Dill Pickle Chopped Chicken Salad

A sophisticated chicken salad with dill pickle flavor – colorful, delicious, and super crunchy.

There are countless ways to make a mayonnaise based chicken salad but an essential component is something with crunch. A crunchy ingredient provides a nice contrast to the soft, creamy texture of the chicken. Celery usually plays this role solo, but in Dill Pickle Chopped Chicken Salad the crunch factor is amplified big-time with the addition of dill pickles, bell pepper, and apple. You’ll love this unique twist on classic chicken salad, especially if you’re a pickle lover.

You have several choices when it comes to cooking the chicken for chicken salad.  The technique you use will depend on how moist and flavorful you want the meat and how quickly you need to prepare the dish. This recipe for Basic Roasted Chicken Breasts uses bone-in, skin-on chicken breasts and produces moist, tender meat so when I have time this is the technique I use. You can roast boneless, skinless chicken breasts too. Recipes like this one are much less labor intensive because you don’t have to separate the chicken from the skin and bones, but the meat won’t be nearly as moist and succulent as when using bone-in, skin-on breasts. Poaching is another method for cooking boneless, skinless chicken breasts but I never use this technique because I find the finished meat lacking in flavor and sometimes rubbery. Finally, if you’re really short on time, and want to avoid cooking altogether, buy a rotisserie chicken, then it’s simply a matter of chopping and combining all the ingredients.

Dill Pickle Chopped Chicken Salad makes a fantastic filling for a sandwich. Put a big scoop in between two slices of gluten-free bread along with some shredded lettuce, or make a tartine on Pepita Quinoa Chia Bread, as pictured above. (A tartine is a French open-faced sandwich, usually on a gourmet slice of bread, with a fancy topping.)

Dill Pickle Chopped Chicken Salad is a sophisticated chicken salad – colorful, delicious and super crunchy. Don’t forget to sprinkle a little pickle juice on top prior to serving to elevate the pickle taste. For an extra clean-tasting chicken salad, use avocado mayonnaise (recipe below). It’s a snap to make and so worth the little bit of extra effort required.

Dill Pickle Chopped Chicken Salad

 

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Author: QUEEN OF MY KITCHEN

Serves: 8 servings

Ingredients

• 1 apple, peeled and chopped
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice
• 16-ounce jar whole baby dill pickles
• 1¼ pounds cooked chicken, chopped (about 4½ cups)
• 4-5 scallions chopped, white and light green parts
• ½ cup fresh dill, chopped
• ½ cup walnuts, toasted and chopped
• 1 yellow bell pepper, chopped
• 1 cup celery, chopped
• ¾ cup mayonnaise, store bought or homemade (recipe in Notes)
• 1 cup (4½ ounces) grape tomatoes, halved
• 12 ounces shredded iceberg lettuce

Instructions

1. Toss the apple in lemon juice and slice 5 baby dill pickles, crosswise into little rounds.
2. In a large mixing bowl combine the chicken, scallions, dill, walnuts, bell pepper, celery, apple, and pickles. Add the mayonnaise and mix well.
3. Gently fold in the grape tomatoes.
4. Serve on beds of shredded lettuce. Drizzle 1 tablespoon of pickle juice over each serving and garnish with a whole baby dill pickle.

Notes

AVOCADO MAYONNAISE
1/2 cup olive oil or avocado oil
1 egg
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Put the egg, avocado oil, salt and pepper into the beaker that came with your immersion blender, the carafe of a blender, or the work bowl of a food processor. Process until the mixture is emulsified and is the consistency of mayonnaise.

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