A Better Chicken Salad

Written by paula
Categories: Meat and Fish, Salad

It seems I have been making chicken salad quite frequently lately. Not only does everyone like it, but it is simple to make from store-bought rotisserie chicken, leftover herb roasted chicken or other recipes, or quickly cooked chicken in the pressure cooker.

Additionally, I now included healthier ingredients like ground flax, sliced almonds, and sometimes dried cranberries to my chicken salad making me feel better about serving my family it more frequently.

A challenge for me in sharing this recipe is my lack of a recipe. I normally do not measure the ingredients; I go on sight and taste. Thus, it took me a while to put the recipe together. However, this is a dish that is very flexible and can easily adjusted to tastes and personal preferences. When making adjustments, remember to adjust the amount of salad dressing or mayonnaise so that it coats all the ingredients without being too much.

Recipe: Chicken Salad

Ingredients

2 cooked split chicken breasts, chopped, diced or shredded
2 ribs of celery, sliced or diced
1/2 medium onion, diced or minced
1/4 c. ground flax seeds
2/3 c. Miracle Whip or mayonnaise
15+/- seedless grapes, split in half
1/3 c. sliced almonds (or pecan halves)
1/3 c. dried cranberries and/or
1/3 c. chopped apple
salt, to taste
paprika, to taste

Instructions

Combine chicken, celery, onion, and flax with the mayonnaise.
Fold in grapes, almonds, and cranberries ( and/or apples).
Season with salt (if needed) and paprika, to taste.
Serve alone, on top of lettuce or a lettuce salad, or as a sandwich.

Notes and Variations

All ingredient amounts should be adjusted to taste and amounts used.

Herbs, like tarragon or rosemary, may be added.

The dried cranberries and/or apples may be omitted.

Greek yogurt may be substituted for half of the mayonnaise.

If you substitute half of the mayonnaise for Greek yogurt, there will be a slight change in flavor, an increase in protein, and probably a reduction in calories (depending on what type of mayo or dressing you use). When I use the yogurt, I sub it for only half to maintain much of the mayonnaise or salad dressing flavor, but you could just use the Greek yogurt instead.

2 Responses to “A Better Chicken Salad”

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Melinda

September 10, 2012 at 6:58 pm

This is not a BETTER chicken salad, only a different one. I like just plain chicken, celery, onion, mayo (Hellman’s) salt, pepper and garlic. Yours I have catered many many times and its good…its just not better… IMO.

Reply
- paula
  
  September 11, 2012 at 4:52 pm
  
  The title of this post is not meant to reflect that this chicken salad recipe is better than all the others. In fact, most of my posts reflect my intense belief that food is very subjective…often on a very emotional level…and a person should tailor recipes to meet their own tastes.
  
  The title is meant to reflect my stated perception that this chicken salad recipe is better for me and my family than the one I used to make by my addition of fiber and Omega-3 rich ingredients.
  
  Reply