From the YummyYucky team, founded by Nancy Nash

Can Babies Eat Chicken Salad? From 12 Months, Homemade

Chicken salad works for a toddler from about 12 months, best made at home with the chicken shredded fine, grapes quartered lengthwise, raw celery left out and no nuts. The mayo makes it an egg food, typical versions are salty, and the CDC names premade deli salads among the foods that can carry Listeria, so keep it cold and lean on your own bowl. Before 12 months, shredded chicken mashed with plain yogurt or avocado gives your baby the same idea.

When to introduce

From about 12 months, made at home with the chicken shredded fine; whole or chopped nuts not before about age 5

Common allergen?

Yes: egg, from the mayonnaise. Some deli versions also add bread crumbs (wheat) or sour cream or cheese (milk), and styles like cranberry pecan or Sonoma add tree nuts such as pecans, almonds or walnuts, so read the label.

Texture

Chicken shredded fine or minced and kept moist, grapes quartered lengthwise, raw celery left out or shaved paper-thin, and no nuts.

Key nutrients

Protein from the chicken, fat from the mayo, and a lot more salt than plain chicken: USDA lists 484 mg sodium per 100 g, against 86 mg for plain roasted chicken.

Yes, your toddler can have chicken salad, and it is one of the easier ways to get chicken into a one-year-old: soft, moist, and already mixed with something creamy. Plain chicken can start around 6 months, when solids do.¹⁴ The salad part is what waits. Chicken salad is cooked chicken folded into mayonnaise, usually with celery, and often with grapes, dried cranberries or pecans, and almost every add-in on that list has a catch for a small eater. The mayo makes it an egg food. Large chunks of meat, hard raw vegetables, uncut grapes, dried fruit, and whole or chopped nuts are all on the CDC choking list.¹ And typical chicken salad carries 484 mg of sodium per 100 g, more than the whole day's 370 mg adequate intake for a baby 7 to 12 months old, which is a big part of why it waits until about 12 months.¹¹¹² So here is the plan. From about 12 months, make it at home, with the chicken shredded fine, the grapes quartered lengthwise, the raw celery left out and the nuts saved for later. Before that, your baby can have the same idea without the mayo: shredded chicken mashed with plain yogurt or avocado.

Prep School: how to prepare chicken salad for baby-led weaning (BLW) and purées

Is chicken salad safe? Choking & prep

Most of what can go wrong with chicken salad lives in the add-ins, so take them one at a time. Choking comes first. The CDC lists tough or large chunks of meat, pieces of hard raw vegetables, uncut grapes, uncooked dried fruit, and whole or chopped nuts and seeds among the foods to avoid for young children, and one scoop of deli chicken salad can hold most of that list.¹ The AAP advice is to cut food for young children into pieces no larger than one-half inch, and it says round, firm foods like grapes can be served if completely chopped into tiny pieces.² So shred or mince the chicken and keep it moist, quarter grapes lengthwise, and leave raw celery out or shave it paper-thin with the strings pulled off. Leave the nuts and dried cranberries out completely: the NHS says whole nuts should not be given to children under 5, and the CDC list includes chopped nuts too.³¹ Keep your toddler sitting up and watch them the whole time they eat.¹ Egg is next. Mayonnaise is made with egg, so chicken salad is an egg food, and every classic deli chicken salad label we checked listed egg. The CDC advice is to introduce potentially allergenic foods like egg when you introduce other foods.¹⁴ If egg is new for your baby, offer it on its own first as a well-cooked egg, and once it goes well, keep it part of your baby's usual diet.¹³⁶ If your baby has severe eczema or a known food allergy, talk to your pediatrician before introducing egg.¹³ Use store-bought mayo: the FDA notes that commercial mayonnaise is made with pasteurized eggs, and the CDC counts foods made with raw or undercooked egg as a riskier choice for children under 5, with pasteurized eggs the safer choice in anything that will not be cooked, such as a dressing.⁷⁶ After a new allergen, watch for about two hours. Call 911 (or your local emergency number) right away if any of these show up soon after a food, on their own or together: swelling of the lips, face, eyes, or tongue; swelling or tightness in the throat, or trouble swallowing; vomiting; hives that spread beyond the mouth and face; trouble breathing, noisy breathing, or wheezing; a cough that keeps going; a hoarse voice; skin or lips that turn pale or blue; or a baby who goes floppy or limp, or is suddenly sleepy or hard to wake. If the only sign is a new rash or a few hives around the mouth or face, stop the food, watch your baby closely, and call your pediatrician. If anything else about your baby worries you, call 911.¹⁵¹⁶¹⁷ Then there is the deli counter. The CDC names chicken salad among the deli salads that can be contaminated with Listeria, and refrigeration does not kill it.⁴ The CDC's higher-risk groups for Listeria are pregnant women, newborns, people 65 or older and people with a weakened immune system, and for them it calls homemade deli salads the safer choice over premade ones.⁵ Healthy toddlers are not on that list, but the CDC does say young children have a higher risk of food poisoning, so homemade is the better everyday pick and a deli tub is a fresh, occasional one.⁶ Either way, keep it cold. The FDA says cold food like chicken salad should not sit out for more than 2 hours, or 1 hour when it is above 90°F.⁸ Last is salt. USDA lists chicken salad made with mayonnaise at 484 mg of sodium per 100 g, against 86 mg in plain roasted chicken.¹¹ The National Academies set a day's adequate intake of 800 mg for ages 1 to 3, so 100 g of chicken salad is more than half of it.¹² The CDC advises avoiding foods high in salt for young children, so make your own with unsalted chicken and keep portions small.¹⁰

Nutrition

USDA's own recipe for chicken salad is rotisserie chicken, mayonnaise, celery, sweet pickle relish and salt, and its numbers show what the extras do.¹¹ Per 100 g, that chicken salad has 13.9 g of protein and 484 mg of sodium, where plain roasted chicken has 28.9 g of protein and 86 mg of sodium.¹¹ So the protein is real, and the chicken is doing all of that work. Three easy swaps keep the good part and shrink the rest. Cook the chicken yourself without salt, since USDA lists rotisserie chicken at 345 mg of sodium per 100 g.¹¹ Skip the sweet relish. And make some of the creamy part plain yogurt or mashed avocado. Most deli chicken salads also list sugar or corn syrup, mostly in the dressing, and making your own lets you leave it out; the CDC says infants and young children should not have added sugars.¹⁰ For a toddler who is not sure about it, start from what they already like. If plain chicken and yogurt are hits, mash them together first, then work in a little mayo and a few quartered grapes for a sweet bite. Spread on soft toast, it becomes a sandwich they can hold.

Goes well with

Grapes, quartered lengthwise · Avocado, mashed · Plain whole-milk yogurt · Soft toast fingers · Cucumber, peeled and finely grated · Sweet potato, roasted soft

Storage & freezing

Keep chicken salad in the fridge at 40°F or below, and put it back as soon as the meal is over. Homemade chicken salad keeps 1 day in the fridge,¹⁸ and the FDA says not to freeze it.⁹ Refrigeration does not kill Listeria, so for a toddler, make small batches, buy deli tubs fresh, and stay well inside the date on the pack. At a picnic, set it on ice, and once it has been out 2 hours (1 hour above 90°F), it goes in the trash. Throw out anything your toddler has gummed or left on the tray.

Introducing this allergen

• How to introduce chicken salad safely →
• Introducing the big 9 allergens →
• Signs of a food allergy in babies →

Related reading

• Chicken for babies →
• Mayonnaise for babies →
• Grapes for babies →
• Celery for babies →
• Whole nuts for babies →
• Deli meat for babies →

Common questions

Sources

1. CDC, Choking Hazards (Infant and Toddler Nutrition)
2. AAP HealthyChildren, Choking Prevention
3. NHS, Foods to avoid giving babies and young children (whole nuts under 5, salt)
4. CDC, How Listeria Spreads: Deli Foods and Prepared Meats (deli salads, including chicken salad)
5. CDC, Preventing Listeria Infection (higher-risk groups; homemade deli salads as the safer choice)
6. CDC, Safer Food Choices for Children Under 5 Years Old
7. FDA, Dairy and Eggs: Food Safety for Moms to Be (commercial mayonnaise contains pasteurized eggs)
8. FDA, Handling Food Safely While Eating Outdoors (2 hours, or 1 hour above 90°F; chicken salad on ice)
9. FDA, Refrigerator and Freezer Storage Chart (store-prepared or homemade chicken salads: don't freeze)
10. CDC, Foods and Drinks to Avoid or Limit (high-sodium foods, added sugars)
11. USDA FoodData Central, per 100 g: chicken or turkey salad, made with mayonnaise (FNDDS 2706799) 484 mg sodium, 13.9 g protein, 18.8 g fat, recipe of rotisserie chicken, mayonnaise, celery, sweet pickle relish and salt; chicken, broilers or fryers, meat only, cooked, roasted (SR Legacy 171054) 86 mg sodium, 28.9 g protein, 7.41 g fat; chicken, NS as to part, rotisserie, skin not eaten (FNDDS 2705937) 345 mg sodium
12. National Academies (NASEM), Dietary Reference Intakes for Sodium and Potassium (2019), Table S-2: sodium adequate intake 370 mg a day at 7 to 12 months, 800 mg at 1 to 3 years
13. NHS, Food allergies in babies and young children
14. CDC, When, What, and How to Introduce Solid Foods
15. NIAID Addendum Guidelines, Appendix D: Instructions for Home Feeding of Peanut Protein
16. ASCIA: Anaphylaxis
17. NHS: Anaphylaxis
18. FoodSafety.gov: Children Under Five, Safe Storage of Puréed and Solid Baby Food (strained meats and eggs: 1 day refrigerated, 1 to 2 months frozen)

Further reading

• American Academy of Pediatrics (HealthyChildren.org): Starting Solid Foods
• CDC: Infant and Toddler Nutrition

Last updated September 2026. Next review December 2026. How we write these: built from current published guidance from the AAP, CDC, FDA/EPA, NIAID, WHO, and other pediatric and public-health authorities, with sources cited on the page. See our editorial and medical policy for how we research, source, and update these, and how we double-check the food advice.

This is general information, not medical advice, and is not individualized for your baby. Always talk to your pediatrician about your baby's diet, introducing allergens, and any reaction. In an emergency, contact emergency services.

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