This Hen Salad is so good! Protein-packed with a scrumptious creamy dressing, and excellent for an on-the-go lunch in a sandwich or wrap.
It’s a Hen Salad Summer season For Me.
Hen salad is formally the hero of my summer season.
As summer season actions have picked up for our household, I’ve been driving the highs of getting a weekly batch of hen salad within the fridge. I really like a chilly, creamy bowl of it straight out of the fridge for an excessive protein Summer season Mother Lunch, and my women like to eat the elements (plain hen, grapes, celery and cashews) dipped in a little bit of dressing for a kid-friendly snack plate.
Causes I like it:
- Motive A: The creamy dressing is… weirdly so good. It doesn’t style like straight Greek yogurt (gross) however there’s sufficient to be in there so that you simply aren’t simply consuming straight gobs of mayo, both. Good creaminess achieved! The flavors from the dijon, salt, sugar, onion and garlic powder make it right into a luscious little all the things sauce that I’m licking off the spoon each single time.
- Motive B: A number of protein! It’s a brilliant satisfying mid-day enhance!
- Motive C: Comfort, naturally. I incessantly simply seize somewhat wrap, sandwich, or bowl of it for a solidly scrumptious munch between chaotic mid-afternoon errands and/or child pick-ups!
SUMMER HERO!
You would possibly discover there aren’t any uncooked onions on this hen salad and that’s very a lot on goal. I favor a considerable lacing of onion powder within the sauce to offer us the nice taste… however in a clean, creamy approach, with out the watery, weepy weirdness of diced uncooked onion. To every their very own! Throw the onions in if you need. However I’m a powerful proponent that onion powder > uncooked onions relating to hen salad.
The combo-ins that you simply’ll see listed here are my favorites (grapes, celery, and cashews) however you would possibly like apples, almonds, pistachios, wild rice (!), walnuts, and so on. The sweetness is that this protein-rich, ultra-creamy hen salad dressing as a base can take us to many good locations.
Welcome To My Home! Let’s Have a Hen Salad Lunch.
1
Make Your Dressing.
Greek yogurt, mayo, and dijon mustard will carry you! Add some salt, sugar, onion powder, and garlic powder, and also you’ll be licking this proper off the spoon. It’s luxurious and savory-sweet and so weirdly good.
2
Reduce Every part Up!
I just like the hen to be CUBED, not shredded, so the entire thing doesn’t get too thick and sticky.
For traditional hen salad, you wish to have these three parts:
- One thing candy (apples, grapes, dried cherries)
- One thing crunchy (celery, diced onion)
- One thing nutty (cashews, almonds, or pistachios)
My all-time favourite combo is grapes, celery, and cashews! So basic. Hits each time. However I’ve extra enjoyable concepts within the notes of the recipe primarily based in your solutions from Instagram!
3
Combine all of it up + season it.
After you combine the dressing with all the things, you may season it with no matter you want. Salt and pepper, for starters! I usually do freeze-dried chives and white pepper (so it doesn’t make the entire thing flip darkish). You do you!
4
You’re Finished! Yum!
You may put this on a croissant for a luncheon-style sandwich, or tuck it right into a lettuce wrap, or an entire weat wrap, or dip into it with crackers (can suggest Everything Seasoned crackers), or simply eat it plain! which I fairly often do.
Description
This Hen Salad is so good! Protein-packed with a scrumptious creamy dressing, and excellent for an on-the-go lunch in a sandwich or wrap.
Hen Salad Dressing:
Hen Salad Base:
- Dressing: Whisk the dressing components till clean. Style and alter, protecting in thoughts that it ought to style salty / concentrated as it’ll distribute amongst all the opposite components.
- Combine: Toss your mix-ins (hen, grapes, celery, and cashews) with as a lot of the dressing as you want.
- Season: Style, alter, and zhuzh to your coronary heart’s content material. I normally stir in some freeze-dried chives and white pepper.
- You’re Finished! Yum! Eat on an entire wheat wrap, lettuce wrap, sandwich, toast, dipped with crackers or simply PLAIN! Scrumptious, chilly, creamy, I like it. Retailer leftovers in an hermetic container the fridge for as much as 4 days.
Notes
Dressing Quantities: You might not want all the dressing relying on how a lot creaminess you want – I usually have a couple of tablespoons left over and I save them to toss with the leftovers so they’re freshly creamy once more!
Herbs: Contemporary herbs work, however my criticism with them is that they don’t maintain up as nicely within the fridge / after they get blended in, which is why I like freeze dried herbs (in my case, I exploit chives).
White Pepper: Common freshly floor black pepper works simply positive, however it darkens the colour a bit with the black flecks and I care about this stuff so I am going for the white pepper!
- Prep Time: quarter-hour
- Cook dinner Time: 0 minutes
- Class: Lunch
- Technique: No-Cook dinner
- Delicacies: American
Key phrases: hen salad, hen salad recipe, hen salad sandwich, simple lunch recipe, excessive protein lunch
Hen Salad Variation Concepts
There are such a lot of instructions you would take this! The primary recipe included right here is for a basic, salty-sweet hen salad, however listed here are a couple of different concepts!
Curry Hen Salad
Recipe is right here! 🙂 It’s so good – filled with candy curry taste and golden raisins, pistachios, cilantro and parsley! It’s one among my faves!
Basil Hen Salad
Use this basil sauce as the bottom, and blend in hen, dried cherries, celery, and slivered almonds! SO good!
Buffalo Hen Salad
Make the identical hen salad dressing base, omitting the sugar and salt. Add buffalo sauce to style, and blend in hen, celery or carrot, pink onion, and crumble bleu cheese on high. My husband loves this!
Dill Pickle Hen Salad
Make the identical hen salad dressing base, omitting sugar and salt. Add diced pickles, recent dill, and a little bit of pickle brine. Good for summer season!
Ceaselessly Requested Questions For This Hen Salad
I requested on Instagram and also you guys had the perfect concepts! Thanks for sharing!
– salt and vinegar chips (or any chips, let’s be trustworthy)
– apples
– wild rice
– candy pickled jalapeños
– fried onions
– crushed ramen noodles
– bacon
– candy corn
Sure, you may omit the celery! That is your personal journey. I might recommend including a crunchy diced or sliced vegetable as an alternative – water chestnuts (polarizing!), radishes, jicama, or bell pepper! Fennel is similar to celery however it’s generally tolerated higher by celery-haters, in order that’s an alternative choice! It provides you an identical crunch and taste.
Sure! Yummy. I might simply minimize it into cubes after you cook dinner it within the air fryer! Here’s that recipe. Remember that there’s quite a lot of seasoning on the outside of that hen so it’ll seemingly switch into the sauce, making it extra coloured than the model right here within the footage.
Use a dairy free plain yogurt! Nearly all mayo needs to be naturally dairy free.
SO many choices. Walnuts, pistachios, sunflower seeds, and almonds come to thoughts!
I prefer it finest inside 3 days! The USDA recommends consuming leftover rotisserie hen (saved within the fridge) inside 3-4 days.
In a sandwich (croissants are the bomb), in a wrap (entire wheat wrap or a lettuce wrap! yum), on high of some greens, or as a dip for crackers! Or simply plain, straight out of the fridge. 🙂
You may use all Greek yogurt however I discover that the mayo is de facto useful for the general taste and texture. It provides a silkiness and a lusciousness which you could’t get from the thick, tangy Greek yogurt. Some individuals prefer to make their hen salad with bitter cream, in order that’s an alternative choice, however I discover a base of tangy Greek yogurt + the buttery-ness of somewhat mayo to be the perfect combo!
