Easy Buffalo Chicken Salad

This is great on a sandwich (as pictured) or on a big bed of lettuce as an actual salad.

This is a bit of a cheater recipe as I stated with Market Pantry chunk chicken breast in a can.

Ingredients:

* one can Market Pantry chicken breast, which I rinsed.

* I think it was one tablespoon Frank's Red Hot fiery buffalo wing sauce

* two tablespoons Bolthouse Farms blue cheese yogurt salad dressing (I love this stuff. Tastes great, and 35 calories per 2 tablespoons-- I splurged on the first bottle $3.99 at Target, but now it's on sale 2/$6)

* half a small red apple, peeled into ribbons

* somewhere around 1/4 cup shredded Parmesan cheese

I break my chicken into tiny mixes and mix it all up.

Nutty Chicken Salad

My family called this "peanut tasting" even though it has no nuts. Must be the sunflower seeds.

This isn't my best chicken salad, but the nutty flavor made it a little different. I prefer a fruitier chicken salad.

- 1 can chicken breast, which my husband mashed into shreds with a fork

- about 2 tablespoons light blue cheese dressing 

- about 3 tablespoons raisins

- about 3 tablespoons dry roasted sunflower seed kernels

- about 1/2 teaspoon garlic pepper 

- about 3/4 teaspoon paprika

Fall flavors chicken salad

Yesterday, I used my Target pharmacy rewards and did a huge shopping order-- household items, Christmas shopping, clothing and groceries. My fridge and freezer are so full I had to toss a whole chicken in the crockpot yesterday. 

Today I have chicken bone stock brewing and I made some of the chicken into chicken salad.

I used about 32 ounces (?) chicken.

My other dry ingredients were:

- the biggest organic carrot I've ever seen, which, once my daughter peeled and grated it, yielded about 1 1/2 cups

- a small local apple, also grated

- and two tablespoons of the cranberry-clementine-almond relish I made last fall.

And the dressing:

- about two teaspoons mayo

- about one teaspoon organic peppercorn ranch dressing

- about two tablespoons plain nonfat yogurt

Chicken salad variations

To use up the cucumber salad, my husband and I opted to make chicken salad. We had some skinless, boneless chicken in the freezer that he cooked.

We mixed the cucumber salad with the chicken once we chopped it. Then we added spices: Italian seasoning, garlic pepper. I also added golden raisins.

I split the chicken into two bowls, one heavy on the cucumber and the other heavy on the meat. The meaty bowl got mayo while the other got serious amounts of buffalo sauce. I added soft goat cheese crumbles to both.

Served on apple fritter bread with heaps of fresh spinach.

Beverage was a strawberry yogurt smoothie. (Serves three.)

- two cups strawberries

- one container strawberry rhubarb noosa yogurt

- one carnation instant breakfast packet in French vanilla

- about four ounces very vanilla soy milk

Chicken salad on baguette

Today's lunch:

Chicken salad on baguette with organic baby lettuce with sides of watermelon and large curd cottage cheese with home-canned apple butter.

The chicken salad includes...
(In addition to the chicken)
- mayo
- garlic pepper
- one carrot peeled into ribbons
- 1/2 cup blueberries and raspberries
- 1 strip bacon torn into tiny pieces

Asian flair chicken salad

This smells incredible.

I started with a few steady drops of sesame oil in my cast iron skillet adding:
- ginger
- pinch curry
- garlic pepper
- lots of parsley
- diced candied ginger

Added a diced pear and 6 ounces diced chicken. Sautéed together adding more sesame oil and low sodium soy sauce.

Added tiny bits of broccoli and grated carrot.

Chilled it. Added 2 teaspoons mayo and 2 teaspoons horseradish sauce.

Recent food

You can tell child is away.

Recent meals:
Kraft macaroni and cheese with peas and Parmesan.
Vouvray and jalapeño poppers.

And now a real lunch!
Chicken salad...
- Chicken
- mayo
- that tzayaki (sp) yogurt dressing I can never spell
- fresh ground black pepper
- country herb seasoning
- mandarin oranges
- golden raisins
- sliced almonds

To be served on Archer Farms Blueberry Breakfast bread with lettuce.

Chickenless salad

Uggh.

Got home from Bottom Dollar and chopped the following for chicken salad:
- 1/2 a large cucumber
- about 1/4 cup each green and red pepper
- about 1/2 cup mandarin oranges
- almost 2 teaspoons country herb seasoning
- enough mayo to moisten

And I realized...
I
Don't
Have
Any
Chicken

PS-- this story has a happy ending. I ran to the store to fill out child's makeup bag for the recital and got some chicken, too.

Chicken salad on pretzel rolls

I bought Gabby's Pretzel Dinner Rolls at Target. These are scrumptious little things.

I make many varieties of chicken salad, and the label 'chicken' salad will take you to them. I liked this one, despite the low volume of crunchy bits.

- one can, 12-ounce, canned white meat chicken, diced
- about 2 teaspoons mayonnaise (I often use vegan mayonnaise, but today I used regular)
- one teaspoon country herb seasoning
- 1/4 cup mandarin oranges (I use a sharp knife to cut the oranges into thirds)
- 1/4 cup chopped apple (leftover from the orchard)
- 1/4 cup blueberries (I let frozen blueberries thaw inside the mix)
- shredded carrots and red cabbage picked out of a Fresh Express Veggie Lover's Salad

Summer fruit and fresh herb chicken salad

This is to accompany that bread I have on the rise. A perfect cold meal for a hot day.

-12.5 ounces chicken
- one cup fruit (I used local strawberries, local raspberries, a handful of red grapes and a three by two inch chunk of watermelon)

Dressing:
- 1/8 cup vegan mayo
- 1/8 cup Chobani mango yogurt
- two teaspoons Newman's Own Raspberry Walnut Dressing
- one teaspoon country herb blend
- 1/4 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper

Stir then add from the garden:
- 3 large leaves French sorrel, chopped
- about four tablespoons parsley
- one tablespoon dill

Christmas Chicken Salad

Today is my little Christmas mixer with one of my editing clients. He told me he'd prepare hot mulled cider that we could mix with rum, cheese and crackers. When he interviewed me, he served me real tea. With loose leaves and a tea pot. That's when I knew I could work with this guy.

So, he said I could bring something but no hinted as to what.

What would complement but not upstage cheese and crackers, preferably with some fruit/veg matter?

I decided on chicken salad.

Today's Christmas Chicken Salad
- one can white meat chicken, chopped (12.5 ounces)
- half a large cucumber, diced
- one box 'sour' peach infused golden raisins
- 1/4 cup blueberries and raspberries, frozen, and thawed (reserve about two to three tablespoons berry juice for dressing)

For the dressing:
- less than 1/4 cup light mayonnaise
- 2 tablespoons lemon-dill mustard (Archer Farms)
-1/2 teaspoon organic four-color pepper
-1/2 teaspoon country herb blend
- juice reserved from berries

Mix dressing. In a bowl, mix salad ingredients. Apply dressing. Stir and chill long enough to allow flavors to blend.

Avocado Recycle: Green chicken salad

I made some chili for dinner tonight and when I went into the cupboard for the roasted tomatoes, I noticed a can of chicken. I received the canned chicken as a gift, and I like having it around for impromptu batches of chicken salad (cravings do happen).

So yesterday, since I didn't have avocados firm enough for the avocado salad, I mashed them into a dip which my husband enjoyed snacking on with crackers. I commented that it would make an awesome topping for a turkey breast sandwich on a big bun.

Enter can of chicken. Remove last loaf of English muffin bread from freezer and toss in oven. Mix chicken and avocado-mustard dip and pile on bread with romaine.

So, I mixed:

• the can of chicken
• the avocado dip made from two avocados
• about 1 teaspoon it's a dilly
• the remaining dressing from the attempt at avocado salad
• about 1 teaspoon four color organic peppercorn
• about 1/4 cup cucumber

And what I've created is some really green chicken salad!

I love it! It's fabulous.

More chicken salad lunch

Yesterday's chicken was a hit with everyone. I gave my daughter the option of having chicken salad or something else for lunch today and she picked chicken. I told her she could have chicken salad wrap like yesterday, chicken salad with crackers or chicken salad with greens.

She chose greens. I put some greens in the bottom of the dish with a touch of ranch dressing, and topped it with chicken salad. Other items include a banana and animal crackers and some mixed nuts. With a juice box, because there was no room left for the thermos.

I am floored by this choice. I expected crackers to be the winner. A wrap is hard for a kid to handle and keep the food inside. A salad is so grown up and boring. Crackers combine the idea of making tiny sandwiches with the concept of dipping, which is very kid-friendly. But she chose salad. How about that?

Chicken salad experiment

I made chicken salad for our lunches tomorrow. I was originally thinking wraps with greens and chicken salad, but I could also do homemade cinnamon raisin bread from the freezer. Either with tomatoes. We got tons of tomatoes.

I started with about 2 cups of chicken, white and dark meat.
I added:
- 1.5 tablespoons mayonnaise
- about 1 teaspoon It's a Dilly
- about 1/4 cup shredded carrots
- about 1/4 cup petite diced green pepper from the garden
- less than 1/4 cup diced cucumber
- less than 1/4 cup unsalted sunflower seeds
- less than 1/4 cup raspberries and blueberries (frozen)
- about six dried strawberries chopped

Tomorrow will tell what it tastes like.

Jessica's Feast

My dear friend Jessica's feast. She came over and made me (and my family) lunch.

- Romaine Lettuce, straight up, French style
- Incredible chicken salad made with organic chicken, coconut, mandarin oranges, craisins, blueberries and cucumber. YUM.
- a soft baguette. She likes them soft. I like them crusty. Almost sounds like we're talking about men, doesn't it?
- Brie

I provided:
- Beaujolais
- Rose iced tea
- Squares of Ghiradelli chocolate for dessert, some 60% dark, some expresso escape.

Chicken salad picnic

As part of our picnic, Gayle made the following chicken salad:

20 ounces of shredded cooked chicken
1 small apple, diced small
15-20 grapes cut in half or quarters if large
1 handful sliced almonds

Mix together

Add dressing of 1 part Mayo and 1 part plain Greek Yogurt or regular
yogurt drained.

There was a lot of grapes (which I liked, they were *perfect* red grapes) and we could have used some more almonds, but then, I love almonds. I love fruity chicken salad. And Gayle and I had the discussion that we're not fans of mayo, so hence the yogurt substitution. Gayle said she read you could used mashed avocado instead of mayo for the fat, and so we added sliced avocado. That was yummy. So there may be something to this avocado idea.

Chicken Salad on Pecan-Raisin Bread

The chicken salad I made this morning came out nice, but what made the sandwich was the bread.

I served with fresh strawberries and "new pickles," both from the farmers market.

My husband hates pickles, but he likes the new pickles because they are salted cucumbers more than pickles. My husband hates vinegar .

I am posting the photos from lunch, because presentation is important. And I like to share.

Feel the Love (Chicken Salad, Lavender Green Tea, and fresh berries)

My girlfriend Shannon has a philosophy for any major purchase: "Feel the Love."

It's okay to spend $100 on a fabulous pair of jeans IF you feel $1oo worth of love. But sometimes, even if something is reduced to $20 from that original $100, and even if it fits, if you're not feeling the love worth the $20, it's not worth buying. Makes sense, doesn't it?

I do that with food. I won't pay $3 for a loaf of factory-processed sliced bread. And occasionally I feel the $4.50 worth of love for the bakery bread I have deemed "magic bread." (Giant's multigrain sandwich bread, it makes the GREATEST toast ever.)

I made a second walk around the farmers market yesterday because I thought I felt the love for the $6.25 fairly large loaf of pecan-raisin bread. It screamed "good toast," "eat me with peanut butter" and "I'm not just bread, I'm dessert." So, I bought it.

Now, remember I spent $40ish total, and this included $15 worth of rabbit. That means 1/2 of what I spent was on two items: a rabbit and a loaf of bread. The rest was produce and spices.

In the same "feel the love" philosophy, I took four organic green tea tea bags and the last two teaspoons or so of my expensive bottle of lavender honey to brew iced tea. (The tea bags were a find at the warehouse club last summer and they're individually wrapped so I don't have to worry about them aging poorly.

Meanwhile, I'm making some plain-style chicken salad to go with the fancy bread. My daughter and I already cut the fresh strawberries (and knowing her, by lunch they may be gone.) I had planned fresh apricot in my chicken salad, but I don't think my apricots are ripe. I slipped a pinch of It's a dilly seasoning, garlic pepper and curry into the cooking chicken.

I sliced and shredded about two cups of chicken, added about two teaspoons of fresh parsley from my garden and at least two, maybe more, teaspoons of fresh chives from my garden.

I lubricated it with 1/2 cup vegan light canola mayonnaise (I hate real mayo, always have. So does my dad). My recipe says 1 cup "dressing" but I thought that would be too wet for the amount of chicken I had, so I added, in addition to the canola mayo, three tablespoons Wegmans ranch yogurt dressing.

I can't wait to serve on the new bread with thin-sliced tomato and red leaf lettuce from the farmers market. I wish it were lunch time.

Another Fine Wawa Meal

Once upon a time there was a mom who loved to cook. One day, her life exploded and her college classes, her job and her volunteer commitments all needed attention at the same time. Between that and kindergarten registration and the flood and and illness and spring in general, any attempts to cook flew out the window.

For breakfast, my daughter had Aldi brand Peanut Butter Crunch and soy milk. For lunch, she had pollock on homemade bread and whatever else my husband packed. I had one slice buffalo chicken pizza, that was brunch for me. Then my daughter and I split a Nature Valley almond granola bar.

For dinner, my husband went to Wawa as he waited for us to come and get him. (He worked until 4:30. I got out at 5 in a town 14 miles away.) He said the pickin's were slim. He settled on a chicken salad whole wheat wrap and a club sandwich with cheddar on marble rye. He also got apple slices with caramel dip and watermelon. And the sandwich came with a whole dill pickle. Our daughter loves pickles. Total spent: $15.

Daughter had watermelon, apples, 1/3 of the chicken salad wrap, a few bites of the turkey sandwich and several bites of the pickle. I had the remaining 2/3 of the wrap, the remaining 1/2 of the turkey sandwich the two of us had planned to share, and I think three apple slices. This was augmented by some leftover spinach-ham-bean soup and Aldi brand fritos with Aldi brand red pepper hummus. My husband had the other half of the turkey sandwich, a BIG bowl of the soup, a couple apples, some watermelon, and some hummus with multigrain gluten free crackers.

My first chicken salad!!!

After surveying my friends and my cookbooks, I have decided to try my hand at chicken salad.

My friends all recommended curry. And various fruits. And since my favorite chicken salad on earth is that of my high school English teacher and involves grapes... and my second favorite is the Apple Walnut Chicken Salad at Java's Brewin at New and Broad Street in Bethlehem...

A random little cookbook from my mother, Salads and Dressings Varied and Delicious by G&R Publishing, 1993, lists the following for chicken salad:

Chicken Salad

from Salads and Dressings Varied and Delicious

2 cups cooked chicken, diced coarse

1 cup celery diced

3/4 cup peeled cucumbers

1 TBS finely cut green onion

Dash salt

1 cup salad dressing

Angel's Chicken Salad with Fruit

1 3/4 cup chicken

1 cup chopped apple

1/2 cup golden raisins

1/2 cup chopped grapes

1/2 cup nut topping

1 tsp. it's a dilly

3/4 cup Nayonnaise/ soy mayonnaise