Chicken Salad
Comments(18)
After nearly two months without a post, I have finally, FINALLY made something that I have not already featured on this website. What can I say? I’m a creature of habit… I make the same few meals over and over again. And, since it’s just me, these meals feed me for several days. It’s really easy to go long stretches of time without making anything new at all. Especially when I go through phases where the most effort I put into a meal is turning on the oven.
Yesterday though I made chicken salad, which I had not only never featured on this site, I’ve never made it myself before! I use my mom’s chicken salad recipe because it’s incredibly simple, and the best chicken salad I’ve ever had.
Here’s what you need.
Boneless, skinless chicken breasts. Crushed Pineapple. Pecan Pieces. Miracle Whip. I suppose you could use regular mayonnaise, but I can’t promise it will be as delicious without the tangy zip of Miracle Whip. (No, I don’t get any money from the lovely folks at Kraft, but maybe they should pay me for my constant pushing of Miracle Whip.)
First you need to boil your chicken… no pictures of this step. The best thing about chicken salad is that you can make as much or as little as you’d like. You could make just one or two chicken breasts, or you could make the whole package. I pulled out about 5 pieces of chicken. Two were pretty big, and one was really small. I thought about cooking my whole bag of chicken, since I knew I’d have to share. But since I’ve never made chicken salad before, I decided not to… if I made that much and it didn’t turn out well for some reason, I’d have been heartbroken.
After the chicken has cooked all the way through, you’ll want to shred it. You can wait for it to cool and pull it apart with your fingers, or you can be like me and use two forks to pull it apart while it is still hot.
Put the shredded chicken in a large bowl. Lament again that all you have are white bowls, and your camera doesn’t like white bowls. (I have a blue bowl, but my blue bowl does not have a lid.)
As you can see, those are not the pecan halves from the ingredient picture… I ran them through the food processor. I added a big handful of pecans, a couple good sized spoonfuls of Miracle Whip, and a big spoonful of crushed pineapple. No exact measurements, you have to just see as you go. And if you know me at all, you know how much that drives me crazy. I ask my mom for exact measurements on EVERYTHING. That’s part of why you see more baked goods on here than other cooking– baking is precisely measured, just the way I like it.
A note about the pineapple, don’t strain it.. you don’t necessarily want to just pour it in there, but you want some of the juice. In the end I think I ended up putting just a touch more pineapple and a little more miracle whip in the bowl.
This is what the chicken salad looks like when it’s done. Mmmm… I don’t know if it looks appetizing to you or not, but it does to me because I know how delicious it is. You should be able to tell from the picture that there’s enough to get pineapple and pecans in each bite, and the chicken is well coated in the miracle whip… you don’t want dry chicken salad!
At this point, I stuck it in the fridge for awhile since I’d mixed it up when the chicken was still warm, and I wanted to let the flavors sit together for a bit.
It’s good on bread, but the BEST way to serve this chicken salad is on a croissant. Yum! I’m glad I packed some for my lunch today because I’m drooling now!
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It LOOKS just like mine, you did GREAT!!
Looks yummily delicious, Jenn!!
I still eat your pickle sandwich from time to time so this is perfect timing for a new recipe from you. I can’t wait to try this – maybe this weekend. I LOVE CHICKEN SALAD so I’m sure this will be scrumptious!!! thanks for sharing
[...] rest of my weekend has been fairly uneventful. I made some chicken salad this morning, so hopefully I’ll be getting a post up on Jenn Cooks tomorrow or so. Right now [...]
Hi
I just voted for your blog for Bloggers Choice Awards.
Would you please return the favor at:
http://www.bloggerschoiceawards.com/blogs/show/21620
Thanks,
SpEdLaw2
Gosh, that looks so good!
I’m thinking I’ll probably just pull apart a roasted chicken from Costco. They are only like $5-6 and you can’t get cooked chicken any easier I don’t think.
I’m like you Jenn, I really like to know measures since when I ‘wing-it’ it doesn’t always turn out so good.
The beauty of baking, you measure, you mix, into the oven and out it comes all done and there is just no other work besides EATING which I love so it’s not work at all…
I’ll probably try this one soon to. You are a life saver!
Pam Hoffman
http://seminarlist.blogspot.com
That looks SO GOOD!! Have you had the chicken salad at Arby’s? It has celery, pecans, and red grapes in it, it is really good. I don’t think I’ve had pineapple in chicken salad before, I’ll have to try this!
I LOVE homemade chicken salad! I’ve never tried pineapple, I always use grapes. Think I’ll try that next time. And I always add a few shakes of Mrs. Dash seasoning. Yummy!
That looks awesome!! I just added all that stuff to my shopping list for this weekend. It sounds way better than boring old celery, seasoning and miracle whip.
And we make (or buy premade) chicken salad a lot since it’s one of the few things Lucas realllllllly likes other than peanut butter.
Wow! Looks fantastic!
I’ve been wanting to make chicken salad for weeks now but did not have a good recipe. Maybe I’ll try this out. It’s the perfect meal during the hot summer I think. Thanks a lot !
[...] the work week tomorrow. I believe I’ll be putting in a movie, and then I’ll make some chicken salad to take for lunch this week. Yep, that sounds like a pretty good plan. I hope you all enjoy what is [...]
Hi, I’m planning on trying your recipe today. And I was wondering if you would mind me posting about, including a links directly to your post and giving you credit of course ?
Thanks for getting back to me. I did prepare it and have posted it. My wife and had a taste test and then I put it in the Frig for tomorrow. Can’t wait to dig in. Very Yummy !
I’ve never had anything like this before but it looks super yummy! I’m picking up the stuff I need on my Friday shopping day.
I made my way here through Ecard, and then searched your blog for chicken … I do a chicken on Tuesday post each week.
The link to this post is listed there
Hello from SpeedyCat in Minnesota
YUMMY!! I like the idea of using a rotisserie chicken… super easy!! Making it tonight and I’ll let you know!
[...] batch of chicken for shredding out of the crock pot a few minutes ago and turned it into a batch of Chicken Salad… so easy I may never cook chicken any other [...]