When I was a little girl, I loved to go spend the week with my grandparents. They had cable TV and Little Debbies, two things that did not exist in my house. Like any good grandparents, they loved to treat us to our favorite things and on the top of my list for every visit was my Mamaw’s chicken salad. Hindsight 20/20, there wasn’t anything extraordinary about it other than she made it just for me. If I was sharing her recipe, it would only include sweet relish, boiled chicken, mayonnaise and salt and pepper. This recipe for Sort-of- Southern Chicken Salad is a nod to her and my love for chicken salad.
My history with chicken salad didn’t stop at my Mamaw’s house. In high school, I worked at a bakery and cafe in my home town. One of my jobs every morning was to shredd the rotisserie chickens for our chicken salad. Then I went of to college and discovered the most incredible little lunch-time spot in a strip mall that served over a dozen different varieties of chicken salad. Ten years later, that one, tiny, strip mall restaurant is now a thriving chain all over the Southestern US. The growth of that restaurant tells me that there must also be lots of you that like chicken salad as much as I do.
Before moving to Costa Rica, I did a few local fundraisers selling chicken salad lunches. I had to cut off the sales at 100 lunches each time and thanks to my Dad, we managed to pull off the cooking, packing and deliveries. When it came time to decide what chicken salad recipe I was going to follow, I couldn’t pick one. There were parts of so many that I loved, but none were exactly what I wanted for a classic. This recipe combines some of my favorite parts of other recipes, making for the perfect Sort-of-Southern Chicken Salad. It’s a classsic, with a twist, full of tart green apples, sweet dried cranberries, and crunchy celery. For the perfect chicken for this chicken salad, follow our recipe our Best Baked Chicken.
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To mix up this Sort-of-Southern Chicken Salad, you will need…
Sort-of-Southern Chicken Salad
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup mayonnaise
- 1/4 cup sweet pickle relish
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp pepper
- 1/4 tsp garlic powder
- 2 cup chicken, shredded
- 1/4 cup celery, finely chopped
- 1/3 cup dried sweetened cranberries
- 1/3 cup green apple, finely chopped
Instructions
- In a medium bowl, add mayonnaise, relish, salt, pepper, and garlic powder. Combine to make the dressing.
- To the dressing, fold in the chicken, celery, cranberries and apple to mix all ingredients together.
- Let sit at least 30 minutes, or up to 24 hours before serving.
Notes
- Store chicken salad in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.
- For the chicken, we recommend our Best Baked Chicken. If you are short on time, a rotisserie chicken works great, too! Just be sure to shred your chicken while it is still warm.
- Serve with crackers, on a sandwich, or for a true Southern lunch, add a scoop to a bed of lettuce with some fruit on the side.