Tropical Chicken Salad Sandwiches are made with a lighter dressing made with Greek yogurt, filled with macadamia nuts, pineapple, mandarin oranges, and cherries, and served on Hawaiian sweet rolls.

Chicken salad is a great option during the warm summer months. You can either pick up a rotisserie chicken at the grocery store and shred it (so many good uses), use canned chicken, or make your own shredded chicken in the slow cooker (or instant pot) at home.

We love this chicken salad and how versatile it is. We’ve swapped out lots of different fruits over the years and have served them up with all kinds of rolls like croissants, Hawaiian sweet rolls, and just good ol’ regular wheat bread.

If you are wanting a lower carb option serve this up as a lettuce wrap. It’s even delicious with crackers as an appetizer!

Tips for adding fruit to chicken salad

To prevent soft fresh fruits like oranges from being broken apart in chicken salad, add them after you have fully mixed the chicken with the dressing. Gently fold the fruit in right before serving.

If you choose to use dried fruits, you can mix it all together at the same time like I did here.

What other fruit options can I add?

Other great fruit options for this chicken salad are mangoes, peaches, nectarines, granny smith apples and grapes. Cut the larger fruits into smallish bite sized pieces about the same size as pineapple tidbits. When adding grapes I prefer to quarter them, especially when serving to kids so they don’t choke on them.

Will other nuts work?

Most nuts are a great addition to chicken salad, we use cashews and almonds on a regular basis.

If the chicken salad won’t be eaten right away, add everything but the nuts. Add the nuts just before serving because nuts will soak up the moisture from the dressing and start to go soft after a short period.

How long will chicken salad keep for?

Chicken salad is best eaten within 3-5 days but can be kept for up to a week. If you add fresh fruits over dried, eat it sooner as the fresh fruit tends to spoil sooner.

I like using dried fruit because it soaks up the dressing making the dried fruit softer, while also allowing me to make a bigger batch without worrying about it spoiling as quickly.

Keep it stored in the refrigerator and not the freezer. I’ve found that the yogurt dressing tends to split and the consistency is odd.

For best results, freeze just the chicken without the dressing and make batches as you need them.

Other dishes to serve with chicken salad:

Other great summer recipes: