JBug's Kitchen Antics: Fruit and Nuts Chicken Salad

01/17/2014

Fruit and Nuts Chicken Salad

Leftover chicken in this household often means a chicken salad's in our future. While there's an unlimited number of items that can be made from cold bird, salad's one of Big Guy's favorites so I made a deal with him - you go get your hair cut, and I'll make you chicken salad. Interesting that it takes bribery to get that job done, huh.

There's no question we've a ton of chicken salad recipes on this site but you're only limited by your imagination. Last night's version included dried cranberries, snipped apricots and walnuts, toasted for extra flavor and crunch, along with the usual sweet onion, celery and sweet bell peppers.

Dressed with a mixture of mayonnaise and sour cream, I used the last of our Kicky Kumquat Marmalade to add a little punch of flavor, but plain orange marmalade and chopped jalapeno's would work as well.

It was a nice "light" dinner or would have been had we limited ourselves to just one serving. By the way, that's the third meal we've enjoyed from a single roasted 5 pound bird and that's not including the leftover leftovers we've each had for lunch and no, we're not tired of chicken yet. Too bad the bird's toast.

Fruit and Nuts Chicken Salad an original from JBug’s Kitchen Antics

4 cups bite sized pieces of roasted chicken

1/2 sweet onion, finely chopped

2 stalks celery, finely chopped

1/4 cup chopped assorted sweet bell peppers

1/3 cup snipped dried apricots

1/2 cup dried cranberries

2/3 cup walnut pieces, toasted

1/2 cup mayonnaise

1/4 cup sour cream

1/3 cup Kicky Kumquat Marmalade

Salt and course ground black pepper

Combine chicken, onion, celery, bell peppers, apricots, cranberries and toasted walnuts together. In a small bowl, whisk together mayonnaise, sour cream and marmalade. Fold into chicken mixture. Taste for seasoning adding salt and pepper as needed. Chill a minimum of 1 hour before serving to mellow flavors.

Two years ago - Flourless Kumquat Cake