How long is chicken salad good in the fridge

Will this lunch be safe to eat by Friday? We asked the experts.

Updated on November 17, 2022

Photo: Photo: Caitlin Bensel; Food Stylist: Torie Cox

Most Southerners love good homemade chicken salad, whether on a sandwich, atop a salad, or on the end of a buttery cracker. It's tempting to stir up a big batch so that we can enjoy leftovers for a few days.

But how long is it safe to keep chicken salad on hand? The short answer is to store chicken salad in a sealed container in the fridge or cooler for no more than four days. Here's why.

How Long Does Chicken Salad Last?

Given that the main ingredient in chicken salad is cooked chicken, we can turn to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's recommendation to use cooked chicken within three to four days and to keep it at 40°F or below. FoodSafety.gov, run by the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, says the same thing.

To keep track of time, you should store homemade chicken salad in a sealed container with the date it was made marked clearly on top, and heed the freshness date on store-bought chicken salad, too.

We must blame two categories of bad bacteria when things go bad for chicken salad, not mayonnaise or luck. Spoilage bacteria cause food to deteriorate and develop unpleasant odors, tastes, and textures. Pathogenic bacteria cause foodborne illness, what most of us call food poisoning, but they generally don't affect the taste, smell, or appearance of the contaminated food. That's why we can never rely on tasting or sniffing chicken salad to determine its safety. We're taking a potentially serious risk if we guess wrong. When in doubt, throw it out.

How to Store Chicken Salad

Bad bacteria can grow rapidly in the "Danger Zone," a temperature range between 40°F and 140°F, so always transport and store chicken salad in the refrigerator or a well-chilled cooler or lunchbox.

Also, don't leave it sitting out at room temperature for longer than two hours, and even less when outdoors on a hot day or in direct sun. The clock starts ticking when the container comes out of the fridge or cooler, including time it spends in a grocery cart and the ride home from the store.

Some spoilage bacteria can grow at cold temps too, so even when carefully stored and refrigerated, toss that chicken salad after four days.

Can You Freeze Chicken Salad?

Although 32°F is well below the 40°F safety threshold, chicken salad isn't a good candidate for storing in the freezer. It usually turns watery and loses its texture when thawed, so although it might be safe to eat, it's no longer enjoyable.

Here’s all you need to know about the shelf life and spoilage of chicken salad. Learn how long chicken salad lasts, how to store it, and how to tell if it’s spoiled.

You have a bunch of leftover chicken salad, and you’re wondering how many days you have before it spoils. How long does chicken salad last?

Or perhaps you’re considering doubling your usual recipe, but you’re not sure if you’ll finish it before it goes bad or if you can freeze it.

Sounds familiar? If so, this article is for you.

Let’s jump right in.

Table of Contents

• How Long Does Chicken Salad Last?
• How To Store Chicken Salad
• Can You Freeze Chicken Salad?
• How To Tell If Chicken Salad Is Bad?
• Chicken Salad Shelf Life and Spoilage Summary

Chicken salad lasts 3 to 4 days if you keep it refrigerated and in a sealed container. And if it’s unrefrigerated for longer than two hours, it’s not safe to eat anymore, and you should discard it.

That’s the time that it stays safe for. The second issue is how long the salad retains good quality, and it all depends on the ingredients.

If it’s a mayo-based chicken salad, it’ll likely taste quite alright for the whole period. But if the dressing is oil-based (e.g., vinaigrette), the salad’s quality after 3 to 4 days might not be nearly as good as it was right after mixing all the ingredients together.

If it’s a salad with high moisture content, the veggies might wilt and lose their crunch after a couple of days. For some people, those qualities are important; for others, not so much.

Finally, if your chicken salad includes any ingredients that rapidly lose quality, it might be good for only a day or two. The same is true for tuna salad, pasta salad, and others.

Related: How long does pasta salad last in the fridge?

Tip

If you’re not okay with eating a soggy chicken salad with soft veggies, try to finish yours within two to three days for the best quality.

How Long Can Chicken Salad Sit Out?

You should discard your chicken salad if it sits out for more than two hours. If it’s a hot summer day and the temperature is above 90°F (32°C), that period is cut in half to about an hour.

That’s because bacteria multiply rapidly in temperatures between 40°F (4°C) and 140°F (60°C), also known as the danger zone. And after the mentioned period, the bacteria levels could get to the point they can cause illness.

Now, say you want to bring that salad with you on a picnic. There are two ways you can go about that.

First, you can use a portable fridge. If you’re going on picnics often, you could get a lot of mileage out of one.

The second one is to simply eat the salad within two hours of prepping it or taking it from the refrigerator. In this case, you discard any leftovers because they weren’t properly refrigerated and sat outside for way more than two hours.

How To Store Chicken Salad

Your chicken salad should sit in the fridge, sealed tightly in an airtight container. If yours is store-bought, and you can’t reseal it easily, transfer any leftovers into a food container and refrigerate.

If your salad contains lots of greens (like lettuce, spinach, or kale), use a bigger container and avoid squeezing in as much as you can into a single one. This way, the veggies won’t wilt as quickly and will retain quality for longer.

As usual, if you’re not going to finish the contents of a container in one go, always use clean tools when serving the salad, and never double-dip. By following this rule, you avoid microbial contamination that might cause the chicken salad to grow mold prematurely.

What if those couple of days in the fridge aren’t long enough for you? Is freezing chicken salad your way out?

Can You Freeze Chicken Salad?

Unfortunately, freezing chicken salad isn’t a good idea in most cases. The thawed chicken salad won’t look or taste nearly as good as a fresh one. It will be safe to eat, obviously, but its quality really suffers in the process.

When it comes to freezing this salad, here’s what’s likely to go sideways:

• if it includes mayo or a dairy-based dressing, it will separate
• egg whites will turn rubbery
• most veggies will turn limp and release extra water – you will end up with a soggy chicken salad
• if there are any fruit pieces, most of them will undergo a similar process to veggies, which means even more sogginess and no crunch

As you can tell, there’s not much good that can come out of freezing a chicken salad that you whipped or bought.

The good news is that cooked grains (e.g., rice or quinoa) and cooked chicken freeze well. You can take advantage of this by prepping more grains or chicken than needed (e.g., twice as much) and freezing the extra.

This way, when you want to make the salad, you thaw the chicken and grains, and prep only the veggies, fruits, and dressing. That speeds things up at least a bit, plus the salad you end up with is actually tasty.

How To Tell If Chicken Salad Is Bad?

Discard your chicken salad if:

• There’s mold on the surface. If you see any fuzzy action, throw out all of the leftovers. The same applies if it looks off in any other way.
• The salad smells funny. If your nose says that salad is no good, get rid of it right away without tasting it.
• It sits in the fridge for too long. If the salad is in the refrigerator for like 6 or 7 days already, just ditch it. It might still be okay to eat, but you never know.
• It tastes off. If everything up to this point seems okay, give that salad a taste. If you notice that something isn’t quite right, it’s time for that dish to go.

Besides the above, pay attention to the moisture that tends to gather on the bottom of the container. That’s especially true for salads with an oil-based dressing.

If there’s lots of water, and that salad already sits in the fridge for like 4 days, consider discarding it for safety reasons. That liquid is a great place for any bacteria to grow and multiply, and consuming that might not be the smartest thing to do.

Tip

If your salad gets watery quickly, consider storing it without the dressing and storing the salad dressing separately. Or whipping a new portion of the dressing anytime you want to eat the salad, if feasible. This way, that salad might retain quality and safety for longer.

Last but not least: when in doubt, throw it out.

Chicken Salad Shelf Life and Spoilage Summary

Thank you for reading this short guide on chicken salad. Let’s recap what we’ve talked about above:

• How long does chicken salad last? Chicken salad lasts 3 to 4 days tightly sealed in the refrigerator. If you leave it outside at room temperature, it’s no longer safe to eat after only two hours.
• How to store chicken salad? Make sure the salad is refrigerated and sealed in a container or tightly covered with aluminum foil or plastic wrap. Freezing isn’t a good idea because the veggies will soften, and the dressing most likely separate.
• When is chicken salad bad? Toss chicken salad that’s moldy, smells funny, or sits in the fridge for more than 4, maybe 5 days.