CLASSIC CHICKEN SALAD

Classic chicken salad, elevated with the subtle herbal, spicy flavors of Sel Magique plus chopped green apples, celery, and the secret ingredient? Nutmeg (!). Supremely versatile as a sandwich, lettuce wrap, or place a spoonfull on a crostini for a tasty hors d'oeuvre. Chicken salad is a kind of blank canvas for you to add in anything you like including toasted nuts, grapes, rasins or currants. Vegetarian? Substitute with chickpeas for protein-packed flavor. Here's to the beginning of something delicious!⁠

Prep Time15

Course: hors d'oeuvre, lunch

Cuisine: American

Keyword: chicken, chopped, easy

Ingredients

CLASSIC CHICKEN SALAD

3 cups chopped rotisserie or grilled chicken we prefer rotisserie as it's more tasty
1/2 cup mayonnaise, Hellmann's or Best Foods
1/2 cup celery, chopped
1/2 cup apple, green, skinned & chopped
2 tsp fresh lemon juice
1/2 tsp Sel Magique Spicy Blend
2 pinches nutmeg
black pepper to taste
2 tbs Italian parsley, chopped, plus more as garnish

VEGETARIAN OPTION

1 can chickpeas (reduced sodium), drained & rinsed. coarsely mash 3/4, rest as whole chickpeas
3/4 cup toasted walnuts, unsalted very coarsely chopped

Instructions

Combine all ingredients in bowl, cover, and chill in the fridge. The Magique, nutmeg and pepper will be the most flavorful after about 30 minutes once the salt, herbs and spices are broken down by the moisture and acid of the lemon juice. So, after 30 minutes, stir the mixture again, garnish with scallions and serve.
If making the vegetarian option, you might want to add a little more Magique to-taste.

SERVING SUGGESTIONS

For lunch, a favorite thing to do is prepare the table with various ingredients so guests can prepare and enjoy what they like. One idea is to place the chicken salad, simply garnished with scallions, along with toasted bread, sliced tomatoes, veggies, lettuce and related items and let people make what they like.
CHICKEN SALAD BLT (as shown in pic) Lightly toast multigrain bread, and stack with chicken salad, lettuce, sliced tomatoes, red onion, crisp bacon, and avocado.
LETTUCE WRAPS spoon chicken salad onto crisp romaine or leafy butter lettuce, and serve with toasted chopped walnuts, radishes, sprouts, pickled onions or jalapeños.
CROSTINI toast sliced mini-baguttes, spread with fig jam, a dollop of chicken salad, and garnish with a thin sliced red onion or even better - a pickeld onion.