Chicken salad sandwiches
Southern-style chicken salad with sweet grapes, crunchy celery and pecans, made from a rotisserie chicken in about 20 minutes.
- 20 min total
- 20 min hands-on
- Anyone can make this
- Serves 4
- About $2.44 a serving
- 560 calories
- Good the next day
Dolly says: I’d make this on a weeknight. It’s on the table in 20 minutes.
Ingredients
For 4 servings.
- 3 cups rotisserie chicken, shredded
- 2 stalks celery, finely chopped
- ¾ cup grapes, halved
- ¼ cup pecans, chopped
- ⅓ cup mayonnaise
- ¼ cup plain Greek yogurt
- 1 tsp Dijon mustard
- ½ lemon, juiced
- 8 slices white bread
- 1 cup butter lettuce, about 4 leaves (optional)
From your pantry
- ½ tsp salt
- ¼ tsp black pepper
Each serving has about 560 calories, 33 g protein, 36 g carbs and 31 g fat, and costs about $2.44 at typical US grocery prices. Both are estimates from what the recipe uses.
Missing something?
- No plain Greek yogurt? Plain yogurt or sour cream works.
- No lemons? Limes work.
- No butter lettuce? Iceberg lettuce or green leaf lettuce or romaine lettuce works.
Steps
Tap an underlined word for a quick explanation.
Pull the meat off the chicken, throwing away the skin and bones, and it into bite-size pieces with two forks until you have 3 cups.
Shred. Shredding means making thin strips, either on the big holes of a grater or by pulling cooked meat apart with two forks. Shreds soak up sauce and mix evenly through a dish.
How you’ll know: Cooked chicken pulls apart into strands with little effort, and cheese comes off in long, loose strips.
Dolly’s tip: It comes apart easiest while the chicken is still a little warm. Save the rest for another meal.Food safety: Rotisserie chicken, deli meat, canned tuna and cooked shrimp are already cooked. Keep them cold until you use them, and heat them until steaming hot if the recipe warms them.
the celery, the grapes and the pecans.
Finely chop. Finely chopping means cutting food into small pieces, a little bigger than minced, about the size of a lentil. Small pieces spread their flavor through the dish and cook quickly.
How you’ll know: Nothing is bigger than a lentil, and the pile looks like confetti rather than paste.
Halve. Halving means cutting something into two equal pieces. Even halves cook at the same speed, so one doesn’t dry out while the other finishes.
How you’ll know: The two pieces look like mirror images of each other.
Chop. Chopping means cutting food into bite-size pieces that don’t need to be neat. Keep them roughly the same size so everything cooks evenly.
How you’ll know: Your pieces are about half an inch and roughly alike, even if none of them are pretty.
In a big bowl, the mayonnaise, yogurt, mustard, lemon juice, salt and pepper together until smooth.
Stir. Stirring means moving food around with a spoon or spatula so it cooks evenly and doesn’t stick. Unless the recipe says constantly, every so often is plenty, and it gives food time to brown.
How you’ll know: When you drag the spoon across the bottom, nothing is sticking or scorching.
Add the chicken, celery, grapes and pecans and everything together until it is evenly coated.
Fold. Folding means mixing gently by scooping from the bottom and turning it over the top, instead of stirring hard. It keeps light mixtures airy and soft things like berries or herbs in one piece.
How you’ll know: You use slow, wide strokes and stop as soon as there are no streaks left.
Taste and add more salt or a little more lemon if it needs it.
Pinch. A pinch is what you can hold between your thumb and two fingers, less than an eighth of a teaspoon. It’s a small, forgiving amount, so there’s no need to measure.
How you’ll know: It’s a light sprinkle you can barely see on the food, not a little pile.
Dolly’s tip: It tastes even better after 30 minutes in the fridge, when the flavors have settled in.Pile the chicken salad onto 4 slices of bread with lettuce and close with the other 4 slices.
Dolly’s tip: For work lunches, keep the chicken salad in a container and the bread in a bag, then build it at your desk. It keeps 4 days in the fridge.
Plan this in Dollop, and get the grocery list
Dollop puts this dinner on a night that suits your week, lists only what you still need to buy, and walks you through each step while you cook.
