Looking for Chicken Salad Chick vegetarian options? Skip the eleven named chicken salad scoops and order the Egg Salad or the Pimento Cheese instead, add a side of mac and cheese or grape salad, and you have a full meal without touching a bite of chicken. This Southern fast-casual chain built its entire menu around chicken salad, so it looks like the toughest chain on What’s Vegetarian to crack. It isn’t. You just need to know which two “salads” swap in for the bird, and which soups to leave alone.
A Quick Look at Chicken Salad Chick
Stacy Brown started the whole thing in 2008 by selling her homemade chicken salad door to door in Auburn, Alabama, while she was unemployed and raising three kids. Health department rules on home-based food sales pushed her and her husband Kevin to open an actual restaurant instead, and the first Chicken Salad Chick followed soon after in Auburn. That concept never wandered far from its roots: chicken salad by the scoop, in more than a dozen named flavors, served on bread, on lettuce, or in a to-go container.
Private equity firm Brentwood Associates, which also backs Blaze Pizza and Lazy Dog Restaurant & Bar, took a stake in the company in 2015 and helped fuel a franchising push. Headquarters moved from Auburn to Atlanta, Georgia, in 2021. Today the chain runs more than 300 restaurants across 22 states, and 2025 systemwide sales hit an estimated $458 million, up from $398 million in 2024. Company leadership has talked openly about a long-term goal of $1 billion in sales, which tells you this chain is still very much in growth mode.
Chicken Salad Chick Vegetarian Options: What to Order
None of the eleven named chicken salad flavors, from Classic Carol to Kickin’ Kay Lynne, work for a vegetarian. Good news: Chicken Salad Chick sells two other “salads” the exact same way, by the scoop or built into a sandwich, and neither one has any meat in it.
| Menu Item | Vegetarian | Vegan |
|---|---|---|
| Egg Salad (scoop or sandwich) | ✅ Yes | ❌ No (egg, mayonnaise) |
| Pimento Cheese (scoop, sandwich, or a la carte) | ✅ Yes | ❌ No (cheese, mayonnaise) |
| The Chick sandwich (order Pimento Cheese, not chicken salad) | ✅ Yes | ❌ No (cheese) |
| Broccoli Salad (ask for no bacon) | ✅ Yes, without bacon | ❌ No (cheese, creamy dressing) |
| Grape Salad | ✅ Yes | ❌ No (cream cheese) |
| Pasta Salad | ✅ Yes | ❌ No (mayonnaise-based dressing) |
| Mac ‘n Cheese | ✅ Yes | ❌ No (dairy) |
| Fresh Fruit | ✅ Yes | ✅ Yes |
| Chips (Baked Lay’s, Miss Vickie’s) | ✅ Yes | ✅ Yes |
| Seasonal Salad (order without chicken) | ✅ Yes | ✅ Yes, with Italian or poppyseed dressing and no cheese |
| Tomato Bisque | ⚠ Check (stock base not published) | ❌ No (cream) |
| Broccoli Cheese Soup | ⚠ Check (stock base not published) | ❌ No (dairy) |
| Loaded Potato Soup | ❌ No (chicken broth, bacon) | ❌ No |
| Chicken Tortilla Soup | ❌ No (chicken) | ❌ No |
| Buttercream Frosted Flower Cookie | ✅ Yes | ❌ No (butter, egg) |
| Chocolate Marshmallow Crispy Bar | ⚠ Check (marshmallow may use gelatin) | ❌ No |
The Real Vegetarian “Salads”: Egg Salad and Pimento Cheese
Egg Salad is chopped eggs mixed with mayonnaise and a touch of seasoning, sold the same way as the chicken salad flavors: by the scoop on its own, on a bed of lettuce, or built into a sandwich on white bread, wheat bread, or a croissant. This one is straightforward lacto-ovo vegetarian food that needs no substitutions.
Pimento Cheese is the other real option, a homemade blend of shredded cheddar and pepper jack with mayonnaise and chopped sweet red pimentos. Order it by the scoop, as its own sandwich, or swapped into The Chick, the chain’s signature croissant sandwich. The Chick normally comes with chicken salad, lettuce, and tomato. Just tell the counter you want Pimento Cheese in place of chicken salad and it comes out the same way. Neither Egg Salad nor Pimento Cheese is vegan, since both lean on egg and dairy. They are the closest thing this menu has to a real vegetarian entree.
Sides Worth Ordering
Chicken Salad Chick’s side lineup does more heavy lifting for vegetarians than the sandwiches do. Grape Salad is a sweet, creamy mix built on cream cheese and sour cream, and it’s vegetarian as served. Mac ‘n Cheese is a straightforward dairy-based side that works too. Pasta Salad is vegetarian on the standard recipe, though the exact dressing isn’t published, so ask if you have a specific concern.
Broccoli Salad needs one small adjustment. The recipe mixes florets with shredded cheese, craisins or raisins, sunflower seeds, and bacon bits in a sweet, creamy dressing. Request it without bacon and it’s a genuinely good vegetarian side. Fresh Fruit and the bagged chips (Baked Lay’s or Miss Vickie’s Sea Salt) round out the list, and both of those are vegan as well as vegetarian.
Soups: What’s Vegetarian and What’s Not
Two of the four regular soups are easy no’s. Chicken Tortilla Soup is built on chicken, obviously, and Loaded Potato Soup combines a chicken broth base with real bacon bits, so it’s off the table too. Tomato Bisque and Broccoli Cheese Soup both look meat-free on the ingredient side, tomatoes, cream, butter, and basil for the bisque and broccoli and cheese for the other, but Chicken Salad Chick hasn’t published whether either one starts from a chicken stock base. Given the name of the restaurant, that’s a real possibility rather than a stretch. Ask your location before ordering either one if you’re strict about it.
Sweets and Drinks
Buttercream Frosted Flower Cookie is a butter-and-egg sugar cookie topped with buttercream frosting, vegetarian but not vegan. Chocolate Marshmallow Crispy Bar is trickier, since regular marshmallow is made with gelatin, an animal product. Treat this one as a check-first item rather than an automatic yes unless your location can confirm otherwise. Iced tea and strawberry lemonade are both vegan, no caveats needed.
What’s Vegan at Chicken Salad Chick?
Vegan is thin here, and it’s worth saying so plainly rather than stretching the truth. Your real options are Fresh Fruit, the bagged chips, the wheat crackers (Lance, Kellogg’s, and Keebler brands), and a Seasonal Salad ordered without chicken or cheese, dressed in the Italian or poppyseed dressing, both of which are vegan. There’s no hot vegan entree and no vegan cheese swap on this menu. If you’re vegan, this is a chain to grab a side or a light salad at, not a full meal.
Special Dietary Requirements and Allergies
Chicken Salad Chick posts a standing allergen notice: every location prepares and stores food in areas where common allergens are present. Cross-contact between the chicken salad scoops and the vegetarian sides is a real possibility in an open kitchen. Duke’s mayonnaise, the brand the chain uses, lists highly refined soybean oil as an ingredient. That refining process strips out the soy protein that actually triggers a soy allergy, per the company’s own allergen guide, so it isn’t a vegetarian concern either way. Cheese rennet source isn’t published for the pimento cheese or the mac and cheese, so strict vegetarians who avoid animal rennet should ask. Bread options, including the croissant, likely contain butter or an egg wash, so they’re vegetarian but not vegan.
Tips for Vegetarians at Chicken Salad Chick
- Order Egg Salad or Pimento Cheese by the scoop or on a sandwich instead of any of the chicken salad flavors.
- Order the Broccoli Salad without bacon. It’s one of the better vegetarian sides on the menu once you make that one swap.
- Leave the Loaded Potato Soup and Chicken Tortilla Soup alone entirely. Check with your location on whether the Tomato Bisque or Broccoli Cheese Soup are made with a chicken stock base that day.
- Build a meal out of two or three sides, like Grape Salad, Mac ‘n Cheese, and Fresh Fruit, if you want something lighter than a sandwich.
- Going vegan, stick to Fresh Fruit, chips, wheat crackers, or a Seasonal Salad with Italian or poppyseed dressing and no cheese.
- Regular marshmallow is made with gelatin, so ask before ordering the Chocolate Marshmallow Crispy Bar.
- Cheddar and pepper jack cheese in the pimento cheese and mac and cheese don’t have a published rennet source. Call ahead if you’re strict about it.
Conclusion
Chicken Salad Chick vegetarian options come down to two real picks, Egg Salad and Pimento Cheese, plus a solid lineup of sides once you ask for the Broccoli Salad without bacon. Leave the Loaded Potato Soup and Chicken Tortilla Soup off your order, double check the other two soups with your location, and you’ll walk out with a genuinely good meal. For the bigger picture on eating out as a vegetarian, see our guide to eating vegetarian and vegan at restaurants, or browse more restaurant guides. If salad bars and made-to-order sides are your thing, check out what’s vegetarian at Ruby Tuesday, Jason’s Deli, and Panera Bread.
