By Erin Odom, Contributing Writer
I’ve always loved chicken salad. To me, it’s the perfect feminine tea party food. Give me chicken salad, a freshly-baked croissant, a cup of fresh fruit and a spot of hot tea, and I can just sit and pretend I’m enjoying high tea in a different land and time.
But I have a confession: I’ve always been nervous to make my own chicken salad. Surely I couldn’t throw together a salad as delicious as a fancy tea room’s!
But here lately I’ve been on a mission to get more protein into my diet–especially into my lunches. I am much too prone to just whip up a smoothie for lunch, and I’m starting to realize that I need something more substantial. And eating a real lunch may actually help me lose weight.
So when I had some cooked, shredded chicken on hand a few weeks back, I decided to look through my pantry and fridge to see what else I could pull together to make a yummy, protein-filled lunch.
I whipped up this “tea room” chicken salad in 10 minutes flat!
10-Minute "Tea Room" Chicken Salad
Ingredients
- 1 cup cooked shredded chicken
- 1 rib of celery chopped
- 1/8 cup coarsely chopped walnuts
- 1 Tbsp. coarsely chopped dried cranberries
- 1/3 cup mayo
- sprinkled onion powder
- salt and pepper to taste
- 1 drop liquid stevia optional
Instructions
- Combine and serve on a bed of lettuce or spinach or with crackers or bread!
Other Quick Lunch Ideas:
10-Minute Mediterranean Chickpea Salad
Do you eat anything substantial for lunch, or is it usually hit or miss? What’s your favorite chicken salad recipe? Do you make your own?
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YUM!! How convenient that I have a cup of shredded, cooked chicken lying in my fridge as I write this.. I’ll be subbing a few of the ingredients since we don’t have them handy.. raisins for cranberries and skipping the onion powder.. Off to make it right away:-) Thanks, Erin!
This looks yummy! I pinned it. 🙂 I am cooking a whole chicken today, so I can make this tomorrow!
I haven’t had chicken salad in forever! Can’t wait to try this. It sounds wonderful – thanks, Erin. And I do try to have substantial lunches. It’s breakfast I struggle w/ more these days. I’ve been eating a lot of eggs recently.
My mom, grandmother, sister and myself used to go every now and then to a tea room where they served “Chunky Chicken Salad.” It was the best damn chicken salad ever. We’d always order it on top of greens, and have our finger sandwiches on the side. Now that I know I have celiac disease, I can’t go to the tea rooms anymore. But, making this at home would be a fine idea! I think there were green or red grapes in the kind we’d get, but I like the idea of the cranberries too.
That stinks you can’t go anymore! We have gluten issues at our house, too. I hope you enjoy this!
This looks delicious! Thanks for the recipe! We just cooked up oodles of chicken yesterday, so this would make a nice light supper tonight.
I hope you enjoyed it!
This looks great! Will totally put this one in the rotation when I have chicken on hand.
Lunch is completely hit-or-miss around my house. I feel like I’ve been eating baked potatoes for about 5 days now. Though, an easy lunch I do enjoy from time to time is canned salmon made into a kind of salmon-salad (with spices and safflower mayo) served on spinach with tomatoes, grated goat cheese, and balsamic vinegar on top.
We eat a lot of canned salmon here, and your description of pairing it with spinach, tomatoes and cheese sounds delicious!!
Add a bit of apple cider vinegar and tarragon (fresh or dried) to your chicken salad – YUM!
That sounds delicious! I’ll have to try it!!
Yes! I have to eat lunch or else I snack all afternoon 🙂 This looks delicious–thanks for sharing! I like the addition of cranberries. Will have to give it a try!
I like to add fresh, crispy apples to my chicken salad, of course with the celery, mayo and nuts! Yum Yum!