My daughter, Danielle, has been a fan of chicken salad for years. She would come home and talk about the great ingredients from each one she tried. I never liked chicken salad, probably because I'm not a big mayonnaise fan. The more the mayonnaise, the less I am willing to try the dish. One day I decided I would try a few variations of chicken salad and see what happened. I made some with chicken chunks, red onion and celery, others I would grind with nuts and Craisins. In the end, we had a favorite. I named it Danielle's since she is the reason I now enjoy chicken salad.
Ingredients:
1 (2-3 pound) oven-roasted chicken, cooked
1/3 cup of celery, finely chopped
1/3 cup of walnuts, chopped
1/3 cup of orange-flavored Craisins, chopped
2/3 cup of mayonnaise (more or less, your choice)
Salt and pepper to taste
Preparation:
Remove chicken from the bone. Chop into chunks (about 1 inch by 1 inch). I pull it with my hands and shred it in my fingertips. It makes small soft chunks. Add celery, walnuts and Craisins. Mix together. Add mayonnaise. Add salt and pepper to taste. Serve immediately or chill.
I love serving chicken salad on fresh Italian bread. Mix up a batch..or two, it's delicious and disappears quickly.
