Chicken Salad. It can so easily go so wrong and seem trite, the catch-all recipe for the catered office lunch or duty-calls bridal shower. But by adding an unexpected and flavorful ingredient, chicken salad can be oh-so-divine.
photo > foodiecrush
Here’s my take on Chicken Salad, crunchy with celery and toasted almonds then sweetened up with sliced grapes and earthed up with curry and tarragon. Served on big old slices of hearty wheat bread, this is one version that has full-fledged-flavored. I add a lot more celery to this recipe than listed below because I like the crunch, so follow the recipe as is or adapt to your own cravings.
Curried Chicken Salad with Toasted Almonds and Grapes
Ingredients
- 4 bone-in chicken breasts with skin
- 1/3 cup diced red onion
- 1/2 cup chopped celery
- 1 cup red seedless grapes halved
- 1/3 cup almond slivers toasted
- 1/4 cup mayonnaise
- 1/2 cup Greek yogurt
- 1 T orange juice
- 1 1/2 T curry powder
- 1 1/2 T fresh tarragon chopped
- 1 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp pepper
Instructions
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Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Rub chicken with olive oil and generous amounts of salt and pepper. Cook for 30-40 minutes or until juice of chicken runs clear. When chicken has cooled, remove skin from breasts and shred chicken meat, discarding bones and skin. Mix in large bowl with onion, celery, grapes and almond slivers and set aside.
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In a medium size bowl, combine mayonnaise, yogurt, orange juice, curry power, salt and pepper.
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Add mayonnaise mixture to chicken mixture and gently combine. Add more salt and pepper to taste.
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Serve on a bed of spring or butter lettuce or hearty wheat bread with lettuce.
photo > Plum Pie
Plum Pie’s crunchy –thanks to the pecans and apple– and sweetly tart –thanks to the cranberries and tangy Greek yogurt— Cranberry Pecan Chicken Salad is light and even healthy, and is a hit with the savory twist thanks to Brooke’s addition of rosemary.
photo > Skinny Gourmet
Studded with some of cooking’s most under-used herbs of caraway (one of my favorites when sauteed with cabbage) and anise seeds and a touch of cumin, Skinny Gourmet‘s Irish Chicken Salad Sandwich on Soda Bread is deliciously sandwiched between slices of her husband’s family recipe for Irish Soda Bread. Looks like she now has another family recipe to hand down.
photo > Heat Oven to 350
Adapted from a Southern recipe for pimento cheese sandwiches, Nicole geniusly added shredded chicken to create a cheesey-chicken-wonderland-on-toast with Heaven to 350 ‘s recipe for Pimento Cheese Chicken Salad Sandwiches.
photo > Closet Cooking
You knew we had to highlight at least one recipe that has some serious spice and is far and above the expected chicken salad. Meet Kevin’s Kimchi Chicken Salad Sandwich. Kimchi sauteed in bacon grease? Woo-hoo, a new favorite is born in the kitchen of Closet Cooking.
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