The healthy nutrition of Cracker Barrel Strawberry Chicken Salad Recipe is pretty incredible. It’s loaded with delicious fruits, grains, and vegetables. With a little imagination, you can easily turn this quick-and-easy dinner into an exciting and colorful garden salad.
How to Make Cracker Barrel Strawberry Chicken Salad:
Use the croutons in place of the bread. This makes it more filling and helps you enjoy portion control. If you aren’t going to add the chicken, you’ll need a little more lettuce, but keep your portions small (4-6 ounces for one person).
For optimal nutrition, use very fresh ripe strawberries and make sure they have no brown spots or blemished rinds. Romaine, red leaf lettuce or spinach leaves make great bedding for the small salad bowls.
Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 20 minutes
Total Time: 30 minutes
Serving: 5 grams
Yield: 1
Ingredients:
- 1 lb. chicken breasts (2 chicken breasts for the main meal)
- 1 container of cherry tomatoes* (4 tomatoes for the main meal)
- 1 can water chestnuts drained and chopped (2 cans for a main meal)
- 6 oz. strawberries sliced in halves separately from the salad (3 strawberries per person for a side dish)
- 1/4 cup cranberries* (8 halves per person if served as a side dish) *(These serve 4 people as a side dish, 1 lb. of chicken serves 2 people as a main dish.
To Serve:
- Italian Dressing (1-2 Tbsp. per salad)
- Honey Mustard dressing (1-2 Tbsp. per salad)
Optional: Add fresh fruit like blueberries or mandarin oranges to the salad or sliced almonds. You could add nicely cooked chicken breast or shrimp to make this a main filling meal. A bonus is that these ingredients are highly nutritious and have low caloric content. This gives you a delicious way to load up on vitamins, minerals, and fiber.
Directions:
1. Cook the chicken breasts in boiling water or bake them until they are cooked through.
2. Serve chicken breasts with your choice of honey mustard or Italian Dressing, or keep it plain.
3. Wash the lettuce leaves, cherry tomatoes, and cranberries. Cut the tomatoes into halves, slice the strawberries individually and wash the water chestnuts and cranberries separately from the salad.
4. In individual salad bowls, place lettuce leaves first, followed by sliced strawberries, diced water chestnuts, tomatoes, and cranberries.
5. Add the sliced chicken breasts to each bowl, and then start building the salad from there with Italian Dressing, honey mustard, and cranberries.
6. Serve with fat-free crackers for dipping. If using chopped almonds (as the optional ingredient), add a pinch of salt and freshly ground black pepper to each salad bowl before serving.
Price In Cracker Barrel Strawberry Chicken Salad Recipe:
The salad is priced at $5.99 as the main meal in a Cracker Barrel restaurant. You can easily cut this recipe in half to make two servings and save yourself some money.
History Of Cracker Barrel Strawberry Chicken Salad Recipe:
The salad was first introduced in 1980 as a $6.99 side dish. The price was reduced a few years later: it’s now priced at less than $4. It’s no wonder that this is one of their most popular salads. They were hoping to capitalize on the popularity of chicken salads and greens, which had been popular for decades previously but hadn’t yet been “invented.
Benefits Of Cracker Barrel Strawberry Chicken Salad Recipe:
The salad has a moist, juicy texture complemented by the crunchy crust of the bread croutons and pine nuts. Its color is bright and beautiful, offering an attractive contrast to the greens.
The cranberries give the salad a tart flavor and some additional vitamin C, while strawberries provide significant amounts of vitamin A & C, potassium, and fiber (6 ounces in one serving). As part of a well-balanced diet, it’s quite nutritious.
Top 5 Health Nutrition of Cracker Barrel Strawberry Chicken Salad Recipe
1. Fresh and juicy – Fresh, ripe strawberries and fresh lettuce are wonderful for a salad. They can provide deep-colored reds, purples, and blues in the bowl. They add a burst of vitamins to this meal, essential for your healthy body maintenance.
2. Iron-rich – Strawberries are an excellent source of vitamin C and fiber, which prevent anemia and help maintain proper oxygen levels in your body. They also promote a strong immunity system through their high concentration of vitamins A, B6, B12, C & E.
3. Delicious – Everyone loves strawberry salad, whether it’s the main dish or side dish. Its delicious, sweet flavor gives you satisfaction with the delicious food. Depending on your choice, you can eat it with or without any dressing, but most people like their salad to be with sauce so they won’t feel bored when eating it.
4. Heart friendly – This fruit is also known as a good source of potassium which regulates blood pressure and blood sugar levels in the body, keeping it fit and healthy.
5. Cracker Barrel Strawberry Chicken Salad is suitable for pregnant women and people with heart-related problems.
However, this salad is not good for you because it’s high in calories, sodium, and fat. This is why we recommend you add some low-fat ingredients to your dish, such as avocados (25 calories for 100 g), pitted black olives (55 calories for 1/4 cup), or chopped egg whites (10 calories per 2 oz).
How To Store?
You can store this salad in the refrigerator for 6-8 days. If you want to keep it for longer, ensure that the lettuce is wrapped in aluminum foil or sealed in plastic wrap, and the strawberries are stored in an airtight container. You can also freeze the salad at 1-2 weeks (cool completely and then transfer to airtight containers).
This chicken salad recipe is best served as a side dish with a loaf of whole wheat bread or paired with your favorite cracker.
Should I Freeze Cracker Barrel Strawberry Chicken Salad Recipe?
You can freeze this salad to keep it safe from spoilage. To freeze the dish, cool completely and transfer to airtight containers.
Thaw in the refrigerator for 24 hours and serve after that for the best results. You can also heat it in a microwave for about 1-2 minutes before serving.
If you want to make this dish healthier, you can use white meat instead of dark meat or use low-fat mayonnaise or nonfat yogurt in your recipe to reduce the saturated fat content.
Is It Healthy?
There are a lot of questions about this dish and its nutrition content. We decided to make this salad recipe, review it thoroughly and analyze its nutritional value.
We’ve found that this sandwich is a great source of protein (4 grams), fiber (4 grams), and calcium (32 mg). It’s also an excellent source of potassium, magnesium, vitamin B6, folate, vitamin C & B12.
Is Cracker Barrel Strawberry Chicken Salad Recipe Gluten-Free?
This salad will not be gluten-free unless you use gluten-free bread crumbs. There is always a chance that the salad ingredients might contain gluten; please check all components before making your dish. You can easily tell if the bread is made with wheat or not by testing it with a home test kit.
Is Cracker Barrel Strawberry Chicken Salad Recipe Vegan?
Contrary to popular belief, salads don’t always have to be vegetarian. This chicken salad recipe that we review is a vegan dish. The ingredients are free from animal products and free from soy and gluten. For this recipe, you can use any vinegar (balsamic vinegar, red wine vinegar, white wine vinegar), vegetable oil (extra virgin olive oil), or sugar substitute (honey).
Is Cracker Barrel Strawberry Chicken Salad Recipe Healthy for Babies?
This recipe is not good for babies to eat because of its high calories, sodium, and unhealthy fats. It’s also a bit high in sugar (14 g). In addition, it’s very low in saturated fat. You can make this meal healthier by using different seasonings and less sugar in your recipe.
How To Make a Healthy Cracker Barrel Strawberry Chicken Salad?
To make your salad healthier, you can replace the bread crumbs with whole wheat bread crumbs to reduce the calories.
Is Cracker Barrel Strawberry Chicken Salad Recipe Healthy for Toddlers?
Babies 1 to 4 years old should not eat this salad because of its high fat and sodium content and the small portion size. It’s also a bit high in calories (180 kcal) for a kid, so you should probably work with this recipe to make it a healthy snack or side dish.
You can make the salad healthier by reducing the amount of butter. You can also use low-fat mayonnaise or nonfat yogurt to reduce the saturated fat level in your recipe.
Bottom line:
Cracker Barrel Strawberry Chicken Salad is a good meal for lunch or dinner, but it’s not necessarily healthy. If you want to make it healthier, you can use less butter and less oil and vinegar in your recipe.
Hope you have a great time cooking and eating this wonderful salad! Let us know if you have any questions by leaving a comment below. Enjoy your cooking!
