Recipe | Chicken Salad with Farro

Since we’re still dealing with triple digit temperatures here in the Central Valley, we’re also still trying to keep our cooking to a minimum and use stove and oven as sparingly as possible. J and I both are fans of chicken salad but have usually just made it as chicken salad sandwiches with oven fries. To lighten up the meal, I suggested we could just spruce up the chicken salad with extra veggies and grains to make it a bowl meal. What a fantastic idea, am I right?

I found Farro at Trader Joe’s and knew that I wanted to try and use it and I thought it would be perfect to add to the chicken salad as a whole grain base. It cooks quickly and can also be cooked in advance and then kept in the fridge for later use.

What is Farro?

Farro, also called emmer wheat or Zweikorn, is an ancient whole grain that is rich in fiber, protein, and minerals. It also has a lower glycemic index as white rice and is, therefore, a great substitute for white rice or other refined grains. 

I got a roasted chicken (discarded most of the skin) and diced up onions, celery, and a bell pepper. I also added shredded carrots.

For a lighter dressing, I used mostly greek yogurt, a little bit of mayo and mustard and spices.

It’s a super-easy, super-quick weeknight dinner and it’s a tasty and very satisfying meal. The celery and bell pepper give it a nice crunch and the yogurt-based dressing keeps it light.

What do you think? Wouldn’t you want you to give this a try?

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  1. This sounds so good! I have never tried farro before but now I want to! I love using a rotisserie chicken for stuff like this. Saves cooking time for sure!

  2. This sounds like a good summer meal. I would just have to leave out the farro or replace it with a different gluten free grain or chickpeas or something like that. I love substituting greek yogurt for mayo – I really can’t taste the difference!

    I hope you get a break in the heat soon. I can’t imagine how tired you are of 100+ degree temps. We usually have really hot, humid Augusts but this month has not been bad and it’s actually been pretty fall-like for the last week or so.

    1. Oh, true, you’d have to find something else than farro… obviously you can also make the chicken salad without the grain and just add extra veggies ;) I love a yogurt-based dressing too… it’s so much lighter than just with mayo!

  3. That chicken salad looks yummy!

    1. You should give it a try – it’s yummy!

  4. This looks so good! I am going to have to try it! Yum!

  5. Looks SO yummy! I’ll need to try and make this once C has more teeth in his mouth so he can easily munch on all this yumminess!

    Side note: We used to get everything non-fat or low-fat. Now we mostly get things like milk or cheeses in full fat because C needs whole fat for growing. I really hope it doesn’t affect our health negatively!

    1. Oh, I think full-fat is actually fine…. I am usually a proponent of using full-fat versions of everything. Non-fat and low-fat often have more sugar and that counteracts the reduction in fat.

  6. Hey San,
    This sounds interesting. Haven’t heard of Farro but I guess one can find it Germany somewhere. I’ll keep keep my eyes open but I guess I could make this salad with pearl barley too.
    Have a great day, Tobia

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