Chunky Pecan Chicken Salad Recipe

This is the 4rd meal in a series of recipes that were derived from one another, but this time, instead of using leftovers, we are going to use the rest of the chicken meat from the Chicken Stock and Consommé recipe. Within this series, we have made 4 meals, for 2 persons, from a single chicken. This is why doing a series of meals in this fashion, not only makes preparing meals easier, it can also be friendlier to your wallet.

Feel free to play around with this recipe and make changes to suit your tastes. For example, you could add curry, change the pecans to walnuts, and add some white raisins and have a Curried Chicken Salad. You could add apples and cashews instead of grapes and pecans. You could use a food processor to pulse grind the meat for a smoother style chicken salad. You could use smoked chicken, mayo, mustard, onions, celery, and some BBQ spices and have a Smoked Chicken Salad. You are only bound by you imagination. 

Note: It is important to realize that these recipes are merely guidelines to follow. They'll taste great as they are, but I encourage you to play with them and make the recipes your own.

Note: It is good practice to read the entire recipe, while paying particular attention to the "Notes", before you try to make the dish, as there are often subtleties that can be easily overlooked, which sometimes, can make all the difference in the world for the outcome. 

Makes 4 Sandwiches

Skill Level: Beginner

Prep time 10 minutes, or less.

Ingredients:

• ½ cup chicken (roughly 1 breast and 1 thigh)
• ½ cup celery, small dice
• ¼ cup yellow or Vidalia onion, small diced
• ¾ cup red seedless grapes, cut in ½
• ½ cup toasted and salted pecan halves, lightly chopped
• ½ cup mayonnaise 
• ¼ cup sour cream
• 1 tablespoon yellow mustard
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
• ¼ teaspoon pepper

Tools needed:

• 1 medium bowl
• Chef's knife
• 1 rubber spatula for stirring

Large dice the chicken meat.

In a sauteuse pan, heat a tablespoon of olive oil and add the pecan halves and a ½ teaspoon of salt. Using medium to high heat, toast the pecans, flipping them often, to keep them from burning.

 When the pecans have toasted, place them on a cutting board and lightly chop.

Note: I toast the pecans whole and then chop them, instead of the other way around. I do this for two reasons: a) if you chop them ahead of time, you will have pieces of all different sizes, which will all take different times to toast.  As halves, the pecans uniformly sized. b) the excess oil will drain off on the cutting board. 

Here is the trick to dicing celery.

Using your chef's knife, gently, but firmly use the broad side if the blade to tamp the rib of celery flat.

Note: Crush the celery as little as possible. If you over crush the celery, it will begin to disintegrate.

If you are over crushing the celery, it will begin to split apart. As you can see in the photo, there is very little splitting and the rib is largely intact.












Cut the celery into strips

Cross cut the strips to small dice the celery.

Cut all the grapes in half.
















Toss all the ingredients in a bowl and mix well with a spatula.

Can be served immediately, but best if left to rest in the refrigerator for at least an hour

Served on Toasted Wheat with Garden Fresh Celery Tops

Server however you like it and enjoy :)