Crunchy Chicken Salad

During the summer one of my meal staples is chicken salad in croissants, it just says “no-heating-required meal!”.  And “cliche wedding reception.”  And “baby/bridal shower.”  Even so, for whatever reason I was craving chicken salad.  I decided to change it up a little and add extra veggies instead of grapes and walnuts–I don’t like walnuts.  The result was a typical chicken salad, but with all the extra veggies it was crunchy instead of mushy and quite satisfying.  You could also add some pasta to make this a more filling snack.

Crunchy Chicken Salad

2 chicken breasts, diced
2 TB olive oil
salt & pepper to taste

4 stalks celery, diced
3 green onions, minced
1 red bell pepper, diced

1/4 cup mayo
1/4 cup sour cream
2 TB apple cider vinegar
1-2 packets “Splenda” or TB of sugar
ground black pepper to taste

1 cup Italian blend cheese (Parmesan, Mozzarella, Romano)

Heat the olive oil in a skillet and brown the chicken, salt and pepper generously.  Meanwhile, chop the veggies and combine in a large-ish bowl.  Mix up the mayo, sour cream, vinegar and sugar separately, whisk until smooth.  Add the chicken to the veggies and combine, pour in enough sauce to stick the salad together, but not too much.  Throwing away half of the sauce is better than having extra-mayo-y chicken salad.

I personally like chicken salad at room temperature with the chicken still hot.  However what with the mayo and all, you can only really do that one minute after you make it–which is exactly how I enjoyed my crunchy chicken salad.