The Only Chicken Salad I Like

As a child I determined that mayo was pretty gross. This makes it pretty difficult to enjoy a chicken or egg salad sandwich since most deli salads are gelatinous globs of mayo with flecks of chicken and egg mashed up in there somewhere. Max shares my distaste for mayo so when he declared it "the best chicken salad ever" I knew I would have to post it for all you fellow mayo haters. Hint: The secret is a drier salad with only a little mayo, and good amount of dijon mustard.

I tend to make this only when i make chicken soup since the soup leaves me with a 5lb chicken that cooked for 4 hours, soaked up all that good flavor and then fell off the bone leaving lots of tender meat that would be such a shame to waste. I've really been craving this lately so I made quick phone call to Twin Oaks Farm in nearby Port Crane and arranged to pick up 2 small roaster chickens totaling about 5lbs, a dozen eggs and some flat iron steaks to use at a later date. The owner Marianna drives into town almost every day so it makes it easy for me to get local farm fresh naturally grown chicken, beef*, turkey and eggs. All of which really do taste much better than what you find vacuum sealed in Wegmans.

So after I made the soup (I'll post this recipe at a later date) yesterday I turned all that juicy chicken into chicken egg salad for lunches for the next couple days. I doubt it will last long though since I left a note for all (4!) of our housemates to have some.

Chicken/Egg Salad

-5lbs chicken left over from soup (or roasted) bones removed

-4 hard boiled eggs (next time I think I would use 5 or even 6 if you are not worried about cholesterol

-4-5 celery stalks chopped small

- about 3 Tablespoons all natural mayo**

-A generous amount of all natural dijon mustard (I like whole foods' brand 365 organic because its cheap and tastes better than grey poupon with no preseratives

-A couple spoonfuls of plain fat-free icelandic skyr or greek yogurt (I like Siggi's skyr because its made locally in Chenango County and has no preservatives)

-freshly ground salt and pepper to taste

Shred the chicken and roughly chop the hard-boiled eggs. Add mayo, mustard, and celery and mash with a fork (or a mezzaluna) to combine. taste and begin adding yogurt a spoon full at a time until you achieve the desired texture. You could also add white vinegar a tablespoon at a time to moisten it a bit more. Add salt and pepper to taste.

*100% grass-fed and pastured

**I've been meaning to make my own for quite some time. I have heard from other mayo haters that it makes all the difference but since I use about 4 Tablespoons a month and 1 egg yolk makes over a cup there would be just too much wasted. Instead I just borrow a bit from my housemate.