Give Chicken Salad A Fiber Boost With Just One Canned Staple From Your Cabinet

If you love the taste and texture of homemade chicken salad but want more fiber, adding canned chickpeas to this classic, creamy dish is an easy way to boost its nutrition. Chicken salad primarily includes cooked chicken, mayonnaise, and a small amount of chopped veggies like celery and green onion, but contains little fiber. Chickpeas are chock-full of complex carbohydrates, including dietary fiber, and they turn chicken salad into a hearty meal you can prepare in several ways.

Most adults should consume between 25 and 38 grams of fiber per day, but many don't. Fiber keeps you full and ensures your digestive tract runs smoothly. It can also help stabilize blood sugar and promote heart health. And since one can of chickpeas contains roughly 22 grams of fiber, these versatile legumes can easily give your go-to chicken salad recipe a fiber-rich boost.

To try it, start by using an easy chicken salad hack and dice up a good amount of fully cooked rotisserie chicken. From there, you can incorporate either whole or smashed canned, rinsed chickpeas and then proceed with your recipe as usual. For a decent amount of fiber, prepare your recipe with 1 ½ cups of diced chicken plus 1 ½ cups of canned chickpeas. You can also use more chickpeas for more fiber, or reduce the amount if adding some other nourishing extras.

While you can easily add chickpeas to any creamy chicken salad recipe, why not maximize the amount of fiber you consume per serving with more intentional ingredients? For instance, add canned chickpeas to chopped mango avocado chicken salad, which already includes a decent amount of fiber thanks to the cabbage, avocado, mango, and corn. Or incorporate chickpeas into your favorite rotisserie chicken salad with hot bacon and raspberry dressing, which includes extra fiber from the avocado, salad greens, mini bell peppers, and corn.

There are a few creative ways to up the amount of fiber in your chicken salad's dressing. Instead of mayonnaise, blend some Greek yogurt and avocado with citrus juice or add a spoonful of chia seeds or ground flaxseed to your mayo-based dressing for a last-minute boost. To increase the amount of fiber in more traditional chicken salad recipes, mix in foods that also contain extra fiber. Especially if you want to keep this meal's creamy, signature dressing, you have a variety of both sweet and savory extras to choose from.

For more savory, fiber-rich additions, add some toasted pecans, almonds, or swap out the usual celery for cabbage or broccoli. Also, chicken salad gets a worthwhile lift when you include a canned vegetable like artichoke hearts. Sweeter extras that include fiber include chopped apples with the skin, red grapes, and dried cranberries or cherries.