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. 

Fresh from the garden: Summer Italian Bread Salad

What a wonderfully refreshing salad this is and I got to use fresh from the garden ingredients. I used my friends at a small group meeting as my guinea pigs. They certainly didn't mind since the salad turned out to be very delicious. It was such a big hit with the ladies, I suggested that my husband take the salad for lunch the next day. Instructed him how to assemble it & when he got home he gave it rave reviews. So of course I couldn't wait to repeat the salad. Our tomatoes from the garden aren't ripe yet so this morning we bought some home grown tomatoes from the local farmer's market. Made this for lunch and served it with panko coated talapia. I hope you try this recipe out, you will love it.

 Summer Italian Bread Salad

I wish you could smell the basil.

Serves 4
Prep time: 10 min.     Ready in: 30 min.
Ingredients
    •    1 (1 pound) loaf Italian bread
    •    1 cup chopped tomatoes
    •    1 cup cucumber - peeled, seeded and chopped
    •    1/2 cup chopped red onion (can use regular white onion)
    •    1 clove garlic, minced
    •    2 cups chopped fresh basil
    •    1/8 cup chopped fresh thyme
    •    1/4 cup olive oil
    •    2 tablespoons red wine vinegar (or balsamic vinegar)
    •    1/2 cup shredded or cubed mozzarella cheese (optional)
    •    Salt & pepper to taste

Directions

    1.    Pull apart or chop the bread into bite-size pieces. Coat in olive oil. Toast in oven.

   2.    In the prepared salad bowl, combine tomatoes, cucumbers, red onions, garlic, basil and thyme.  

    3.    Add olive oil and vinegar to lightly coat, toss refrigerate for 30min.

    4.    Pour salad over bread cubes when ready to serve, let sit for a minute or so.

    5.    Top with cheese, mix, and serve.