Chicken Salad: Thirty-Minute Meal - 30-Minute Meals - Cooking

Chicken Salad: 30-Minute Meal

No Comments | Written on January 4, 2012 at 3:00 pm, by The Editors

Trail Mix Chicken Salad Salad for dinner sounds like part of our new year’s resolution to eat healthy and eat lean. But with chicken salad, that resolution is easy to keep. Leftover roast chicken, chicken thighs, or chicken breasts are easily and quickly made into a salad that’s satisfying as a main dish dinner or as a protein-rich lunch.

Classic chicken salad, with chopped celery, a bit of onion, a dash of herbs (such as tarragon), and some mayonnaise (or a touch of low-fat sour cream) is lovely on a bed of salad greens or tucked into a pita.

But chicken salad goes way beyond that perfectly nice formula. Like Trail Mix Chicken Salad, pictured here. Dried cherries, raisins, and sunflower nuts turn same old, same old into elegantly wow! Try these variations for bigger flavor, more texture, and for ways to get more fruits and veggies in your family’s diet. (These salads are all prepared in 30 minutes or less, and are based on pre-cooked or leftover chicken. Make them ahead and refrigerate them for a few hours to bring out their flavorful best.)

Mediterranean Chicken Salad: Sliced chicken breast joins romaine, chickpeas, olives, tomatoes, reduced-fat feta cheese, and is topped with a lively dressing of oil, lemon juice and fresh herbs.

Chicken Salad with walnuts Walnut-Chicken Salad: Walnuts and strawberries mix it up with chicken, drizzled with a lemon-yogurt dressing.

Chicken-Zucchini Salad: Not only is this salad packed with zucchini, celery, carrot, fennel, and apricots, it has a dash of orange juice for a citrusy spike. When you make the salad ahead of time and let it chill overnight the flavors blossom (and it makes it easy for you when you get home and dinner is ready).

Chicken Salad with Penne Chicken-Thyme Penne Salad: Think of this as a Waldorf salad with pasta. Herbs, walnuts, and grapes are added to the mix for a hearty main-dish dinner.