This no-cook Green Goddess Chicken Chickpea Salad is high in protein and fiber, packed with crunchy vegetables, and perfect for meal prep.
High Protein Chicken Chickpea Salad
I love having a cold lunch ready to grab from the fridge, especially one that doesn’t require any cooking or reheating. This Green Goddess Chicken Chickpea Salad is an easy high-protein, high-fiber lunch for meal prep, with hearty vegetables that stay crisp all week. I use cooked chicken for convenience, then toss everything with chickpeas and a creamy, herby green goddess dressing. It’s fresh, crunchy, filling, and so easy to make ahead.
Why This Green Goddess Salad Recipe Works
This green goddess salad is my new meal prep favorite. Shredded chicken, marinated chickpeas and red onions over a crunchy veggie slaw are tossed with a healthy green goddess dressing made with lots of fresh herbs. It’s so good with a mix of textures and flavors. And if you love this high-protein salad, don’t miss my Green Goddess Caesar Salad with Chicken.
- Hearty enough for meal prep: Since this salad uses a slaw mix instead of lettuce, it holds up well for days.
- Nutritious: With 30 grams of protein and 6 grams of fiber, it’ll keep you full until your next meal.
- Easy: Just chop, blend, and toss everything together!
Ingredients You’ll Need
Typically, green goddess dressing is very heavy, but I swapped half the mayo with Greek yogurt for a protein boost and used two sources of protein to make it more filling. Below is everything you’ll need to make this simple green goddess chicken salad. See the recipe card below for the exact measurements.
Salad Ingredients
- Chickpeas, also known as garbanzo beans, are a simple plant-based source of protein and fiber. Just rinse and drain them before adding to the salad.
- Red onion mellows when marinated in vinegar.
- Red wine vinegar and salt add flavor to the onions and chickpeas.
- Veggie slaw mix: Mine had green and red cabbage, broccoli, and carrots, but any kind, even coleslaw mix, will work.
- Chicken breast: You can use any leftover roasted chicken, if you don’t have any and don’t feel like cooking, buy a rotisserie chicken. For more ways to use it, browse all my chicken breast recipes.
- Toppings: Chopped scallions and lightly salted roasted sunflower seeds
Green Goddess Dressing
- Creamy ingredients: Whole milk Greek yogurt adds protein, and light mayo balances the tanginess and makes it extra creamy.
- Green ingredients: Scallions, cilantro (or basil), and parsley put the “green” in green goddess.
- Lemon juice for acidity and brightness
- Garlic for extra flavor
- Kosher salt and black pepper for simple seasoning
- Anchovy paste is the secret ingredient that makes the dressing pop.
How to Make Green Goddess Chicken Salad
This easy green goddess salad recipe doesn’t require any cooking–just some chopping and blending. Check the recipe card at the bottom for printable instructions.
- Marinate the onions in vinegar and salt for 5 minutes, then add the chickpeas.
- Make the green goddess dressing: Add mayonnaise, scallions, herbs, lemon, garlic, salt, pepper, and anchovy paste to a blender and blend until smooth. Then, blend in the yogurt and refrigerate until ready to use.
- Assemble the salad: Combine all the salad ingredients in a large bowl and toss with the dressing.
Variations
- Beans: Swap chickpeas with Cannellini beans.
- Onions: Use shallots instead of red onions.
- Vinegar: Substitute red wine vinegar with white wine vinegar.
- Herbs: If you don’t like cilantro, swap it with another fresh herb, like basil, dill, chives, or tarragon.
- Anchovy options: Use 2 anchovy fillets, or substitute white miso paste or vegetarian Worcestershire sauce.
- Greens: If you prefer not to use a slaw mix, try it with chopped romaine or little gem lettuce.
- Sunflower seeds: Substitute pistachios or almonds.
- Add extra veggies, like cucumber, snap peas, radish, or avocado.
Serving Suggestions
This healthy green goddess chicken chickpea salad is perfect for lunch on its own. If you want to make it more filling for dinner, here are some more dishes you could pair with it
Storage and Meal Prep Tips
Since the base of this green goddess salad is slaw, it’ll hold up well for meal prep. Store it in individual containers to take with you on the go for up to 4 days. To make it even fresher and crunchier, wait to add the dressing until right before eating. I like packing dressing in these small containers.
More Chicken Salad Recipes You’ll Love
For more lunch ideas, try one of these high-protein chicken salad recipes or my Skinnytaste High Protein cookbook to inspire your next meal!
- Grilled Chicken Chickpea Salad
- Grilled Chicken Salad with Cilantro Lime Dressing
- Asian Chicken Salad with Chili Crisp Dressing
- Chicken Salad (classic)
- Air Fryer Chicken Milanese with Mediterranean Salad
Green Goddess Chicken Chickpea Salad
Ingredients
- 1 cup canned chickpeas, rinsed and drained
- 2 tablespoons red vinegar
- ¼ cup diced red onion
- ⅛ teaspoon kosher salt
Green Goddess:
- ½ cup light mayonnaise, such as Hellman’s
- ⅓ cup fresh scallions, chopped
- ⅓ cup chopped fresh cilantro or basil, packed
- ⅓ cup chopped fresh parsley, packed
- 1 lemon, juice of
- 1 clove garlic, chopped
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- ¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 1 teaspoon anchovy paste
- ½ cup whole milk Greek yogurt
Salad
- 5 cups veggie slaw mix, green and red cabbage, broccoli and carrots
- 12 ounces shredded cooked chicken breast, cooked
- ½ cup chopped scallions
- ¼ cup sunflower seeds, lightly salted, roasted
Instructions
- In a medium bowl marinate the onion 5 minutes in vinegar and salt. Add the chickpeas and toss to combine. Set aside.
- Meanwhile, make the green goddess dressing: Place all ingredients except for the yogurt in a blender and blend until smooth. Add yogurt and process until blended. Keep refrigerated until serving.
- Make the salad: combine slaw mix with chicken, chickpeas, scallions and sunflower seeds and toss with dressing.
This is a refreshing tangy salad! We used leftover rotisserie chicken and it was great. The pickled onions just added the right bite to it.
Perfect!
So fresh and flavorful! Love that it is higher protein. Makes a lot. Going to eat the leftovers for lunch. The dressing is delicious.
This recipe is incredible. The dressing is so delicious and really makes the salad. This is a great base to add extra veggies (I added some chopped bell peppers). I meal prepped this for a week’s worth of lunches and served it over spinach with dressing on the side to add as I ate it. Amazing!
Thanks Beth, glad you enjoyed it!
Another genius recipe from Gina! This is so easy and delicious. I was glad to read someone added dried cranberries…I was thinking of doing that or cutting up an apple into my lunch portion tomorrow. This is a keeper.
Is the vinegar red wine vinegar? You said red vinegar. Is there a difference?
red wine
I made this as printed. I did use the basil in the salad as I had fresh. Absolutely delicious. Dressing takes it over the top. Gina thank you for helping us to prepare and eat healthy food 🙂
Thank you for another great recipe, Gina. I really enjoyed the crunchy slaw with the freshness of the green onion, the creaminess of the chick peas, and the flavourful dressing. I used cilantro and parsley, and it was the perfect meal for a hot summer evening.
My rating for this recipe that I inadvertently omitted with my review. A great meal that I plan to make again to take to a family barbecue this week.
This was outstanding and will be a permanent recipe in my meal prep fit school which starts up next week
This is a dream Summer dinner for macro counters! I added dried cranberries for a little sweetness and used a Costco rotisserie chicken. Love the dressing and I have enough for a few days of salads. Thank you!!
This is SO good! Hubby isn’t a huge salad fan, but immediately asked this to go into the regular lunch prep rotation. 💕
Could you use nonfat yogurt instead of mayo and the full fat yogurt?
Sure, I tried both ways and liked the mayo version more but you can absolutely use more yogurt instead!
I just made this. Sooo good! I used broccoli slaw and the crunchy textures are very satisfying. This will be a definite “must make” again recipe. Thanks for another winner, Gina!
Thanks Cindy!
I am not a mayonnaise person. What can I substitute in its place?