B is pretty good about trying everything I make. Doesn't mean he'll always eat it, but he'll at least try it. I've also learned to tone down my cooking conquests and ease him into foods. Saying hey honey, I made these vegan tahini mustard kale chips (which are delicious, by the way) is most definitely going to evoke the look from him. However, homemade bread and chicken salad? I think anyone can get behind that.
This chicken salad reminds me of this time of year. You can still find some nice apples at the grocery store, and cranberries are also seasonally appropriate. The fat is cut down and protein is upped with plain greek yogurt, but fear not! My friend from Skinny Urban Chef shared this trick with me; a couple of tablespoons of full fat mayonnaise tone down the tang of the yogurt and it tricks your taste buds into believing that you used almost a cup of mayo, not a measly two tablespoons.
I also used a rotisserie chicken from the store, but feel free to cook your own, or just use white meat if you prefer.
Autumn Chicken Salad
Recipe adapted from Ari's Menu
1 rotisserie chicken, skin discarded and meat diced
1 fuji apple, diced (or any crisp sweet apple)
2-3 tbs. dried cranberries, finely chopped
2 medium stalks of celery, finely diced
1 tbs. sliced almonds
1 tsp. dried crushed rosemary (optional)
1 6oz. container fat free plain greek yogurt
2 tbs. dijon mustard
2 tbs. mayonnaise
salt and pepper to taste
In a medium sized bowl combine first six ingredients and mix. Add in the yogurt, dijon mustard, and mayonnaise and mix until all of the pieces are well coated. Taste and add salt and pepper as you deem necessary. A word of advice though, go easy on the salt. The combination of the sweet fruit and savory mustard and mayo really came through and I used very, very little salt. How your chicken was prepared will also play a role in how much salt you'll need.
Serve as a sandwich, or over lettuce and gobble it up.
