Low Carb Avocado Pecan Chicken Salad Recipe (ONE Net Carb)

This all started out as “what the heck am I going to do with these leftovers?” 🙂 But it turned into a DELICIOUS recipe, so I had to share this with you. You can get as creative as you like with it too.

With the “recipe” I’ll tell you the story of how this beautiful chicken salad “happened”, because it may just give you some ideas you can use – with foods that might otherwise go to waste.

You’ll see what I mean.

NOTE: I am not a cook. In fact, I rarely cook. My kitchen is where my coffee pot lives, period. So for me to get experimental in the there is a big deal -lol. Please keep that in mind as you check out this AWESOME recipe…

Before we start, let me show this delicious low carb chicken salad:

Here’s another one:

The Story…

It’s important to note that it’s Thursday.

That’s important, because my trash pickup runs early Friday morning. So I woke up this morning and had my usual coffee, then rummaged through the fridge to figure out what to eat for breakfast. I found some leftovers and decided to pull them out. They either needed to be eaten, or go out with the trash today.

Obviously my “get creative with low carb leftovers recipe” here can be made with fresh ingredients, so keep that in mind as you’re reading.

Here’s what I found in the refrigerator:

None of that looks so great, right? 😛

On the right is the leftovers of a beautiful steak salad I had when I went out to eat the other night. (You gotta see that salad!)

On the left is baked-in-butter chicken breast & seared squash that I made for dinner last night. I’m not a big fan of chicken breast meat. I prefer thighs. Check out these beautiful baked chicken thighs. The breast strips were okay, but thighs are just juicier and yummier. And breast is good once, but then reheating the leftovers just ends up as “dry chicken”. Blech! 😛

“The Avocado Is Too Brown”

I’m funny about smells. I love leftovers – but salad can “smell bitter” real quick. So I tested everything – the salad was still fresh, the avocado still tasted great, etc. I decided “ugly” wasn’t going to stop me from enjoying these beautiful foods! 🙂 The avocado was super fresh on my plate when I got that meal, it was just a little brown and sorta mushy this morning.

So I have browning avocado and cooked chicken that will dry out way too much if I cook it. What to do? Hmm. And I am NOT a cook. We must clarify that – often. lol.

Here’s what I did:

First, I chopped up the leftover chicken (about 1 1/2 breasts) into little “chunks”:

I did that on the same plate where the leftovers were. I put the seared squash on the tinfoil that was covering that plate, and stuck that in the oven on 450 to heat & crisp it up. Then I tossed the chicken in a bowl – and wiped off the plate (to use it again to eat off of, lol – save the dishes!!! 🙂 lol).

Next I chopped up the leftover mixed greens from my salad, in small bits like the chicken. Then I looked around, and spotted the bag of “seasoned pecans” my son brought me last night. My pecan habit is so bad I get gifted with them all the time, haha! I love that. 🙂 These are AMAZING by the way. They’re Nature’s Harvest Seasoned Pecans (and just as low carb as the plain pecans I normally eat):

So I added the chopped up (wimpy) salad greens and 1/3 cup of the seasoned pecans into the bowl with the chopped chicken breast:

Next, I went back to the take-out box. What’s left? A bit of boiled egg and that leftover avocado. Hmm. I grabbed my Duke’s mayo and added 2 Tablespoons – then mashed it all up together into a creamy egg-avocado-mayo mixture:

See? Not brown anymore! 🙂 haha

I added that to my bowl, along with two more tablespoons of Duke’s mayo:

Then I stirred it all up real good…

Bingo! I made a beautiful pecan avocado chicken salad out of my leftovers. 🙂

This was actually WAY better than I expected it to be.

I figured at best it would just make the leftovers “tolerable”. Or at worst, I was going to throw out the leftovers anyway. 😛 But it turned out amazing! It’s REALLY good. And only ONE net carb per serving – 3 carbs total.

(It made a big bowl – 4 servings for me.)

Nice save, hey? 🙂

I put it all into the MyFitnessPal Recipe Calculator of course, because that’s the only good way to properly log your meals – especially when you’re making up crazy recipes, lol. I added in “1 TBSP Ranch Dressing” in my calculations, because my original salad greens were tossed in Ranch. I “squished” most of that out when I chopped the greens, but I added it in just to be on the safe side.

Here are the ingredients:

– 2 Cups Chopped Chicken Breast
– 1 Cup Mixed Greens
– 1/3 Cup Pecan Halves (I crushed mine)
– 1 Medium Avocado
– 4 TBSP Duke’s Mayonnaise
– 1/2 Boiled Egg

You could easily add more boiled egg, use leftover chicken thighs or wings, etc. But this is a great way to use up leftover avocado that doesn’t “look pretty”, or to use up over-ripe avocado that is too soft to eat sliced. 🙂

I called it “Leftover Salad” when I made the recipe, lol. The seasoned pecans really added a nice flavor. As you can see, it’s only 1 net carb for a serving – and it was VERY filling! Avocado is a great source for potassium, and a healthy fat. The yellow squash I had on the side is also a great low carb source of potassium.

So there you have it. I hope this gives you some creative low carb “chicken salad” or “leftovers” ideas to work with in your own kitchen. 🙂 *cheers*

Best,
Lynn Terry,
aka @LowCarbTraveler