Fresh from the garden: Chicken Salad Recipe

 

I love chicken salad on a soft buttery roll. It's so easy to make & it's one of those recipes that allow you to substitute a few of the ingredients with what you have on hand and the outcome will be delicious every time. To me, Chicken Salad is like Fried Rice, it helps you use up what you already have. Basically my chicken salad consists of chicken, a crunchy vegetable, a sweet fruit, nuts, and binding like mayo.
For the chicken I prefer using boneless skinless chicken breast, coated in olive oil, & house seasoning, then grilled. It depends on my mood how fine I want my chicken meat cut up, some days I like it diced into little squares, on other days I like it very finely chopped. You can achieve the finely chopped in a food processor but it's just as easy to do with a very sharp knife. I prefer to just use a knife, but you really have to have a good sharp knife. I'll list the ingredients I used today & in parentheses the substitutes I use on occasion.


Boneless Skinless Chicken Breast: Finely Chopped or (Small Diced)
Crunchy Vegetable: Sweet Banana Pepper or (Celery, Any color Bell Pepper, cucumber, jicama)
Sweet Fruit: Dried Cranberries or (fresh grapes, raisins, fresh apples, dried apricots, mango, nectarine)
Nuts: Slivered Almonds or (chopped walnuts, macadamia nuts, pecan, pine nuts, or sunflower seeds)
Binding: Mayonnaise or (miracle whip dressing, ranch dressing, plain yogurt)
House seasoning to taste or (salt & pepper)

Mix it all up & assemble sandwich...I used thinly sliced cucumbers, tomatoes, and some basil leaves from the garden to finish off my sandwich. The basil really made this sandwich pop. Ate it up with some of the blueberries we picked last week.