Chicken Salad

Whenever I make this salad for a party, picnic, BBQ, or other event, I am almost always asked for the recipe.  It’s kind of light for a chicken salad, and doesn’t have grapes!  

If you like grapes, then add them, but I think grapes are weird in chicken salad.  I have added halved cherry/grape tomatoes before but I prefer the tiny crunch of a sweet red bell pepper

Red bell peppers are one of my favorite foods, I slice them up and eat them like candy

yuuummmm!

someone could offer me a snickers bar or a few red bell pepper slices, I’ll take the pepper hands down.  Of course Ice cream would always come out on top of a pepper, but ice-cream is in it’s own elevated class of goodness.

but I digress, on with salad. . .

This salad is super simple and easy: to make life easy I first purchase a roasted chicken. 

My preference is the lemon pepper, but you can use whichever one tastes best to you.

You can roast/cook your own, by this method you could choose to just use chicken breast if you like.  Which ever method you select.You will need to end up with approx 3-4 cups shredded chicken, 

Now, debone your chicken, and cut/shred it into bite size pieces, that are best suited to what you are serving the salad on. this is too chunky, I didn’t get a picture of the final product, just make it work for you. 

(sorry, if you want or need a picture, leave a comment and I will redo the picture)

I love using croissants, but you can use whatever bread you like!  This salad is perfect for crackers, kind of like a dip, just cut your chicken finer/smaller, it also is nice for baguettes or artisan style bread.  

Note: this is most easily done while your chicken is still warm.  It just doesn’t quite come off the bones the same, or shred as easily when it’s cold.  So even if you are planning to do your salad two days later, shred your chicken as soon as you bring it home, then place it in the fridge until you assemble your salad. 

clean up your workspace.  I try to get all my meat stuff done and cleaned up before moving onto the next phase, that way I don’t need to worry about contaminating my fresh veggies or workspace later.

If you talk to anyone who has gotten sick from salmonella poisoning, they all say they would rather have died, apparently it’s pretty horrible!  I never want to risk giving that to someone so I always just clean and sterilize after working with meat.

so now that we have that covered, chop up your vegetables:

okay, I realize that lemon isn’t considered a vegetable, but you don’t chop it up either, you will zest it and squeeze it.



remove the stem, wash out the seeds and then . . .

. . . dice it up

you only need 1/2 pepper, so just eat the other half, that’s what I do!

Next up:  onions

This is the step I was on when I chopped off my thumb last Saturday, I’ve cut onions like this multiple times, more than I can count, and have been fine, just don’t be thinking about a hundred things and being distracted and not focusing on where your knife is in relation to your digits.

anyway, back to chicken salad and cutting up green onions. . .

slice them lengthwise, kind of like you would a carrot or stick of celery.  Slice each onion 2-3 times depending on the thickness of the onion.




then on a sharp diagonal, slice them.

then without rearranging your cutting art, take your knife and turn it, 

 slicing through them at a 90° angle.

and you have shredded onion that gives off wonderful flavor that is evenly distributed throughout your salad, without getting an oversized chunk of onion.  

This method means you don’t need as many onions for the same flavorful results.

now cut up the celery, just normal little chunks here, nothing tricky or special.

put all your vegetables in a mixing bowl,




add the sour cream,

mayo,

mustard,

dill,

parsley,

lemon zest,

lemon juice. . . .

I didn’t measure the mustard, just squirt some in. . .

Stir it all together, cover and refrigerate, If you have given yourself enough time to let it rest for a bit, the flavors blend and are so yummy, but it is pretty tasty right after you mix it up too.

Spoon the salad on the roll of your choice,

Garnish with a slice of tomato and avocado with some fresh baby spinach.  Let your imagination run, and enjoy your chicken salad sandwich or appetizers.

click here for the recipe

As always, thanks for stopping in and sharing a portion of your day with me

. . . oh, and have a great week

.