Oh So Yummy Chicken Salad With Optional Fruit and Nuts

 Oh So Yummy Chicken Salad With Optional Fruit and Nuts

If you're like me, you can really enjoy a good chicken salad sandwich on a nice spring or summer day. I don't like to buy the pre-made chicken salads. What I'm going to give you here is a recipe for a sweet tasting chicken salad that is good with the basic ingredients in it, but even better if you like to add fruit and nuts. There is one surprising ingredient that I doubt most people have ever put in their chicken salad. All I'll say is, don't knock it before you've tried it. You'll seriously regret not trying this recipe. Once you have tasted it, I'm sure it will be one of your favorite go-to meals!

Here's what you'll need (these measurements are approximate):

1.5 lbs. boneless, skinless chicken tenderloins thawed
1/3 cup mayonnaise
1/3 cup (Here's the surprising ingredient) Cool Whip - I use the Fat Free one
1-3 Tbsp sweet relish (optional depending on how much you like or dislike relish)  ;-)

You can make really good chicken salad with just the 4 ingredients listed above, but if you want to get fancy and add a little more flavor, I suggest adding 1-2 types of fruit and some kind of chopped nuts. Basically I  use whatever fruit and nuts I've got on hand but here are some I suggest:
Fruit: grapes, apples, pears or pineapple
Nuts: almonds, pecans or walnuts

It's pretty easy to make this, once your chicken is thawed, either boil it or bake it. I chose to bake mine.
I placed the tenderloin in a pan, drizzled with a little olive oil, covered and baked on 375 for 30 minutes.

And here's what it looked like after 30 minutes.

After the chicken is cooked through, chop it up or shred it.

Let the chicken cool off for several minutes so it doesn't make your mixture icky.
Once the chicken is cooled off, add 1/3 cup mayonnaise to the chunky chicken.

Then add 1/3 cup cool whip and mix it all together. If the mixture is not creamy enough for you, then add an extra tablespoon of mayo and an extra tablespoon of cool whip to the mixture. Do this until you reach the desired consistency. (Make sure you use equal amounts of mayo and cool whip.)

You want it to be about this consistency.

Now if you like sweet relish, mix in 1-3 Tbsp.

And voila! That's the base for your chicken salad. Now what I've done today is that I did not add the fruit and nuts to the whole dish because Handyman likes the basic version, so I scooped a serving out for myself and added extra relish (because I LOVE it) and sliced, red, seedless table grapes and piled this yumminess on top of some multi-grain bread and here's what it looked like.

So I rummaged through the cabinet and found sliced almonds so, even better...

And of course, add something green on top! So I went digging through the fridge and found some fresh spinach leftover from supper the other night, so I topped it off!

Look at this, just look! Don't you want to lick the screen?! Mmmm Mmmm!

Oh yeah, that was so good! And I've got enough to have leftovers for lunch tomorrow. Yay!
Please try it and let me know what you think and what fruit/nut combinations you add to your chicken salad!