Chicken (or turkey) salad is often what people made when they had leftovers. Not any more! It’s so easy and versatile it could end up as your signature dish . Like any salad, choose the added ingredients according to your taste.

To make this chicken salad you will need:

• 10 oz. chicken
• 1 cup of seedless grapes
• ½ cup nuts
• ½ cup mayonnaise
• Salt and pepper

You can roast your own chicken or buy an already-cooked chicken.

I like nice chunks of chicken in my salad. Start by chopping up the chicken into slightly larger than ½ inch chunks. (Not mashed up the way tuna salad ends up looking.) Put the chicken into a medium size mixing bowl.

Rinse the grapes under cool water and let them dry. Cut the grapes in half. It is a lot easier to stab them with a fork if they are cut in half. If you have bought grapes with seeds (pips) you need to pick them out. It’s a very tedious task, so be sure to buy seedless grapes.

Walnuts add a great texture and flavor to this salad. Add ½ cup of to the bowl. It is not necessary to chop them.

About ½ cup of mayonnaise will bind the salad together. Mix that in.

Give it a taste and see if it needs some salt and pepper.

Put the salad in a serving bowl and garnish with some fresh parsley and a small bunch of grapes.

There are tons of variations you can make with chicken salad.

I often mix in ½ teaspoon of curry powder to the mayonnaise before adding it to the salad.

Chopped green onion also works well with the sweetness of the grapes.

If you didn’t have grapes, you could try raisins or dried cranberries to the mix.

You could substitute pecans, or cashews or actually any nut for the walnuts.

If you don’t like nuts, try some chopped celery or drained and chopped water chestnuts to give your chicken salad a nice crunch.

What’s your favorite addition to Chicken Salad?

Cheers!

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