Cranberry Chicken Salad Recipe
One of the best ways to use part of a roasted chicken in the summer is for Cranberry Chicken Salad sandwiches! If I’m feeling lazy, one of my tricks is to pick up a $5-$6 roasted chicken at my local grocery store and break it up into several meals during the week. These weeks usually include tacos or soup or a casserole to use up all that chicken goodness. When it is especially warm outside (or I am feeling especially lazy!), this Cranberry Chicken Salad recipe makes it’s way onto the menu. It is soo good, and a perfect way to use part of that roast chicken.
White Meat vs Dark Meat
As you probably know by now, there are two camps of people when it comes to chicken–team white meat and team dark meat. I generally lean toward team dark meat because it has a lot more flavor. However, for this cranberry chicken salad recipe, I do recommend using the white meat. (Besides, you can save the rest for other delicious meals like Chicken Enchiladas!)
Sandwich Bread
For this recipe, I have found that a good multi-grain sandwich bread is hard to beat when paired with this cranberry chicken salad. I pile these sandwiches high with this chicken salad, so you want a sturdy bread to deliver that filling to your taste buds! Not only do the multi-grain breads tend to be a little sturdier than tradition white sandwich bread, but they also lend a good amount of flavor to the sandwich. Besides, doesn’t multi-grain just sound healthier?!? If you don’t want to eat the salad as a sandwich, then this also works well with your favorite sturdy cracker.
Assembling the Cranberry Chicken Salad
Contrary to chicken salad sandwiches that I have seen which are basically chicken and mayo, this Chicken Salad is full of fruits and nuts too! My favorite part besides the dried cranberries is the halved red grapes. They provide such a freshness to the salad which really balances out the heaviness of the mayo. If you don’t like grapes, leave them out, but they are essential in this household! Then comes the nuts. Today, I only had pistachio nuts in the cabinet, so that is what I used. However, if you have walnuts, those are the more traditional choice and work beautifully also!
Looking for Something Else?
Want another easy chicken dinner? Then this Grilled Chicken Caprese recipe might be just the right combination of easy and delicious–plus the clean up is so simple!
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Cranberry Chicken Salad Recipe
This Cranberry Chicken Salad recipe will change the way you look at chicken salad!
Ingredients
- 1 Cooked Chicken Breast
- 1/2 C. Mayonnaise
- 1/2 C. Red Grapes, halved
- 1/4 C. Pistachios (or Walnuts)--optional
- 1/4 C. Dried Cranberries
- 8 slices of Multi-grain Sandwich Bread
Instructions
- Dice the chicken into bite sized cubes.
- Add Mayonnaise, cranberries, grape halves, and nuts.
- Mix together
- Serve on bread and enjoy!
Nutrition Information:
Yield: 4 Serving Size: 1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 345Total Fat: 26gSaturated Fat: 4gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 21gCholesterol: 37mgSodium: 269mgCarbohydrates: 18gFiber: 2gSugar: 11gProtein: 12g
