Every Chicken Salad Chick Flavor, Ranked

Time to meet the ladies of Chicken Salad Chick. First up is obviously the leading lady of the chain, Stacy Brown. She founded the business with her husband in 2008 and has grown it into a 350-location franchise focused on just one product, and one product only: chicken salad.

It's a simple concept, yet it's anything but boring. There's a whole lot of personality pumped into this place, and that's made evident by the personas given to each of its chicken salad flavors. Each one takes after a real woman in Brown's life and comes with its own backstory. That means you end up with scoops like Fruity Fran, Sassy Scotty, and Fancy Nancy rather than plain old menu descriptions. So, which came first: the chicken salad or the Chicken Salad Chick? Well, the answer is obviously chicken salad. The chain can't exactly claim its invention, but it can take some responsibility for breathing new life into a classic dish.

Recently, I became very well acquainted with all the chicks of Chicken Salad Chick. I tried all 13 of the chain's chicken salad flavors, along with its two pimento cheese varieties, to find the very best of the flock. Let's jump right into the final pecking order.

Fran and I didn't get along. She's not a liar, though. I will say that. She's absolutely fruity, just not in a way that I found particularly appealing. She packs grapes, Fuji apples, and pineapple into Chicken Salad Chick's standard chicken salad mix (by the way, get ready to hear the word chicken a lot in this taste test). It sounds like a fresh and flavorful combination, but I think I would have rather had a fruit salad on the side than stirred into my shredded chicken and mayo.

It's really the pineapple, I think, that sends it over the edge. I can make my peace with pineapple on pizza. But here, its sweet flavor is domineering, and its juices make the entire scoop soggy. The other fruits work great with poultry-packed salad. The apple chunks remained crisp, and the taste of the grapes — both red and green — worked really well with the chicken. My only issue with the grapes is that they're whole and they're absolutely massive. I would have preferred them at least cut in half to make them easier to eat.

Oh, Carol. I feel terrible placing you so low in the rankings, seeing as you're the foundation for all other flavors. This entire chicken salad roost wouldn't exist without you, and I thank you for your service. However, what is classic can also be seen as boring. And unfortunately, Classic Carol is bordering on Commonplace Carol. That's not to say the recipe isn't quality. By grocery store chicken salad standards, she'd be up there with the best of them. She's made up of shredded chicken (and plenty of it), celery, mayonnaise, and a secret seasoning blend. Simple, but solid.

Carol's online profile describes her as "warm, familiar, and approachable," all of which are true. But she's also missing a great deal of personality. The chicken salad is meat-forward, with a touch of creaminess and what tastes like a hint of garlic, but the flavor could still use some zhuzhing up. I could hardly even notice the celery, which is really the one important add-in here. So yes, she's dependable, and the scoop holds up better when it's not dripping in pineapple juices. She just gets lost in the flock among the more flavorful recipes.

Dixie Chick heard that Carol needed a flavor boost, and an onion-shaped light bulb went off above her head. That is the only ingredient change between these two gals, and phew-ee does it make a heck of a difference.

You can smell this scoop coming from a mile away. I think the chain opted for the most potent raw onions it could find, chopped them up, and packed plenty of them into its proprietary chicken salad blend. Dixie is definitely not lacking in the flavor department, and that's ultimately why she stands ahead of Carol in my rankings. What she is lacking, though, is a little taste diversity. Those strong allium notes were about all my taste buds could focus on, and after a few bites, they do start to become a little much. You're going to want to chew some gum after eating this one, lest that onion breath linger for the rest of the day — maybe even into tomorrow.

From what I can see, the pimento cheese flavors don't come to life with their own cheeky characters. So, I guess that means I'll be making one up for them. I imagine this one as a Southern belle who appreciates the simpler things in life. She doesn't believe in doing more than what's necessary, and that's exactly the approach this pimento cheese spread takes. It's mostly shredded cheddar and pepper jack cheeses, dotted with red bits of pimento peppers, and that seems to be about it.

Just by looking at it, you can tell it's almost entirely shredded cheese. Just a ball of shredded cheese. And while I'm always on board for cheese of any kind, I found this one to be a bit of a letdown. I did like that there was a decent amount of chopped pimento peppers thrown in, each adding a little burst of juicy sweetness. But it's missing the creaminess factor that I usually love so much in a pimento dip. The addition of mayo or cream cheese would have helped to bind everything together. Plus, without a stronger kick from the pepper jack, it's all-around less flavorful than I was expecting.

Barclay is a saucy little thing with a fire and confidence that's said to be hard to ignore. I like that about her, and I like the idea behind this chicken salad flavor. Blending Buffalo sauce into a classic chicken salad like Carol sounds awfully close to another favorite food of mine: Buffalo chicken dip. To my delight, the two do share very similar flavors. But to my dismay, Chicken Salad Chick's version is a bit weak in terms of both flavor and spice.

The Buffalo flavoring in question tastes like something that could be poured straight from a bottle of Frank's RedHot — a very familiar kind of Buffalo wings hot sauce. I just would have liked much more of it joining the shredded chicken and mayonnaise mixture. I also felt that it needed something else, like some shredded cheese perhaps (maybe it could borrow some from the pimento) or even some celery bits to give it some crunch. As is, Barclay is certainly stomach-able but more "easy to forget" than "hard to ignore".

Our Southern belle gets some pep in her step and climbs up on her horse for a wild adventure. Yes, this pimento cheese spread still contains all the same ingredients as before. The cheddar cheese, pepper jack cheese, and pimento peppers didn't go anywhere. That also means many of those same issues are still present — namely, the exclusion of a creamy component and an overload of pure shredded cheese. But the addition of pickled jalapeños makes a huge difference in the flavor.

Not only do the jalapeños add a hefty amount of spice — far more than I got from the Buffalo chicken salad — they also bring a vinegary tang to the entire scoop. Balanced out by the sweetness of the pimento peppers, suddenly you have a much more appealing amalgamation of flavors, and less of the focus is on that pile of cheese shreds. This Southern lady is growing up and learning a thing or two about stepping out of her comfort zone.

I didn't find Scotty to be all that sassy. Quite the opposite, actually. This feels like the quintessential comfort food scoop of chicken salad. It's loaded up with every Midwesterner's favorite combination of ingredients: ranch, bacon, and cheddar cheese. It's essentially the Chicken Bacon Rancher of chicken salads, and I'm sure that description alone will be enough to sell plenty of people on it. For me, though, it was just okay.

The ranch flavor wasn't nearly as strong as I expected, though I actually appreciated that its addition to an already mayo-based mixture didn't make the medley overly wet. I had no complaints about the cheese spread haphazardly throughout the scoop, though I can't say the same about the bacon. The bits were chewy, some surprisingly large, and gave me more of a bagged bacon-bit experience than the freshly cooked one I was hoping for.

This new flavor rolled into town straight off the Honky Tonk Highway. And if you thought the Buffalo Barclay or the Jalapeño Pimento Cheese were spicy, then you're in for a rude awakening with this Nashville Hottie scoop. On a scale from one to 10, I'd give it a searing seven or eight. Even my husband, who is usually pretty spice-tolerant, was raising his eyebrows at this heat. It's not just heat for heat's sake, though. 

There are some really good flavors underneath all that fire. The first thing that hits you is a smoky cayenne pepper flavor — the backbone of anything Nashville hot — and I even thought it tasted a bit like chili powder. There are also tiny pickle bits sprinkled throughout, and the neutral taste of the shredded chicken and mayo helps cool everything off — at least a bit. I definitely think this is going to be a polarizing flavor, which is why I have it ranked a little lower. Even I'm not sure I could handle an entire scoop in one sitting. But if you're a daredevil spice lover who can handle your lunch with a side of sweat, then this is 100% for you.

I thought it was strange at first to combine chicken salad with barbecue sauce. I've never added a condiment to my chicken salad before, and if I did, it would probably be some kind of mustard, not BBQ. I'll also admit that this scoop is not the most aesthetically pleasing, coming out to a questionable pink color, similar to canned tuna.

Clearly, I didn't have high hopes here. But against all odds, Barbie-Q turned out pretty good. Think of a pulled BBQ chicken sandwich, but dialed way down instead of being drenched in sauce. You get just a sweet little kiss of that hickory-smoked flavor, while the rest remains creamy, with plenty of shredded chicken in every bite. It has that down-home, mom's cookin' kind of appeal to it, similar to Sassy Scotty's. Not the absolute best chicken salad I've ever scooped up, but one that quietly won me over.

Ooh, she's a little fancy. Not fancy like Fancy Nancy — we'll get to her later. But fancy in a sense that it's a little more sophisticated than chicken salad pumped full of barbecue sauce or bacon bits. It's more crumpets and tea than wings and beer. As its name would suggest, the two main ingredients of Lauryn's creation are basil and lemon in the form of lemon pepper. Then, she also sneaks in pecan pieces for a toasty crunch. 

The zesty notes are admittedly a bit muted when paired with the shredded chicken and everything else, but the basil certainly isn't. The herb is front and center, giving each taste a fresh feel — almost like a green salad rather than a mayo-based one. I also loved the texture the nuts brought to the mix. My only other small note — besides wishing for a stronger lemon flavor — was that this scoop felt a little drier than some of the others. Fix those two small issues, though, and this is a top-notch chicken salad.

If you want fruit in your chicken salad, skip Fruity Fran and go straight for Fancy Nancy. She keeps things high class with both Fuji apples and grapes just like Fran. But she ditches the pineapple in favor of pecan pieces instead — what a wise woman. This chicken salad holds up much better without pineapple juices seeping through the entire scoop. 

The apples and grapes keep their integrity throughout the mix, adding a satisfying crunch and sweetness. Then, it's the nuts that really make it. They're chopped into pretty small bits, so they do add texture, but what's even better is their flavor, which can be tasted in every bite. It's rich and gives everything a maple-like finish. If I had to pick out one flaw with this elegant lady, it's that her grapes are also whole and not cut down. This makes it difficult to get a good bite with everything in it. Other than this minor detail, I'm a big fan of her work.

I'm in a real pickled jalapeño phase right now. So, that could explain some of my obsession with Holly. However, I'll stand by this chicken salad as one of the best that Chicken Salad Chick offers. Compared to some of these other jam-packed scoops, this one does seem pretty simple. She turns her attention to pickled jalapeños, and that's it. But that's also the beauty of it. It doesn't have to be overly complicated, because the jalapeños provide both a briny bite and the spice levels of a fresh pepper to elevate the chicken. There's great flavor, and it will also clear out your sinuses.

I will warn that it does lean a bit salty, probably from the pickling process. So, watch out for that. It was the only reason this spicy chick didn't crack into the top three.

We're starting to get into the thick of chicken salads that I thoroughly enjoyed, which makes it increasingly difficult to rank each one. Kickin' Kay Lynne, for example, is a perfectly lovely lady. Yet, I had to place her behind two others for the simple fact that I liked them just a smidge more. Kay Lynne actually combines bits and pieces from scoops that we've already covered. The blend includes Buffalo, ranch, bacon, cheddar, jalapeños, and sriracha. 

It's the kind of ingredient lineup that would have Classic Carol's feathers thoroughly ruffled. There's a lot going on, but somehow, it all comes together really nicely. In fact, this is much closer to the level of heat and flavor I was hoping to get from Buffalo Barclay. With help from the peppers, the Buffalo and sriracha give you a respectable kick, and the ranch creates a richer consistency. Plus, a little bit of cheese also goes a long way. I'm still not necessarily a fan of the bacon bits, but with so many other ingredients, they thankfully don't hog much of the spotlight.

Okay, according to Chicken Salad Chick, this is the real Southern belle (move aside, pimento). And I'll admit, I didn't think I was going to like her at first. Something about adding eggs to chicken salad just sounded off to me, no matter how many sweet pickles were also thrown into the concoction. However, once I tried it, it all made sense to me.

It's essentially chicken salad meets egg salad. You get glimpses of both, and they actually fuse together really nicely. There are still the creamy, savory bites of shredded chicken, now complemented by the richer taste of egg yolk. Add in those sweet pickles, and the whole thing also becomes highly reminiscent of deviled eggs. So, as wonky as the combination may sound, this is definitely a scoop that's worth a try. I also couldn't help but think how good it would be dressed in a little bit of yellow mustard, or even better, some fresh dill.

Kelli is our chicken salad queen. She does everything right, leaning on two ingredients that happen to be some of the best things that could have happened to a mound of mayo-based chicken salad: dried cranberries and almonds. The cranberries are pretty much perfect, landing somewhere between chewy and soft and right in that sweet spot between sweet and tart. They pop against the savory chicken, but they're not so sour that they take over the entire blend. Then, the almond slivers bring in that much-needed textural contrast.

Better yet, both ingredients are added in just the right amounts. There's enough of each that nearly every forkful gets a little cranberry and almond action. It feels understated yet somehow perfect at the same time — the quintessential blend of sweet and savory, with just enough crunch to keep every bite interesting.

I scooped up all 15 of these Chicken Salad Chick flavors in one massive to-go order. The chain sells its scoops in plenty of different ways — as individual meals, sandwiches, à la carte, and even as part of family meals. However, the easiest and cheapest way for me to try all 15 was to order five two-scoop meals and, instead of choosing a side like soup or a green salad, tack on another scoop of chicken salad. Easy peasy.

Aside from the pimento cheese scoops, of course, all of the chicken salads start with the same base of shredded chicken, mayo, and seasonings. So, what I was really looking at here were each chick's auxiliary ingredients. Some went the sweet route with fruits and nuts, others dialed things up with spice, and still others leaned into more savory, comforting flavors. All can pair really well with chicken salad, but only when done right.

I evaluated each flavor combination, watching out for anything too bland or, conversely, too complicated. The creamy consistency of each salad was also important, as were ingredients that added some much-needed texture to balance it out. There are plenty of Chicken Salad Chick scoops I'd happily order again, but ultimately, I whittled the flock down to my absolute top picks.