Chicken Salad, Two Ways

I love chicken salad. I rarely order chicken salad at a restaurant due to the overly rich, fat-laden mayonnaise dressing that typically overpowers other flavors in the salad. How to resolve this quandary? Come up with my own recipe, of course.

I posted a recipe a while back for Cran-Walnut Chicken Salad with Wheat Berries, and I tweaked the base recipe just a bit in order to use what I had on hand (light canola mayo instead of regular canola mayo; 2% greek yogurt instead of nonfat). I also played around with the mix-ins, creating a classic celery-studded chicken salad for John, and a cranberry, walnut, and red grape chicken salad for myself.

Feel free to come up with your own add-ins and/or mayonnaise to yogurt ratio, but please don’t skip the brining process; this key step yields perfectly juicy chicken.

Celery-Studded Chicken Salad & Cran-Walnut Chicken Salad with Red Grapes

Serves 2

• 1 lb boneless, skinless chicken breast tenders
• Kosher salt
• generous 1/4 cup light canola oil mayonnaise (I like the Spectrum brand)
• 1/3 cup 2% greek yogurt
• about 1 Tbsp diced shallot
• about 2 Tbsp white wine vinegar
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Add-ins (each add-in is enough for one serving):

• 1 heaping Tbsp dried cranberries
• 1 heaping Tbsp toasted walnuts
• about 1/4 cup halved red grapes
• about 2 Tbsp diced celery

Directions:

1. Combine 1 Tbsp Kosher salt and 2 cups cold water in a bowl, stir until salt dissolves. Place chicken breast tenders in brining solution, cover, and refrigerate for 1/2 hour. Drain water.
2. Bring fresh water, enough to cover chicken breast, to a boil in a pot.  Lower heat to a simmer. Slide the chicken in, and cook for about 10 minutes.
3. While chicken is poaching, combine canola mayonnaise through salt & pepper, stir to combine ingredients. If you are putting different add-ins into each serving, separate the mayonnaise dressing into two bowls and add desired ingredients to each. When chicken is just cooked through, (chicken should NOT be pink, but should be very juicy), remove from pot and cut into 1/2 inch cubes.  Stir into mayonnaise/yogurt mixture, and refrigerate until chilled. Serve over greens or between two slices of hearty bread.