Chicken Salad

A friend posted on her blog quite a while back that she wanted some recipes for chicken salad. I promised to post my recipe and I'm finally getting around to it. It's not actually so much my recipe. I think my sister-in-law Lisa who makes a fab-o chicken salad that involves cream cheese kind of gave me the basics and I transformed it into my own dairy-free chicken salad.

I took pictures as I made Jack a chicken salad sandwich for school the other night. Keep in mind that Jack eats a wide variety of foods but they have to be the right texture so this chicken salad recipe is chopped up quite a bit more than I would chop it if serving it to a bunch of adults. You use the same recipe just chop less. In fact you can skip the food processor and just do your chopping with a knife to make it more "adult-pleasing". I'll post the whole recipe at the bottom but here it is with pictures.

1.Take about a handful of walnuts (or little more) or pecans (they give a slightly different but still good taste to it) and throw them in your food processor.

2. Chop them up.

3. Rinse one apple or about 1 1/2 handsful of red or green grapes. I just cut the sides of the apple off the core and then cut the apple the apple into small pieces with the peel on.

4. Add to the food processor.

5. Mix it up.

6. Cut up chicken breast leftover from making Kelly's simple easy recipe for dinner. [Note: I leave out the second lemon that is sliced. We thought it made the recipe too lemony and instead of lemon pepper on top of everything, I use greek seasoning] You can actually use any cooked chicken breast you have on had but this particular recipe turns out a delicious chicken salad.

7. Whir it up!

8. Next you need to add some mayo.

9. Just experiment until you get the creaminess you like. I did about three tablespoons this time.

10. Whir it up!

11. Serve over salad greens on bread of your choice.

12. I actually add the spring mix to the food processor and chop it in too for Jack's sandwichs. He likes it. I just forgot to get a picture of it.

I forget to take a picture of my chicken salad all plated up and pretty so I was searching online for a picture of pretty chicken salad and came across this picture which is what my chicken salad would look if not chopped up quite as much and you used grapes instead of apples.

Her recipe is nearly the same as mine but measured and with celery.

So here's my recipe without the pictures. I'm writing these directions as if you are serving to adults or children who chew well without a texture sensitivity.
Ingredients:
One handful to handful and a half of Walnuts or Pecans
One Apple or one handful to handful and a half of Red or Green Grapes
One Cooked Chicken Breast
About three tablespoons Hellman's Mayonnaise (On most everything I'm flexible but I really think you need to use Hellman's. It has a good flavor.)
Spring Mix or other bagged salad

Directions:
1. Chop up nuts into smaller bits.
2. Cut apple sides off the core and dice. OR Cut grapes into halves.
3. Cut up chicken breast.
4. Put all cut ingredients into bowl.
5. Mix in mayonnaise.
6. Chill.
7. Serve on bed of salad greens and/or bread of your choice.

Enjoy!