Back in my hospital days we used to sneak to the cafeteria to get a Chicken Salad snack. It was smoky, creamy and had just the right amount of sweetness to keep you coming back for another bite. After I moved to Arizona I longed for the delicious chicken salad from Winnie Palmer Hospital. I tried many iterations in my kitchen until I finally nailed it (the bacon is my own touch, because bacon makes everything better, you're welcome). This is a simple, delicious and paleo-friendly meal that your family will love.
Ingredients:
- 1 Roasted Whole Chicken
- 1 Whole Onion (Small Dice)
- 4 Celery Stalks
- ¼ Cup of Dried Cranberries
- 4 Strips of Bacon Diced
- 2 Cloves of Garlic crushed
- 1 Pinch of Cayenne Pepper
- 1 Cup of Paleo Approved Mayo
To taste:
- Coarse Ground Pepper
- Pink Himalayan Salt
It's hard to photograph the end product, so I present to you the ingredients before mixing.
Instructions:
Pick the chicken off the bones and coarsely chop it. You can use left over chicken, a rotisserie chicken or you can roast your own chicken for this recipe. I like using a whole chicken because you get a mixture of white and dark meat. As for the seasoning for the chicken, you can use any! Let your imagination fly, BBQ, lemon pepper, curry, salt and pepper, it doesn’t matter.
I like to chop the bacon before cooking it, this makes each bacon bit more uniform and it gives you more control over its crispiness. Pat it dry, and let it cool.
While the bacon is cooling, you can start chopping the veggies. The most important part is to dice the onions and the celery as small as possible. This will help get all the flavors to combine and every bite will be homogenous. The cranberries can be roughly chopped.
As for the mayo, you can use one of the many paleo approved mayonnaises. Mark Sisson has his own brand, this time I used Chosen Foods Avocado Mayo which is Paleo approved and available at Costco! If you are daring, you could even make your own Paleo mayo.
Want a creamier salad? Add more mayo. Take this as a rough guideline for your own creation. I’ve made this chicken salad with pecans, subbed the cranberries with cherries and skipped the bacon. In other words, you can customize it however you want. Serve the salad cold with some plantain chips, lettuce, tomatoes, avocado slices and pepperoncini peppers. Make enough, because you’ll find yourself walking to the fridge to have another bite.