herby chicken salad

guest chef Sheryl O'Connell shares her summery fresh take on a classic

Jul 26, 2026

I realized recently that although I make chicken salad throughout the summer from the weekly roast chicken and bone broth I make, I have never actually shared a chicken salad recipe with you!

This chicken salad is so good and combines so many herbs that grow abundantly this time of year that I thought it was too good not to share.

I had a chat with the creator of this amazing salad this morning (she lives in Canada and I am in California so we talked by phone) and she agreed to let me share it today with all of you!

Sheryl O'Connell is the writer behind Just Really Good Recipes, a Substack built around globally inspired, genuinely doable home cooking — the kind of Mediterranean, Middle Eastern, and Asian flavors that make weeknight dinners feel a little less predictable.

What started as something small and personal has grown into a community of home cooks in more than 90 countries — and once you hear where it began, you’ll understand exactly why people keep coming back.

I’m so happy to introduce you to Sheryl and her herby chicken salad here today.🧡

join me in my metabolic kitchen

meet Sheryl O’Connell

Beth Your Substack started as a way to send your son a taste of home when he moved away for college — what was the first recipe you wrote down for him, and does he still make it?

Sheryl The first recipe was also the first recipe I published on Substack. It is a Middle Eastern chicken bowl. It is more of a blueprint than a strict recipe and comes together in under 20 minutes, which makes it perfect for a student. He has recently married, and now he and his wife make it regularly. That makes me ridiculously happy.

Beth You describe yourself as a self-taught cook pulling from chefs, friends’ kitchens, travel, and pure curiosity. Is there one dish or one kitchen that changed how you cook, permanently?

Sheryl There wasn’t one restaurant or one chef (I have quite a long list of chefs I adore). It was the accumulation of watching food television, friends, travel and reading cookbooks endlessly the way other people read novels. Somewhere along the way I stopped worrying about whether a recipe was “authentic” and started asking whether my family would love it. It became less about authenticity and more about flavour.

That completely changed the way I cook. I have always believed that if you can read, you can feed yourself and your family well.

Sheryl O’Connell of Just Really Good Recipes

Beth “Just really good recipes” spans Mediterranean, Middle Eastern, and Asian flavors, often “inspired by” rather than strictly traditional. How do you decide when a dish is ready to share versus still evolving?

Sheryl I know a recipe is ready to share when my family ask for it again. My family is my test kitchen, they are not at all shy to tell me when something has not hit the mark! I have a very global repertoire that often circles back to the Mediterranean and Middle East because my family love the fresh flavours and spices of those regions.

I almost always use the word “inspired” in my recipes because I am conscious that I am borrowing ideas from other cultures and I want to honour the fact that many regions have their own version of a dish. Mine is just another version.

Beth Your herby chicken salad feels like something people will make on repeat — what makes a recipe “repeat-worthy” to you?

Sheryl If my family love a recipe, it is a keeper. I cook a lot so “repeat-worthy” often changes with the seasons. I like to cook when ingredients are at their best. A recipe also has to earn its place. I love meals that stretch into great leftovers or can be reinvented into something completely different over the next few days. I don’t think good home cooking should create more work, it should make life easier.

That is exactly what I have been teaching my son and his new wife. They have busy lives, and cooking should be something they look forward to, not another chore.

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Sheryl’s kitchen is full of globally inspired, genuinely doable meals for home cooks who want dinner to feel a little less predictable. I’ve loved getting to know her work and I think you will too.

herby chicken salad

makes 4-6 servings

Blender, large mixing bowl, cutting board, sharp knife, measuring cups and spoons

chicken salad

3-4 cups finely shredded/chopped cooked chicken (rotisserie chicken works well too)

1-2 Persian cucumbers, diced

1 shallot, finely diced

1 celery stalk, finely chopped

2 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped

2 tbsp fresh dill, chopped

2 tbsp fresh basil, chopped

Optional add-ins:

½ Granny Smith apple, finely chopped (optional)

1 tbsp hemp hearts

1 tbsp chopped walnuts

1 jalapeño (seeds removed), finely chopped

herby green dressing

1 cup Greek or Skyr style yogurt (vegan yogurt works perfectly too)

1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

A handful of chives or 4 green onions, roughly chopped

¼ cup dill, packed

⅓ cup Italian parsley, packed

½ cup basil, packed

1 lemon, juiced

2-3 cloves garlic (I use 3)

1 tsp sea salt, plus more to taste

½ tsp white pepper (use black pepper if you prefer)

Optional add-ins:

1-2 tbsp mayonnaise (use a good quality avocado oil mayo)

½ cup cottage cheese for a thicker dressing

Make the dressing. Add all of the dressing ingredients to a blender and blend until smooth. Add water one tablespoon at a time if needed.
In a large bowl, combine the chicken, cucumber, shallot, celery, parsley, dill and basil.
Taste and add salt if needed.
Pour dressing over the salad and mix well. I presented the salad with a bit more sauce on top. The herby vivid green is beautiful.

Store any extra dressing in the fridge for up to 4 days. This dressing would work beautifully over pasta, or rice, lentils or as a dressing for your favourite salad.

Serve in low carb pitas, in a lettuce wrap (I use Boston Lettuce), on chia seed crackers or enjoy as is on a bed of mixed greens.

This chicken salad is a great example of protein done well: real, complete protein from chicken and Greek or Skyr yogurt, both anchoring the meal and helping you feel satisfied well past lunchtime. The herbs aren’t just flavor here, either: parsley, dill, and basil all carry real polyphenols and antioxidants, and fresh herbs in this quantity add up to more micronutrient density than people usually give them credit for.

One of my favorite ways to make this salad my own: I love adding a little extra hemp hearts. They’re one of the few plant foods that qualify as a genuinely complete protein, carrying all nine essential amino acids alongside a real dose of magnesium and omega-3 fatty acids, and they’re mild and slightly nutty, so they blend right in without changing the flavor Sheryl has built here. If you want to round things out even further, a couple of tablespoons is a lovely addition.

This is exactly the kind of small, flexible touch I love about a recipe like this one, it’s already a beautifully balanced dish, and it’s easy to layer in a little extra plant protein if that’s something you’re focused on too.

Together, we’re building a community focused on real food and metabolic health. If you enjoyed this post, please “like” and “restack” to help others find their way to better health, too!

P.S. This recipe leans on a whole roast chicken (something I make weekly!) so it felt like the right moment to point you to my conversation with Steve Sabicer on regenerative farming. He made the case that chicken is one of the easiest, most noticeable places to start sourcing better meat — and he shares some great sources for regeneratively raised meats. Read it here: regenerative farming, explained

P.P.S. Since this salad starts with a batch of cooked chicken, here are two of my go-to ways to get there:

Roast chicken and bone broth is exactly what I use to make this salad — one chicken gets you dinner, broth and the shredded chicken for this recipe.
Spatchcocked chicken is one more delicious way to get there — it cooks faster and gets you extra-crispy skin.