Sally’s Chicken Salad

For many, chicken salad is the quintessential summer fare. It is easy to prepare and light and a tasty companion to many fresh fruits and vegetables of the season.

Over the Fourth of July weekend, a friend invited me to lunch and served this chicken salad. With the first bite, I knew that it was a recipe that I wanted to add to my collection of favorites.

The great thing about this chicken salad is that it is delicious just as it is or you can dress it up with other things such as crushed walnuts, dried cranberries or chopped apples for when you are feeling daring.

Created by on June 29, 2015

Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 pounds skinless chicken tenders or breasts
  • 1/2 onion chopped
  • 4 stalks of celery chopped
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
  • 1 1/4 cups mayonnaise

Instructions

  1. Place chicken in a stock pot along with half of a chopped onion, 1 stalk of chopped celery, salt and pepper. Add enough water to cover the chicken and bring to a boil. Continue to boil over a medium heat for about 15 minutes.
  2. Using a slotted spoon, remove chicken from the stock pot and set aside to cool. I like to save the stock that results from boiling the chicken, onion and celery for using in soup recipes later. It will keep in the freezer for quite some time. Store it in an airtight container or freezer bag. The nice thing about frozen stock is that it is easy to skim the fat off the top when it comes time to use it in a recipe.
  3. Once the chicken has cooled, place it in a food processor. The amount of time you process the chicken depends on how coarse or fine you would like the texture to be. For sandwiches I like a fairly smooth chicken salad, but for a dish like stuffed tomatoes, I prefer to chop the chicken to make the salad chunkier.
  4. Next scoop the chicken out of the processor into a large bowl.
  5. Chop the remaining 3 stalks of celery and add them to the bowl. Stir the chicken and celery together and then add the mayonnaise. I use 1 1/4 cup of mayonnaise, but you can add more if you like an extra moist consistency.
  6. Mix everything together, add a little salt and pepper to taste and the salad is ready to serve!