Chicken Salad with Walnuts and Dried Cherries

April 16, 2013Katie

Last summer I went to Michigan to visit my family. I love escaping the Oklahoma heat and heading up north to temperatures in Michigan that are about 20 degrees cooler at times than here.

While there we always spend an entire day at the Birch Run Outlet Mall, perhaps the most enormous outlet mall you’ll ever see. It can take days to plow through the many sections of this mall so my aunts and cousins and Mom and I hit the stores we love and then made plans to meet up for lunch somewhere.

They picked Victor & Markek’s Deli Bakery. We ordered a chicken salad wrap that was filled with a very different chicken salad. It had dried cherries and walnuts with some raspberry vinegar mixed in. Michigan is big on cherries, sometimes referred to as “the cherry capital of the world” and each year thousands flock to Traverse city for the National Cherry Festival. I have been wanting to create a version of this on my own as I’m too far away, so last night I made it.

Mr. Wonderful took a bit and said “This is REALLY good” so I think I succeeded!

And we all know, the way to a man’s stomach is a good chicken salad right?

Or a nice fat juicy steak, but that’s for another day.

Try this recipe out for a fun twist on Chicken Salad. (P.S. I found the Dried Cherries at our Whole Foods, and it was, strangely enough, in the cereal aisle, not in the dried fruit aisle!)

If you like funky cheese, try adding a touch of Gorgonzola or Goat Cheese crumbles on top along with some fresh soft lettuce for a delicious sandwich or wrap. Enjoy!

Chicken Salad with Walnuts and Dried Cherries

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Prep time

10 mins

Total time

10 mins

Author: Katie of Dishin & Dishes

Serves: 8

Ingredients

1 rotisserie chicken (4 lb. or about 4 cups)
½ c. Greek yogurt
½ c. light mayonnaise
⅔ c. chopped walnuts
½ c. dried cherries
½ c. Granny Smith apple, chopped
2 T. chopped fresh tarragon (or 1 t. dried)
2 T. raspberry vinaigrette
½ t. salt
¼ t. black pepper

Instructions

In large bowl, mix mayonnaise, yogurt, vinaigrette, tarragon, salt and pepper together well.
Add in remaining ingredients and toss to coat well.
Serve over bed of mixed greens spring mix, in endive leaves as a cute appetizer or on croissants or whole grain bed for a fantastic sandwich.

Make this with a rotisserie chicken and you have a no-cook meal or side dish!

If you like this recipe, please check out these other recipes for no-cooking dishes from participants in Food Network’s Let’s Get Seasonal Sensation Sides:

Jeanette’s Healthy Living: Mixed Fish Poke Tower
Feed Me Phoebe: Smoked Tofu Summer Rolls
The Lemon Bowl: Asian Cabbage Slaw With Mint and Scallions
The Cultural Dish: Caprese Salad
Cooking With Elise: Good for You Guacamole
Dishin & Dishes: Chicken Salad With Dried Cherries and Walnuts
Napa Farmhouse 1885: Cilantro, Ginger and Garlic Dip
Red or Green?: Avocado and Three Chile Salsa
Weelicious: Avocado Honey Dip
Devour: No-Cook Kale Salad Recipes
Made By Michelle: Swiss Chard Pesto
The Sensitive Epicure: No-Cook Vietnamese Spring Rolls
FN Dish: Go Raw With Shaved Salads
Domesticate Me: Shaved Brussels Sprouts and Cauliflower