Trader Joe's Wine Country Chicken Salad

While at the grocery store one afternoon, they happened to be sampling the Trader Joe's Wine Country Chicken Salad. I'm a fan of chicken salad, but after experimenting with the reduced fat chicken salad I decided to give it a whirl with the real thing ... and I'm glad that I did.

I'm pretty finicky when it comes to chicken salads, so I was pretty surprised with how much I enjoyed this one. The salad itself is chalk full of chunks of white meat chicken, pecan pieces, celery, poppy seeds and cranberries. The dressing that is used is sweeter but not so sweet that it's overwhelming. All the flavors blend together nicely and make for a perfect little dish, especially on a hot day where no one really wants to spend time in the kitchen.

Consistency wise, this is a looser chicken salad. The dressing is runnier, but it's not so runny that it's a sloppy mess. I found I enjoyed this the best over a bed of garden salad. The dressing on the chicken alone was enough where I didn't need any added salad dressing.

I will say, out of the serving that I had I only found one small piece of cartilage on the chicken (which unfortunately, is pretty common with chicken salad or even grilled chicken out at a restaurant). The piece was really small and was the only piece in the entire container, so I can't knock anyone down for points on that one. Overall, I quite enjoyed this and found the cranberries and pecan pieces to be a home run regarding flavor.

A serving, 4 ounces (113g), is 230 calories or 6 points plus values.

Trader Joe's Reduced Guilt White Meat Chicken Salad

Chicken salad is one of those meals that I've grown to love. It's simple, it's easy and it's perfect to have all year round (especially in the summer months). I've always checked out the chicken salads at Trader Joe's because they look delicious and I am a fan of their curry chicken salad. So, needless to say when I spotted the new Trader Joe's Reduced Guilt White Meat Chicken Salad I nearly jumped for joy and popped a container in my shopping cart without even batting an eye at the ingredient label.


I was excited because it was a pre-packaged chicken salad that wasn't loaded with a ton of fat and unnecessary calories. I portioned out 3 meals from the container (two for lunches and one as a late night dinner). I layered the chicken salad onto a tortilla, added a little lettuce and wrapped it up. I took a bite ... and was immediately heart broken.


This chicken salad contains no mayonnaise! The dish consists of grilled chicken, celery, carrots and onions which are mixed with low fat Greek yogurt and spices. Even with all that, unfortunately, the Greek yogurt gives the salad a very tart flavor. It's very plain tasting on the flavor scale. I added some salt and pepper to it to hope to give it some pizazz but it fell short. Sure, it's creamy, but it's missing that classic tang you get from mayo. Admittedly, when I make chicken salad at home, I don't use a lot of mayonnaise and I tend to cut it with yogurt ...but I just can't jump on the yogurt as a mayonnaise substitute in a dish where mayo is one of the main ingredients. I tried adding a tablespoon of light mayo to it and mixing it in but the tartness from the yogurt just overpowered it.


I was just not a fan at all and ended up tossing the container. Which I have to admit was kind of cringe worthy because a container is nearly $5. I'll stick to my homemade chicken salad that takes a little time to prep but is on point in the flavor category.


A serving, 1/2 cup (or 99g) is 100 calories or 2 points plus values.