Curried Chicken Salad

I'm always in need of a yummy summer salad. This salad is great for picnics, family parties, or just for a non-oven summer meal. I love all the flavors that this salad has to offer. The grapes are especially good. I have a thing for a sweet taste in a salad or on a sandwich. I actually doubled the grapes in this recipe cause they are just that good.

We made this while my sister was staying at our house and she said, "I've never had cold rice before, it's really good." This salad has rice in it and it's so yummy. I also love the diced celery, it adds the perfect crunchiness. Oh and the peanuts.....wow, this salad is full of the best flavors and they all go so well together.

I use a yellow curry in this recipe. It's McCormick brand, it's not hot/spicy. It's mild and gives the dressing the perfect flavor. I hope you love this as much as we do.

Curried Chicken Salad

Makes 8-10 servings

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Salad:
4 cups chicken, cooked and cubed
1 cup dry roasted peanuts
2 cups celery, diced
2 + cups red seedless grapes, halved
¼ cup yellow onion, finely chopped
2 cups cooked rice (optional, but recommended)

Dressing:
½ cup mayonnaise
1 tablespoon lemon juice
⅛ teaspoon ground pepper
¼ teaspoon salt
¾ teaspoon curry powder (yellow)

Note about the dressing: The original recipe calls for double the amounts of the dressing ingredients, but I though it was way too much, so if you like a lot of dressing double the above amounts.

In a large mixing bowl, combine chicken, peanuts, celery, grapes, onion, and rice. Mix well.

In a small mixing bowl combine mayonnaise, lemon juice, pepper, salt, and curry, mix until combined. Stir the dressing into the chicken mixture until it is all coated.

Pour salad into a serving bowl and cover with plastic wrap, chill until ready to serve. This salad is best if you can chill it for a few hours to overnight.

Notes:

If I don’t have any pre-cooked chicken I usually boil a few breasts or tenderloins until they are cooked through and then cut them up with scissors into bite size pieces.

If you leave out the rice then you will want to cut the amount of dressing back.

I usually plan this meal when I have another dish with rice on my menu on a preceding day. Then I just cook extra rice and refrigerate it until I am ready to make the salad. It makes for less work that day, which is always nice.

If you want gluten free, make sure mayo is gluten-free.

Recipe Source: slightly adapted from Maureen G.