Simple Chicken Salad

Happy Almost Labor Day!! Can you believe it? 2017 has flown by and it’s almost Labor Day.

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My grandma has been making us her famous chicken salad for years. In fact, one of her standard birthday gifts to my dad is a big batch of Chicken Salad and Potato salad*.  She taught me the best thing there is when it comes to Chicken Salad, keeping it simple. Keep the flavors simple, keep the prep simple, and you can’t go wrong.

*Side note: if she lets me reveal the secrets of her BEST. EVER. POTATO. SALAD. then you know that will hit the blog, but I have a feeling she will want to take that winner to the grave…but she did let me in on the secrets ;-).

The best thing about chicken salad is that its got a good base, you can make large batches or small batches and it tastes good on pretty much any vehicle you use to eat it on. Tonight we dined with it on a croissant sandwich with lettuce and some of our garden fresh tomatoes, but the rest of the week we will eat in a spinach wrap with lettuce, perfect and easy lunch options without the mess.

So let’s get started…

Remember how I said we were going to make this easy? Well, it can’t get any easier than buying a rotisserie chicken from the grocery store. They are normally about $5-$7 depending where you go, and they are already cooked and seasoned! If you bought a whole chicken, cleaned, and roasted or grilled it yourself you will spend about the same, but also add about two hours to your cook time, and no one has time for that! Not to mention all the juicy flavor it already has. The wins just keep on coming, am I right!?

First of all, and super important! This recipe is gluten free IF you get a rotisserie chicken that is gluten free. If you have celiacs or a gluten intolerance you know this already, but check the labels!

Not pictured, start by finely dicing onion and celery. You should have about a half cup of each.

Then start by taking the meat off of your cooled rotisserie chicken, you want BOTH white and dark pieces. I am a dark meat LOVER!!!!! (singing voice) It is so juicy, so much flavor, and you bought the chicken for this recipe, so why waste any of it!?

Isn’t she puuurrtty? Also, you need to skin it, and toss. I took this chicken apart with my hands (we’re all family here) and while I was pulling the meat off of the bone the skin kind of falls off with it, super easy, don’t worry. Using my hands also made it very easy for me to “accidentally” eat one of the legs before it make it into the dish, #sorrynotsorry.

I’m normally not very good at cleaning while I cook, but with the messy chicken my goal was to get the meat off of the bone and put aside in the bowl. That way I could chop it up after I had cleaned away all of the excess juices the chicken had, and hopefully I removed a little of the calories/fat by not chopping it up in all the juice.

Ok, chop the chicken into small bite size pieces, and transfer to a larger bowl. You need plenty of stirring room! I prefer to stir everything together with a fork. This will lightly shred some of the chicken in the process, giving it a really nice combination of textures.

Next you will add in the salt and pepper, sprinkle from up high to evenly distribute over the chicken. Then give it a stir. Then you want to add in your Mayo (Hellman’s is GF, if using another kind-check the label.) I recommend putting in half the mayo at a time, stir, then decide if you want more. For this recipe I used 2/3 cups, but you don’t want to add too much if you are using less chicken/more chicken-you get it.

Lastly, fold in your onion and celery. #sorrynotsorry for the ugly bowl picture, this is real life people!

Also, have you guys heard Demi Lovatos new song Sorry Not Sorry? Because it has been in my head since the VMAs, hence all the hashtags.

OK! Put a lid or clear wrap over the bowl and put in the fridge. This is optional, you can eat right away. But the few seasonings this dish has take shape in the fridge. 30 minutes-1 hour is preferred, but tomorrow for lunch this will be at its PEAK!

And there you have it! Simple, easy, flavorful, crunchy from the celery chicken salad. Cook on a Sunday and you have lunch for a couple days!

 

Recipe!

xoxo,

birdbelly