March Secret Recipe Club: THE Chicken Salad from Everyday Insanity

Hard to believe, but it's already time for the March Secret Recipe Club reveal! This month, I was assigned the blog Everyday Insanity. Cindy's motto is, "Tackling Life One Brownie At a Time," which seems like a great philosophy to me!! While looking through her blog over the past few weeks, I've discovered that Cindy loves spending time with her kids and grandkids...and she cooks lots of tasty dishes. Narrowing down which recipe to feature was hard, but I knew I'd found what I was looking for when I stumbled upon her recipe for Party Chicken Salad Sandwiches, which she calls THE chicken salad!

I love chicken salad, but I don't really have a go-to recipe...not until now, at least! Cindy's chicken salad has lots of great flavor and texture going on from the addition of bacon, dried cherries, nuts, and a flavorful creamy dressing. I made a few minor changes to her recipe to use what I had on hand in my kitchen; I used dried cranberries instead of the cherries, and I used shallots instead of green onions and added some black pepper to the dressing. When I got home with my roasted chicken, it was a bit smaller than I had estimated...so I had to scale down the ingredients for 3 cups of diced chicken. 

THE Chicken Salad

adapted from Everyday Insanity

Step 1:  Add the following ingredients to a large bowl: 3 cups diced chicken breast (I used roasted chicken from the deli to save time, but you can also cook chicken tenders yourself), 3 pieces bacon (cooked and crumbled), 1/3 cup roasted pecan pieces, 1/3 cup dried cranberries, and 1 cup sliced celery. 

Step 2:  Combine the following ingredients in a small bowl: 1/2 cup mayo, 1/2 cup sour cream, 1 tbs. lemon juice, 1/2 tsp. sea salt, a few grinds black pepper, and 2 tbs. finely diced shallot. Whisk to combine and add to the bowl with the chicken mixture.

Step 3:  Stir well to evenly mix up the ingredients. Refrigerate for about 30 minutes to let all the flavors combine and chill. Serve the chicken salad on split croissants or on a bed of lightly dressed salad greens. 

This really is fabulous chicken salad...every bite is a little bit different. Sometimes you get the sweet-tart cranberries, and sometimes a bit of smoky bacon. I had never added sour cream to chicken salad before, but it made a nice difference in the texture and cut some of the richness of the mayo. Even better? The leftovers were even better the next day, after the flavors had a chance to hang out and mingle a bit more. 

I had some of the leftover chicken salad wrapped in a warmed flour tortilla with some romaine lettuce, and it made a fantastic wrap sandwich! I have a feeling that this chicken salad is going to be in my regular rotation as we move into Spring and Summer. By using store-bought roasted chicken, I was able to whip this up in about 20 minutes by making the dressing and chopping the chicken and celery while the bacon cooked.