Thursday, May 22, 2008

PERFECT CHICKEN SALAD

I have been hired to cater a luncheon the weekend of the 31st. The customer has
requested chicken salad, fruit, rolls and chocolate pie for 22 people. The salad, rolls
fruit and pies are a no brainer for me. But chicken salad? I think I may have had it 2
times in my life and neither time was anything memorable--chunks of cold chicken
swimming in mayonnaise and celery--pfffft.

So I did what I always do when I am in a recipe dilemma; I went to www.allrecipes.com
Their recipes are all reviewed by real life cooks that tell the nitty gritty about what they
liked, what they didn't like, what to do different, etc about the recipes.

This chicken salad recipe received 225 rave reviews so I made it last night for our dinner
to taste test it before I make it for the luncheon. Let me just say I renamed it Perfect
because it is! Delicious, colorful, easy, nutritious, and did I say delicious? My only regret
was not doubling it--we ate it all in one sitting and it's supposed to be 8 servings! The
ONLY change I made to the recipe was to use red seedless grapes instead of green. I did
that for 2 reasons: 1) the red grapes would look nicer in the salad and 2) there were no
green grapes in the store.

**I never use canned chicken, by the way. I know some people do, but trust me when I
say you want to get chicken breasts and cook them fresh for this salad. You won't regret
it one bit when you taste this.




PERFECT CHICKEN SALAD

1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon poultry seasoning
1/4 teaspoon onion powder
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 Tablespoon lemon juice (fresh)
3 cups diced, cooked chicken breast meat
12/ cup finely chopped celery
1/2 cup chopped green onions
1 (8 oz) can water chestnuts, drained & chopped
1 1/2 cups diced Swiss Cheese
1 1/2 cups halved seedless grapes

In a medium bowl, whisk together the mayonnaise, salt, poultry seasoning, onion
powder, garlic powder, pepper and lemon juice.

In a large bowl, toss together the chicken, celery, green onion, water chestnuts,
Swiss cheese and grapes. Add the mayonnaise mixture and stir gently to coat. Chill
until serving.

Makes 8 servings.

14 comments:

Laura ~Peach~ said...

geee i wanna come live with you...that looks and sounds yummmy but my traditional southern family would die or kill me one of the two if I tried to fix them something like that. hummm maybe I could cut it in half and fix it just for me??

Grandma Tillie's Bakery said...

Laura--what do traditional southern people eat anyway? They didn't have a problem with the Alaskan Kahlua Cheesecake now did they? :-)

Bruno LoGreco said...

New to your blog - came over from Laura-peach's blog.

I'm trying the recipe tonight. Yummy - Is there a way to cook chicken, so it's tender when it comes out of the oven? I've tried millions of ways and I still can't get the perfect, moist baked chicken..

Anonymous said...

It looks delicious ~ I think it would be a nice summer evening salad!

Thanks for sharing! I hope your luncheon goes well ~ do you have a special recipe for the chocolate pie?

Have a blessed day,

Sharon

Grandma Tillie's Bakery said...

Bruno--welcome and thanks for the visit! I cook chicken breasts on a cookie sheet on the second shelf down from the top in my oven with the broiler on high. I sprinkle them liberally with greek seasoning and turn them when I can start smelling them cooking.

I think the key with moist chicken is to not overcook it. Chicken doesn't take all that long to cook through. Many times I will pull the thinnest pieces out and check to make sure they are not getting overdone while the others remain cooking. You just don't want to see any pink. Let me know if you like the salad!

Sharon--thank you for the well wishes on the luncheon. The home it is being held in is so beautiful and elegant. I am actually using the customer's pie recipe so I don't really know much about it but if it is good I will post it on here. Have a great Memorial Day holiday everyone!

Kris

Bruno LoGreco said...

broiler--Who knew?
I am going to try that - Thank you for the tip!

OneCowgirl said...

I loved your comment on Pam's mappersnapper about PW getting loads of comment regarding the posting of the 50th pic of Charlie and I can rightly be accused of leaving comments to get love hits - with that said, the perfect chicken salad recipe looks great! My recipe is about the same - use Real Mayo or what what used to be Heilmans? I buy the roasted cooked chickens from Sams they are less than $5.each - it makes it really easy and I don't finely chop the celery - then it adds more color to the salad and its crunchier...

Laura ~Peach~ said...

these critics I live with... want fried anything, rice or potatos and gravy, bread with butter, sweet tea and they do LOVE all sweets.... but salads or meat salads and they nut up on me... literally. I made something the other day... chicken breast the boneless skinless type and put the greek seasoning that I love on it and the hard heads would not even taste it! I made a turkey salad not too different from the chicken salad and they would not try it... i ate it for about three days before tossing the rest out. they will(the kids ) eat most veggies... and vegetable salads but the male... husband person would rather die than put lettuce tomato or certian other veggies past his lips... but I can boil broil bake fry or grill livers and gizzards, venison, beef and pork and he will eat until he is about to pop as long as there is gravy... sigh. And we wonder why the south is fat... anyway I will make some just for me :D cause I love things like that especially in the summer!
HUGS

Grandma Tillie's Bakery said...

Onecowgirl--Welcome and thanks for stopping by! Less than $5.00 for a cooked chicken? Only in my dreams. I love the crunch from the water chestnuts and celery in this salad too.

Laura--oh you poor thing! Fried everything would get so old. They wouldn't last very long in my household--it's veggie, veggie, veggie around here and everything from scratch. No processed food or preservatives if I can avoid it and no fried foods at all. I recently found a recipe from another blog for chicken baked in the oven that tastes just like fried. I guess I just blew away any hopes of ever having you guys visit us, eh?

Kris

Terri said...

This is my first time visiting your blog. I like it! The chicken salad looks delicious and something I definitely would love to try.

Terri

Bruno LoGreco said...

Indeed a perfect salad - DELICIOUS! Thank you for the recipe..

Niki said...

I will be giving this a try for sure. We love chicken salad. Funny, I watched the barefoot contessa on tv yesterday and she did chicken salad! Her's added toasted walnuts and pecans, which would also add a nice crunch.
blessings,
Niki

Grandma Tillie's Bakery said...

Terri--welcome and thank you for the visit! I am glad you stopped by to say hi. Thank you for the compliment on the salad, I hope you try it sometime.

Bruno--I am glad you liked the salad! Don't you like having a great recipe to keep and pull out when you want something good to eat?

Niki--let me know if you do try it. I do like nuts in salads for their crunch too. I checked out the Barefoot Contessa In Paris cookbook from the library and I really like it.

Bruno LoGreco said...

For sure - fast, easy and tasty :)