Foodie Friday: Chicken Salad

 

I love chicken salad. Do you?

            My mom has always loved it, and one of our favorite restaurants when I was growing up served generous portions of mayo-heavy chicken salad on toasted, buttered bread. It was so good. And so not good for you.

            I learned, as time went by, that there are two camps of chicken salad lovers – with and without grapes and nuts. I like both, but when left to my own choices, I choose my grapes on the side. (How about you?)

            When Ryan and I went on our 10^th anniversary trip, we made our first visit to Chicken Salad Chick, and that’s when I learned just how many variations of this one dish you could explore! (And when I ordered, I stuck to the basic recipe.)

            So it shouldn’t surprise anyone that when I started making a new Shafferland recipe box, I wanted to find a trusty chicken salad recipe to add to the mix.

            I found this one at Dashing Dish, and it’s a member recipe that I didn’t modify, so I won’t copy it here, but I will tell you what I love about it and why it works so well for us.

            This doesn’t have anything to do with the recipe, but I’ll remind you that if you’re not using the trick of boiling your chicken and shredding it in the mixer with the paddle, you might be working too hard! I learned this trick from Pinterest not long after Ryan and I were married, and it has saved me so much time whenever I make a shredded chicken recipe.

            I just put water in a pot on the stove, put the frozen chicken tenders in it, and turn up the heat until it boils. I let it boil until the chicken is cooked through and transfer it to the Kitchen Aid. About a minute later – I have finely shredded chicken!

            This recipe uses a combo of Greek yogurt and mayo – though the bulk of the dressing is the yogurt. I think this mix gives it good flavor, because let’s face it: part of the magic of chicken salad is the mayo. But I use an olive oil mayo with less fat – and the quantity is much less than the yogurt.

            I also love the diced dill pickle in this recipe. It throws in a little extra tang. I always use Clausen pickles, because I prefer the flavor.

            Though this recipe isn’t as dressing-drippy as the versions I grew up on, and I eat it on a bed of lettuce now, rather than buttered, toasted bread, I still love this chicken salad recipe and am so glad I found it. If you have a Dashing Dish membership, I highly recommend this one!