World’s Best Chicken Salad
It’s hard to title any recipe “World’s Best” – I mean really. Who’s judging recipes to hand out that title, right??
Well, in this case, YOU.
A couple weeks ago, my friend Ellen at Footprints Farm ask me to sever up some samples of their amazing pasture raised meats for their Fayette County Wednesday Walks visitors.
Of course I said yes.
Fayette County Wednesday Walks is a group that gets together at a different local place/landmark and takes a walk together. Isn’t that awesome?? CLICK HERE to learn more.Â
We decided on just a few snacks, featuring pastured chicken and pork, for the folks touring the farm to nibble on after their walk.
For most of the visitors, this was their first time seeing a local, organic, pasture farm and also would be their first time sampling pasture raised meats. (but not those cuties in the photo above, they are a healthy eating family who already prioritizes high quality foods!)Â
I took a few pork steaks and seasoned them up with s&p – baked them until the fatty goodness rendered perfectly, then cut them into bite sized pieces. Easy peasy. High quality pork tends to sell itself, you don’t need to do much to it for it to taste amazing.
But chicken on the other hand.. well it can be a little boring.
So, I decided to take Footprints Farm‘s pastured chicken (mostly thighs & legs) and turn it into chicken salad, the perfect crisp and cool snack for a blazing hot day.
But what I didn’t realize was that my chicken salad isn’t what most people make or enjoy at home….
Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m very well adjusted to making delicious food and having people rave over it (not to toot my own horn too loudly, cooking is kind-of my thing).. but this was different.
Person after person exclaimed that it was the Best Chicken Salad they ever ate!
Without their compliments, I wouldn’t have thought to share this recipe with you but practically everyone begged for the recipe. I must have listed off the ingredients from memory at least 25 times… but I wanted to be sure that everyone could enjoy the World’s Best Chicken Salad at home too.
***THANK YOU to everyone who attended Fayette County Wednesday Walks at Footprints Farm, it was great meeting you! ***
The #1 secret is starting out with Pasture Raised Chicken. There simply is no compromise. It’s has so much more flavor than conventionally raised, unhealthy chicken. While you can use roasted/baked/grilled chicken (freshly made or leftovers) – I prefer to pressure cook my chicken for chicken salad.
Why pressure cook?
Easy.
I’m hella-lazy. And pressure cooking is hella-easy.
I can go from frozen chicken to cooked in just 30 minutes. No mess. No fuss. And especially, no worries of over cooking. It’s always deliciously tender.
Plus you get awesome broth too!
CLICK here to learn all the pressure cooker details, including the PC I recommend.
Yes – and we MUST talk about these beautiful olive wood bowls featured in these photos from my friends at Beldinest! OMGEEEEE – it was literally love at first sight. You can grab a set HERE.Â
One last thing, YES….. I’m all about health and YES…. I’m telling you that it’s totally OK to eat mayonnaise!
But not just ANY old mayonnaise, just like you gotta start with the best quality, pasture raised chicken you need to bring your Chicken Salad together with the best mayo.
Look for mayonnaise made with Avocado Oil, just like eating avocados is super healthy so is avocado oil. (see below for my picks on Amazon)
I enjoy this chicken salad on cucumber rounds (like we served at Wednesday Walks) or right out of the bowl most often BUT currently I’m obsessed with having it with Plantain Chips!!
Local friends, CLICK HERE to place an order for your Pastured Chicken from Footprints Farm – not only are you getting healthy food for your hard earned dollars, Â you are also supporting one of the most amazing families I’ve ever met #farmercrush and not some big corporation #bethechange #votewithyourdollars
Ingredients
- 4 cups shredded cooked chicken
- 4 cups seedless red grapes, cut in half roughly 1 pound
- 1 cup celery, chopped
- 1/4 cup Red onion
- 1/4 cup Fresh Chives, chopped
- 1+ cup mayonnaise <-- this brand
- 1/4 teaspoon Garlic Powder (optional)
- 1/4 teaspoon Onion Powder (optional)
- Sea Salt
- Black Pepper
Instructions
- Taste your cooked/shredded chicken, if it does not have adequate seasoning toss with garlic powder, onion powder and sea salt.
- In a large bowl, combine chicken, celery, red onion and mayonnaise. Mix well. Add additional mayo, as needed based on your own personal preference. I prefer extra mayo, roughly 1.25 cups total.
- Gently fold in halved grapes and fresh chives.
- Season with additional sea salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste.
- Best served chilled but if you can't wait, no worries it's yummy freshly made too!
Just out of curiosity, isn’t combining fruit with protein general extremely bad for digestion? I would personally make this recipe and switch the grapes for something like sungold cherry tomatoes; they’re still very sweet and it’s not the classic experience but it’s probably less taxing on the constant battle of endemic probiotic bacteria vs the loads of pathogens in our guts. What are your thoughts?
I think there are MILLIONS of THEORIES about food/nutrition and all MIGHT be true but they also MIGHT be a complete waste of effort. You do what feels best for your unique body. Humans have eaten and thrived on a wide variety of eating templates through our millions of years of existence. The only truth we know is that we are Opportunistic Omnivores and that there is NOT one ‘best for everyone’ human diet. Humans have thrived on nearly 100% animals and also nearly 100% plants; depending on location and food availably. With most of us historically falling somewhere in between the extremes.
I will try your recipe in the morning for a Birthday guest.