It’s February: the dog days of winter. All the bills have come in now for Christmas. Your gas and electric bill is higher than normal due to less daylight and low temperatures. If you have children, registration is due for spring sports and summer camps. We know the price of everything has skyrocketed over the past year or so…and now eggs…EGGS are a Valentine’s meme due to how expensive they have become. I’m going to share some cost-saving recipes and measures as it’s all about stretching your dollar this month!
In my last post, I shared my fantastic homemade stock recipe. Now it’s time to put the reserved pulled chicken back to work. I split mine into two batches, one for this easy chicken salad. The remainder, along with half of the stock, will be featured in my next recipe. Chicken salad is simple and approachable. Plus, you have some celery leftover from the stock recipe, so let’s not waste that. Better yet, this is fully customizable. Use a pear or apple, use raisins or dried cranberries, use almonds or walnuts, whatever you have laying around that’s not being used.
Want to go lighter and not use mayo? Use yogurt and some curry powder, or just splash on some extra-virgin olive oil and throw in some sliced grapes and almonds. Since I made a salad, my version is a little dryer and healthier (not that much mayo). If you’re going to use this in a sandwich, you will need to fatten it up just a bit.
Chicken Salad
1 pound of premade chicken salad retails for about $14, and contains more calories than this version (and who knows what else). A Chicken Salad Salad at Potbelly, with a paltry scoop of chicken salad, will run you $9. Here, you are using half of the chicken from my stock recipe, which means the value of that one chicken just doubled! You have condiments already, so you can use the remaining money on fruit, lettuce, and/or bread.
2 cups pulled chicken
2 green onions, sliced
1 apple or pear, cored and diced
½ lemon, juiced
Handful of grapes, halved
1-2 tbsp raisins
2 stalks celery, diced
Sliced almonds or chopped walnuts
⅓ cup mayonnaise
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
Heavy pinch of fresh parsley, marjoram, or dill, minced
Place the pulled chicken in a bowl. Add in the sliced green onion and diced apple. Season with salt and pepper, add the lemon juice, and give a good stir.
Add in the remaining ingredients, to your desire. Season with more salt and pepper adding more mayonnaise if preferred.
Serve on a bed of lettuce or as a sandwich.
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Copyright 2023, Brendan McCann, All Rights Reserved.
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