Curried Chicken Trial

One thing I miss doing a lot -- it was one of my passions before Charity arrived -- is cooking.  I didn't know how to cook more than macaroni and cheese before John and I got married, but determined to learn because of the good example set forth by my mother, I threw myself into every cook book and food network show I could soak up.  It didn't take long before I was cooking dinner every night and really enjoying this new creative outlet in which I could be an artist with food!


However, since my pregnancy with Charity (when I was constantly nauseated and food lost all appeal) and now as a full-time mommy, cooking meals on a nightly basis just does not happen much any more, and John has taken over a majority of the cooking (yes, I have a wonderful husband).  So, my kitchen and utensils see less of me these days.


Yesterday, however, was a beautiful exception!  


Some of you may remember a "Week of Wonderful" post a few weeks ago, that I mentioned eating a wonderful sandwich at a restaurant that was made of curried chicken salad.  I liked it so much, that I just knew when I came home I was going to have to attempt to recreate it.  Remembering what I could of the sandwich, I referred to several recipes on foodnetwork.com by doing a "curried chicken salad" search on the website, and then I made it my own.  It turned out wonderful!  I was so pleased with it, I decided I wanted to share the result with you!  


Here is the following recipe.  It should serve about 4-6.  It makes GREAT leftovers.  You may find you want to adjust each of the measurements to your personal preference, but this worked for me:

Curried Chicken Salad

Ingredients:

• 1 rotisserie chicken or 3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cooked, chopped, & cooled
• 1 cup mayonnaise 
• 3 tbs mango chutney (I used Major Grey's)
• 2 1/2 tbs currie powder
• kosher salt and ground pepper to taste (you can use regular salt and pepper, I just like the fancy stuff!)
• cayenne pepper (optional) to taste
• 1 cup - 1 1/4 cup of dried cranberries
• 1 can water chestnuts, drained, finely chopped
• 1/4 cup of toasted pine nuts (optional)

Instructions:

In a bowl, combine mayonnaise, chutney, currie powder, salt, pepper, and cayenne pepper (use the cayenne if you like your currie spicy,  I just lightly sprinkled it over mine).  Mix till smooth.  Stir in chicken, dried cranberries, water chestnuts and toasted pine nuts.   

Store chilled in the refrigerator. 

Serving Ideas:

Enjoy as a sandwich with a piece of romaine lettuce on.... 

• toasted bread 
• croissant roll
• pita pocket to keep it more middle eastern!

Great with cheese and crackers, plain with a side of pasta or fruit, or however you usually enjoy traditional chicken salad!

Basically, instead of ordinary chicken salad, made with mayo, grapes, and celery, you're adding curry to the mayo and subbing out dried cranberries for grapes and water chestnuts for celery and pine nuts for slivered almonds.  ...Turning the ordinary into the extraordinary!