06 June 2010

chicken salad

Whenever I think of salad, I think of greens topped with other veggies or maybe some meat. Or maybe a nice fruit salad as a side or dessert. But I don't think of the mayo based chicken, egg, potato or pasta salads. Salads = healthy. Mayo does not = healthy. It's a disconnect in my head that the chicken/egg/etc kinds are consdered salads. And I can probably count the cumulative number of times I've eaten any of those on both hands.

But my coworker, Mary, was kind enough to share some of her chicken salad with me the other day, and it was pretty darn good. So I figured, I should try my hand at making it, too. I looked up a ton of recipes and found that they all pretty much have this in common: chicken, mayo, lemon juice, celery. Some have nuts, others have fruit, Mary's had capers (yum). So I figured I'd wing it with that in mind, and came up with this. I love the tang the dijon brings and that the cranberries add just a teeny bit of sweetness to it. And while I still can't see it as a traditional "salad" the way my little brain thinks of salads, I do consider it tasty :-)Chicken Salad

4 oz chicken breast, cooked (approx. 1 cup)
2 tbsp light mayo
1/2 tsp dijon mustard
1 tsp lemon juice
1/4 celery stalk, finely diced
1 tbsp onion, finely diced
1 1/2 tbsp dried cranberries, finely diced
salt and pepper

Cut the chicken breast into small pieces (or shred it). Season with some salt and pepper. Mix together the rest of the ingredients, then fold in the chicken breast.
I'll be eating this stuffed inside a whole wheat pita with some lettuce. I'm not sure how else to eat these mayo based salads other than in a sandwich of some sort... if you have any ideas, leave a comment!

3 comments:

  1. I love to eat chicken salad stuffed into a tomato. Tuna salad too for that matter. Mmmmm...I know what I'm making for dinner tomorrow!

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  2. I think the sitting for a day or so definitely did it some favors. It was excellent.

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