Chicken Salad is my favorite lunch food.  I could almost eat it every day without getting sick of it.  To avoid the possible monotony, I mix up the recipe each time.  Using combinations of fruits, vegetables, fresh herbs, and fats allows control of the nutrition content and tailors the flavor to suit whatever you like.  It’s the perfect summer picnic food also and as an ode to this weekend’s start to the summer season.  Let’s have lunch with Effortless Chicken Salad!

My favorite chicken salad

Ingredients:

1 – Chicken (use a rotisserie for faster prep time)
1/4 – Onion
1 – Apple
Mayo (depends on how much you like 1/2 cup is the minimum)
Honey to Drizzle
Dried Cranberries
Garlic pepper to taste
Fresh Parsle
The basics for a good chicken salad are in the photo below.  I start with Coleman Organic chicken.  I add onion, apple, dried cranberries, garlic pepper, honey, and mayo.  The mayo is debatable.  It is delicious to replace mayo with a mashed avocado.  If you are going to use the entire chicken for salad, mash up two avocados.  Avocado is a far more healthy fat. For this post I didn’t have avocados, so mayo it was!

How-To:

Begin by roasting the chicken.  Do this however you like.  You may also purchase a rotisserie chicken from your local market for the sake of time, but I’m a big fan of Coleman Organics.  Once the chicken is roasted, separate the bones and the fat from the meat.  Shred the chicken and place the meat into a big mixing bowl.

Roasted and shredded chicken

Chop 1/4 of the onion and one apple and add to the chicken.  I like to rough chop everything so the salad is filled with chunks of vegetables.  You may also add celery, garlic, or carrots for extra vegetables.  Grapes or mandarin oranges are good also.  Sprinkle a hand full of cranberries into the bowl.  

Add fruit and vegetables

Next add the mayo or avocado.  I use enough to bind the ingredients together, but not to make it overly fatty.  I just don’t like a gooey consistency.  I use about 1/4 to 1/2 cup.  Also drizzle the honey on top of all the ingredients.  Generously shake garlic pepper on the ingredients.  

Ready to stir

Give the bowl one good stir to combine ingredients.  At this point, I chopped fresh parsley and added it in.  I also give another generous sprinkling of garlic pepper.  The parsley gives a beautiful pop of color.  Stir all ingredients together well.

Give the bowl a final stir

My favorite part…eating!  It is best to cover the bowl with a lid or plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.  This gives the flavors a chance to combine.  It is not absolutely necessary, but chilling the salad makes it taste better.  Serve on fresh bread or a bed of lettuce.  Delicious – Happy Eating!