Hot Chicken Salad
This creamy Southern chicken casserole (a.k.a a hot chicken salad) includes tender chicken, celery, and boiled eggs baked with a crunchy potato chip topping.
I’m bringing you a little treasure today in the form of my Granny Jordan’s old-fashioned Southern chicken casserole recipe. Back in the day, this baked chicken salad was regularly seen at lunch, brunch, dinner, potlucks, church picnics, and tailgating parties. It’s typically served as a savory dip-style casserole with bread or Ritz crackers for dipping, but more on that below.
This is such a quick and easy hot chicken salad recipe. All we need to do is mix our ingredients together, which are mayo, cream of chicken soup, shredded chicken, celery, onion, and boiled eggs. We add this to a casserole dish, top it with lots of crunchy and salty potato chips, and bake! That’s it! It will be ready in just 20 minutes.
This chicken casserole is so creamy, thanks to the mayo and cream of chicken soup. But it’s also super flavorful and texturized, as you have the crunch of the celery and potato chips combined with the tender chicken and eggs. Basically, it’s a taste sensation and you need to bake it immediately. Yes, really!
Recipe Ingredients
- Ritz crackers and lettuce (for serving)
- Mayo
- Onion
- Boiled eggs
- Celery
- Chicken
- Cream of chicken soup
- Potato chips
How to Make Hot Chicken Salad
Chop up your boiled eggs…
As well as your celery and onion.
Chuck all of those ingredients into a large bowl.
Then add the cream of chicken soup, cooked chicken, and mayonnaise.
Give it a good stir and it’ll look a little bit like this.
Spread the chicken mixture into an 8×8 casserole dish.
Top with crushed potato chips.
Bake at 350 for 20 minutes and your hot chicken salad is ready to serve. How easy was that?
Serve hot on a bed of lettuce with Ritz crackers.
I also have to admit I love to serve this baked chicken salad cold like this Southern chicken salad for sandwiches.
It’s delicious either way. Enjoy!
Storage
Store leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 4 days. Reheat them in the microwave, oven, or air fryer. I don’t recommend freezing the casserole as creamy sauces don’t thaw well.
Recipe Notes
Here are some variations to make this hot chicken salad recipe work for you:
- Add 1 cup of shredded cheddar cheese. You can mix this into the chicken casserole or add it on top along with the potato chips. Alternatively, add cheddar cheese to the casserole and sprinkle parmesan cheese on top.
- For extra flavor, add 1 jar of diced pimientos (drained).
- For extra crunch, add 1 cup of sliced/slivered almonds.
- Use any kind of cooked chicken, like rotisserie chicken, canned chicken, or shredded boneless skinless chicken breast.
- Add more veggies, like 1 can of water chestnuts, 1 cup of chopped red bell pepper, or 1 cup of sliced mushrooms.
- Garnish with chopped fresh parsley or green onion.
- Add diced cooked bacon for added flavor.
- Substitute the potato chips for toasted breadcrumbs, french fried onions, or crushed cornflakes.
- Add a tablespoon of bottled or fresh lemon juice for a pleasant tang.
Recipe FAQs
How do you serve a hot chicken salad?
I like to serve my hot chicken salad casserole on a bed of lettuce with Ritz crackers, cornbread, homemade buttermilk biscuits, or bread. But it also tastes delicious as a main dish with cooked rice and a side of fresh green beans.
Check out these other chicken casserole recipes:
Chicken Tortilla Casserole (Cooked in the Microwave)
Cheesy Chicken and Corn Casserole
Cheesy Chicken Broccoli Casserole With Rice
Ingredients
- 1 cooked chicken
- 1/2 cup mayonnaise
- 1 can cream of chicken soup
- 2 chopped boiled eggs
- 3/4 cup diced celery
- 1/2 onion, diced
- 1/3 cup cracker crumbs (optional)
- 1 cup potato chips
- Ritz crackers and lettuce for serving (optional)
Instructions
- Mix chicken, mayo, soup, eggs, celery, onion, and cracker crumbs in a medium bowl.1 cooked chicken, 1/2 cup mayonnaise, 1 can cream of chicken soup, 2 chopped boiled eggs, 3/4 cup diced celery, 1/2 onion, diced, 1/3 cup cracker crumbs (optional)
- Spread into an 8x8 baking dish and top with crushed potato chips.1 cup potato chips
- Bake at 350 for 20 minutes.
- Serve hot or cold over a bed of lettuce with Ritz crackers.Ritz crackers and lettuce for serving (optional)
I’m quoting myself today!
Each day when you wake up you have a choice. You can have a good day or you can have a bad day. So you might as well have a good one.
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Hi Christy,
How fortunate you are to have known your grandmother, she was a beauty like you are! I can’t wait to try the chicken sald/casserole recipe; it looks so yummy. Thanks for all your hard work to write for us.
~blushes~ You are really SO sweet! Thank you!!
Thank you for taking the time to read and comment, also. I don’t think people realize how much happiness I get from all of you!!
Gratefully,
Christy 🙂
Christy, What a beautiful story about your grandmother. I, myself remember how wonderful my grandmother (Mimmie) was and I still feel her presence when I am in my kitchen. She lived with us when I was growing up and did all of the cooking. I am now trying to pass this on to my granddaughter, now 15, and she is making me very proud. There is just something about fixing a meal for the ones you love, whether they are family or dear friends. I think it is beautiful to see crumpled pieces of paper with my grandmother’s handwriting on them. I hope my granddaughter will feel the same. I really enjoy your blog, keep up the great work….Love you…….
Hey Joy,
I know just what you mean about your Mimmie still being around in your kitchen. My grandfather and great grandmother (both of whom I knew very well and were very dear to me) still hang around. They pop in from time to time to let me know they are here. I love that we still have that connection.
I can guarantee you that your granddaughter will cherish your recipes as much as you do your grandmother’s because she is being taught, by your example, what is really important in life and where true value lies.
You’ve altered her entire life for the better and you don’t even realize it yet ~grins~.
Thank you so much for reading and for taking the time to comment. Comments mean the world to me!
Love you, too!
Gratefully,
Christy 🙂
Christy…your emails are a dose of Southern sunshine to me. Great recipes, humor, stories, and family. Doesn’t get better than that. I alwasy enjoy reading them and trying the recipes. Don’t change anything.
Kathy,
Thank you so very much!!! I need all of the encouragement I can get and your comment was like a glass of fresh orange juice in my morning!
Gratefully,
Christy
~hugs~
Hi Christy! What an absolutely beautiful woman Granny Jordan was! Seems like the roses in her arms were dimmed by comparison. How wonderful to hear she lived her life like a lady and was warm and loving to all she knew. I am so happy for you to have gotten to know her and I appreciate your sharing her recipes with all us SP folks. I love the fact that the recipe paper is yellowed, old and has “food spots” on it, just like it was loved and used a lot.
Congratulations on selling out six times….that is fabulous!!!! Sounds like it is time to get in one of them ‘thar bookstores. ~grins~ I have tried many of the cookbook recipes, and all were met with nods of approval from family/neighbors who tasted the goods. So many recipes, so little time tee hee.
Hope to see you this summer. Love ya!
Terri, it was wonderful to get to talk to you today! We need to do that more often!!! I can’t wait to welcome you to Bountiful!!!!!
Love you!
Christy 🙂
Oh Christy, you need to laminate that recipe! I didn’t know Southern Plate had sold out 6 times!! Great for you!
I knew those were Ritz crackers as soon as I saw the photo. I love Ritz. I’m not a big cracker person but Ritz are so nice because they have a sweetness to them.
Yeah, Ritz are just evil, they are so good! lol
I try not to open a box unless I am going to be using them for some recipe because the kids and myself can’t hardly stay away from them!
I’m so proud of this little tattered piece of paper!
Gratefully,
Christy
P.S. You got your blue suede shoes on yet?
Me?!?! Haha….I think you need to be asking my mother that!
Graceland and Memphis are all for her, I’m just tagging along. 😉
The chicken salad looks scrumptious! I love chicken salad, but I never seem to get the chance to eat it often. Thanks for sharing the story about Granny Jordan and the recipe. Congrats on the cookbook selling out. I keep thinking about getting it, but I have sooo many cookbooks already. I’m running out of places to put them all. I should get rid of ones that I never or rarely use!
You know, its funny you say that because I also love chicken salad but rarely eat it! Aren’t we strange birds? lol
I downsized my cookbook collection a while back. Its amazing how a book that just doesn’t appeal to you can be met with such zeal when you give it to a friend!
Gratefully,
Christy
Christy – Love Southern Plate. I am one half East Tenn. and one half Charleston, so food is a BIG DEAL in our family. My Mammaw (east tenn.) made this same thing. I found a bunch of her recipes on slips of paper in her Bible a few years ago. And, found a buch stashed in a cookbook from 1952 by Amy Vanderbilt. How cool is that. I have made almost all of them, and each time I swear I remember the meal that I had it with her. What a treasure you found!
Keri
Keri, sounds like we’re beating with the same heart here! These things mean so very much, don’t they?
Wouldn’t trade them for gold!
Gratefully,
Christy