Chicken Salad to Summon Summer

I love chicken salad.

It reminds me of a warm summer day.  This isn't summer?  Hmm.  Guess I'll make it anyway.

I feel that chicken salad is like meatloaf: Everybody's favorite is different.  It's almost risky to make your chicken salad for company.  But this chicken salad I would make for you, if you were my company.

I have three favorite kinds of chicken salad. 1. My mom's (duh).  2. My friend Delena 's.  It's ranchy carrotty.  (This isn't the link to her recipe; it's the link to her blog. I don't know if her recipe is on her blog archives somewhere or not.) 3. This kind.

A couple years ago my husband and I went to Fort Worth, Texas, to visit a friend.  We went to some soupy sandwich lunch spot.  I have no idea what it was called.  I got chicken salad.

Upon reflection, I have no idea why I got chicken salad.  It's usually so filled with fatty mayonnaise that I would choose something else.  Guess it sounded really good; either that, or I was pregnant.  That's probably it, considering I've been pregnant since I got married. (Don't worry; I am NOT pregnant.)

When I arrived back home, I immediately tried to duplicate the recipe.  This is what I came up with: It's low-calorie, but it's very sweet.  If you aren't into sweet, you may want to alter the ingredients ... a lot.

Cranberry-Orange Chicken Salad
(serves 4)

3 large cooked and cooled chicken breasts
1/3 cup sliced almonds
1/2 cup Craisins or other brand of dried cranberries
1/2 cup low-fat mayonnaise
1 Tbsp. orange juice
1 Tbsp. honey
low-calorie, whole grain buns or bread

Cook your chicken breasts however you like to cook chicken breasts.  I like to spray mine with olive oil-based cooking spray, sprinkle with salt and pepper, cover in foil and bake at 350 degrees for about 40 minutes.  You may have a better method.

Let your breasts cool (because who likes hot chicken salad?) and cut into large chunks.  This is where you need your food processor.

I have mixed emotions about food processors.  They are so handy and so difficult all at once.  Mine weighs as much as my husband.  It also has 82 parts that all need to be hand-washed.

Yet nothing can chop my chicken like my food processor.  Use a blender if you must, but I forever pledge my loyalty to Mr. Cuisinart Q. Foodprocessor.

Place your chicken pieces in the food processor.

Pulse five or six times, until your chicken is chopped into nice sizes.  I'm not talking smithereens, just a nice size like this:

Now it is time to toss in your almonds.  Almonds give the salad the crunch.  And you know it needs the crunch.

The Craisins give it color, flavor and that delicious chewy texture.

Now it's time for the dressing.  You should probably get out another small bowl for this part.  Dressings are scary when it comes to calories.  This one isn't too bad.  I don't like my chicken to be drowning in dressing anyway, and the low-fat mayo is kinda tasty.  I use Kraft.  You can use whatever you have, but I do recommend low-fat.

Take your 1/3 cup mayo and mix in 1 Tbsp. of orange juice and your 1 Tbsp. honey.  Actually, I'd start with slightly less OJ.  If you don't, you might end up with soggy, nasty chicken salad.  I've never done that, of course.  Just a hunch.

Mix and then add to your salad.

Stir it up, and you should have the perfect amount of moisture in your salad – just enough, not too much.

To avoid carbohydrate indulgence, you could eat your chicken salad over lettuce, by itself.  But that's not my style.

These are so tasty, and each one has 110 calories.  I only ate half of it.  It was so worth 55 calories.

The final product looked like this:

Doesn't that just make you want summer?  Sweet summer, if I can't have you, I'll just eat your sandwiches.