Simple Chicken Salad

Perhaps you aren't in the mood for a warm, fork & knife style sandwich for lunch, like the Fork & Knife Chicken Sandwich.  Well, fear not, odd duck (just saw a show with a food cart called "Odd Duck," so I had to figure out how to use that phrase!).  This is a recipe for a simple - yet quite delicious - chicken salad that can also be made from the leftovers of the Roast Chicken with Vegetables.  It can be eaten as a sandwich (which is my favorite), over a bed of lettuce, or with a fork and some crackers.  As always, don't be afraid to tweak the proportions of this recipe to suit your own tastes.  Once you get the hang of it, you can also experiment with other spices and ingredients.

Simple Chicken Salad

Prep Time: 5+ minutes

Cooking Time: N/A

Yield: 2 cups

Ingredients:

-  2 cups roast chicken, chopped (all skin and fat removed)
-  3/4 - 1 cup mayonnaise
-  2-3 Tbsp sweet relish
-  2 tsp garlic powder
-  2 tsp onion powder

Tools:

-  Bowl
-  Spoon/fork/spatula

Directions: 

1)  Make sure the pieces of chicken are approximately bite-sized and put them in your mixing bowl.

2)  Add the mayonnaise, relish, garlic powder, and onion powder, and mix until well combined.

3)  Taste and adjust the amount of each ingredient as you see fit. 

4)  Proceed with eating the chicken salad.

Helpful Hints:

-   I do not recommend freezing chicken salad.  If you are going to freeze anything out of this recipe, just prep the chicken by chopping it up and freeze that in a container until ready to use.  Make sure you thaw it thoroughly first...otherwise you'll be eating chicken ice cube salad...which is decidedly not appetizing.

-  This is exactly what I do to make tuna salad.  My nonna and mom have been making tuna salad this way for as long as I can remember, so I just transferred the recipe to chicken salad.   All you do is substitute a can or two of tuna (I prefer the chunk white albacore) for the chicken.

-  This recipe very much follows the "eehhhh, that looks like enough" measurement style.  You pretty much add stuff until it looks right.  After making this enough times, you will be able to make this without measuring and get it perfect every time.

Enjoy!