Chicken Salad

I think when it comes to Chicken Salad I like a whole lot going on.  Calling a bit of boiled chicken and some celery “chicken salad” is an abomination.  When one takes a bite of chicken salad you should have a variety of flavors and textures doing the Samba on your tongue. If your chicken salad is not dancing across your taste buds there is something seriously wrong. I am also a firm believer in NO CELERY in my chicken salad…nope not one single sliver, not even a hint of stringy greenness.  If there is crunch to be had it will come from something other that celery.

The cool thing about this recipe is that if you do not want to take the time to cook the chicken you can use a rotisserie chicken available at your local grocery store.  Just strip off the meat and carry on.  Now I must address the controversy of Miracle Whip vs. mayo debate.  For this recipe I use MW the salad just does not taste right to me with mayo. Can you use mayo…if you must. I guess you could but you will be missing out on a huge amount of flavor.

One more thing…this is a chunky salad large-ish pieces of everything except for the cranberries and sweet pickles.  This is also a dill heavy recipe..what can I say I LOVE fresh dill…like a crazy man.  I made the mistake of using dried dill a few weeks ago after using fresh for so long, it was not a good thing.  Do yourself a favor and use fresh you will not be sorry.

Chicken Salad~

6 Chicken Breasts (or one rotisserie chicken)

1 good-sized Shallot

1 2 oz pkg Dried Cranberries

1 2 oz pkg  Pecans (toasted)

1 3/4oz pkg Fresh Dill

1/2 c Midget Gherkins

1 Tart Apple (Honeycrisp, Granny Smith, Breaburn)

1/4 lb Seedless Grapes

1 c Miracle Whip

1 Ts Fresh Ground Pepper

1 Ts Kosher Salt

1 Ts Garlic powder (not garlic salt)

1 TB Poultry Seasoning (not needed if using rotisserie chicken)

 In a stock pot add the uncooked chicken Breast and poultry seasoning with enough water to cover and gently boil until chicken is just cooked take care to not over cook. To toast the pecans place them in a dry skillet and allow to brown but be careful they will go from browned to burned very fast.  Keep shaking them in the pan

Chop the cranberries and pecans roughly.

Yeah I just like showing off how cool Fresh Dill looks…

Cut the sweet gherkins into 1/4″ or so slices, slice the grapes in half, finely dice the shallot, chop the apple into about 1/2″ or so pieces the same with the chicken.  Toss all the chopped items and the remaining ingredients into a large mixing bowl.  Give a good stir and you are just about set.

Oh yeah look at those bits of dill…

OK *IF* you can restrain yourself chill for about an hour…if not then slap that bad boy on some toasted bread and go to town!

Now go play with your food.

WikiJan