chicken celery salad with spiced mayonnaise
So far, we’ve talked about stir-frying chicken, cooking it in a balsamic vinegar sauce and grounding it to use in patties. I have so many other chicken recipes to share with you as chicken is — by far — one of my favorite weeknight ingredients to cook, but today I want to focus on one simple recipe: chicken salad. There are approximately 16,600,000 Google results for “chicken salad recipe”, and about the same amount of different ways to prepare it. Some include grapes, avocado or zucchini, others use a mayonnaise dressing while a couple are made without. What I love about chicken salad is not only its versatility, but most of all the fact that it makes an easy lunch (or dinner) to prepare in advance and bring to work with you the next day.
Making a chicken salad couldn’t be easier, turning it into the perfect dish to put together during a lazy rainy weekend. This recipe needs a bit of prepping: You can boil the chicken breasts in advance, as they need to cool down before being incorporated into the salad. Once cool, chop them up into about 2cm slices, and mix in the rest of the vegetables. I like to add chopped green onion, celery and parsley, but I’ve also had this salad with dried cranberries and almonds, which gave it a delicious crunch. As Jon is not a big fan of cranberries, I decided to leave them out this time around (but you should definitely try adding them!).
My dream chicken salad includes a creamy dressing made out of mayonnaise. It may not be the healthiest condiment out there, but there’s nothing quite like it! I’ve used mayonnaise in my salad dressings before (see this broccoli and cauliflower salad), but what I really love about this one is the spices combined in it. I mixed mayonnaise with white wine vinegar, Dijon mustard, a pinch of turmeric and some mild paprika to create a creamy dressing with a flavor like no other. Turmeric and paprika are two spices that go wonderfully well with chicken, toning down the egg-flavor of mayonnaise while balancing out all the flavors of the salad.
This salad is perfect served as is, but tastes just as good when combined with lettuce leaves drizzled with a bit of olive oil, or sandwiched between two whole wheat toasts to pack for lunch. Chicken salad is truly a beautiful thing; ask anyone how they prepare it and you’ll end up with a zillion possibilities. What’s your favorite way to prepare it? We hope this one will become one of your favs!
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- 1kg chicken breasts
- 1 ½ tablespoons chicken or vegetable stock
- 1 cup fresh parsley, chopped
- 1 green onion, white and green part chopped
- 2 celery stalks, chopped
- ½ cup mayonnaise
- 1 teaspoon white wine vinegar
- 1 ½ teaspoons Dijon mustard
- ⅛ teaspoon turmeric
- ¼ teaspoon mild paprika
- Salt and pepper, to taste
- Bring a large saucepan of water to a boil with the chicken stock. Add the chicken breasts, cover, reduce heat to low and let simmer for 30 minutes until cooked through. Set aside to cool completely.
- Slice the chicken breasts into 2cm slices. Place all the slices in a big mixing bowl. Add the parsley, green onion and celery.
- In a small bowl, combine the mayonnaise with the white wine vinegar, Dijon mustard, turmeric, paprika, salt and pepper. Pour the dressing over the chicken and mix well to combine, making sure to coat each piece of chicken in the mayonnaise.
- Serve at room temperature.
The chicken breasts can be cooked a day ahead and stored in a Tupperware in the fridge until the next day
You can make the salad in the morning and let it sit in the fridge until ready to serve. Serve at room temperature
OPTIONAL: You can add chopped almonds or dried cranberries
How did your chicken salad with celery and spiced mayonnaise come out? Share photos of your recipe on Instagram with the hashtag #savormania