia's recipe just a bit. The original recipe had mayonnaise in addition to avocados. I discovered that if I have perfectly ripe avocados to mash up for the dressing, mayo isn't necessary.
Avocados have all the creaminess of mayo and they add a wonderful sweet and nutty avocado flavor to the mix, and avocados are highly nutritious, rich in vitamins, potassium and heart-healthy monounsaturated fat.
Other Delicious Chicken Salad Recipes To Try
Here's the recipe for Venezuelan Avocado Chicken Salad. I'm excited for you to try this one. If you do, I hope you'll come back to leave a star rating and a comment. I'd love to know what you think.
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Venezuelan Avocado Chicken Salad: No Mayo
- Total Time: 25 mins
- Yield: 4-5 1x
Description
Healthy creamy shredded chicken salad with vibrant flavors, made with avocado, vegetables and herbs, no mayo or dairy.
Ingredients
- 2 ½ cups cooked shredded chicken breast or 1 pound of boneless chicken, poached. Here's how to make perfect poached chicken)
- 2 perfectly ripe Haas avocados, peeled and pitted
- 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon fresh lime juice (or more to taste)
- ½ red bell pepper, seeds and ribs removed, diced
- 3 tablespoons finely chopped white onion
- 3 tablespoons finely chopped cilantro
- ½ jalapeño pepper, seeds and ribs removed, finely chopped (or more, to taste)
- 2 teaspoons finely minced garlic (2 medium cloves)
- 1 teaspoon salt or to taste
- ½ teaspoon fresh ground black pepper or to taste
Instructions
- In a large bowl mash the avocado with the lime juice. Add the rest of the ingredients: chicken, bell pepper, onion, cilantro, jalapeño, and garlic. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Cover and store in the fridge until you're ready to eat.
- It's best to serve this the same day you make it. You can store it in the fridge overnight and It will still be delicious the next day, but it might lose some of its lovely green color.
- Prep Time: 25 mins
- Category: Main Dish, Salad
- Method: Use cooked chicken or poach
- Cuisine: Venezuelan
Morgan
This was SO good. I literally just finished a serving a few seconds ago. I was looking at this very hesitantly, and thought it would just be okay. But it's delicious. Thank you for the recipe!
Lisa
Oh I'm so glad you liked it!
Jenni
Delicious!!!!
Pattrishy
Just made this and it’s delicious. I had to pack it up right away for lunch so I wouldn’t taste it all away!
Food Mystique
Yes, this is certainly healthy. I personally don't use mayo too.
Midge
But mine started turning black right away!
Jessie
Holy guacamole, this looks sooooo good! Must try it soon. xx
jen
LOVE IT! Anything this time of year with avocados is HEAVEN! Thank you!
Lisa
Thanks Jen!
Sue
There is a Peruvian food truck in the DC area that carries stuffed avocados - one option is chicken salad stuffed avocados - it is incredible. In trying to do something similar, do you think one could follow this recipe but substitute a little mayo for the avocados and then stuff (or fill) an avocado half instead? How will that affect the proportions of the other ingredients?
Lisa
Yum - that chicken salad-stuffed avocado sounds incredible! I think you could either omit the avocados completely and use mayo - start with 1/4 cup of mayo and see how you like the consistency. Keep adding more until you're happy. Or, another option is to use one mashed avocado and a few tablespoons of mayo. Let me know how it turns out! I'd love to see a photo, if you want to post one on my Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/PanningTheGlobe/
2pots2cook
Yes ! This salad and arepas ! Oh boy ! Thank you so much !