Chicken Salad is an absolute staple on our car camping trips. There is nothing better than cold chicken salad to look forward to after a long hike through the latest national park that we are car camping in. This car camping recipe is great because it can last for several days in an ice chest while still having a texture and taste that is to die for.
Chicken Salad for Car Camping
You’ll notice that our car camping recipe omits several ingredients normally found in traditional chicken salads; namely grapes, almonds, pickles, and raisins. There is a good reason for this! We wanted our recipe to be just as tasty on the first day of the trip as on day three or four. There’s nothing worse than coming back to the car expecting a delicious treat and getting a slimy, stinky mess instead.
We’ve found that grapes make the chicken salad too wet and can turn the meal pretty unappetizing if we leave it in the ice chest longer than a day or two. Most fruit add-ins as well as any pickle will produce similar results. Almonds seem to add a flavor after a couple of days that we don’t find the most appealing, and raisins end up plumping up and getting a little too soft for our liking as well. Can you tell we’re big texture eaters?
This recipe is the result of a lot of different iterations over the past several trips. We think that this car camping chicken salad has amazing texture and flavor, and also does extremely well when left in an ice chest for the first several days of a road trip. If anything, the flavor gets better the longer you leave it! This chicken salad is one of our favorite meals while car camping and we hope you enjoy it too.
How long will chicken salad last?
Chicken salad will last for 3-5 days if kept cold, but we end up eating ours before pushing that limit anyway (did we mention this is our favorite car camping food?). If you have an ice chest disaster and are questioning whether or not your chicken salad has gotten too warm to be safe, don’t risk it! A trip to the grocery store is a lot easier to manage during a car camping trip than a bout of food poisoning.
Ideas for serving chicken salad
Chicken salad is an awesome car camping recipe because it is super flexible. Eat it in a sandwich, tortilla wrap, lettuce wrap, or even just with a fork. However, Lexi and I still believe that the best way to eat this car camping chicken salad is with a roll of Ritz crackers.
The Best Make-Ahead Car Camping Chicken Salad
Ingredients
- 2 lb Shredded Cooked Chicken Breast We either buy a costco rotisserie chicken (it's hard to find a better deal on chicken) or cook chicken breasts in the instant pot.
- 1 Cup Mayonnaise
- 1 Tablespoon Dijon Mustard
- 2 Stalks Celery, Diced
- 3 Green Onions, sliced
- 2 Tablespoon Italian Parsley, Chopped
- 1 Tablespoon Basil
- 1 Lemon, Juiced
- 1/2 Tablespoon Dill (optional) If you like dill, it adds a really nice zing to the salad. We have it as optional because it's a pretty divisive herb.
- Salt and Pepper to taste
Instructions
- Shred your chicken breast, making sure not to leave any large chunks. You can use a mixer to shred the chicken faster, but don't run it too long or the chicken will get soft and mealy.
- Dice, slice, and chop your Celery, Green Onions, Italian Parsley, Basil, and (optional) Dill.
- Add chopped ingredients to a medium bowl along with the Mayonnaise, Dijonn Mustard, and lemon juice. Give the ingredients a quick mix to combine.
- Add shredded chicken and fold to combine, mixing thoroughly.
- Taste and add salt and pepper to taste.
- If using this recipe for car camping, store in tupperware with as little room for air as possible or in a vaccum sealed container.
- When ready to eat, serve on bread with lettuce as sandwiches or, our personal favorite, with ritz crackers!
We hope you like this recipe! For more great car camping recipes,
