Chicken Salad

I've had this saved for a long time and finally tried it tonight. What a gem!!! I used leftover chicken and it came together very quickly. I usually don't like cold chicken, but all the wonderful strong flavors made this so so good. I served it over lightly dressed arugula and dusted it with some smoked paprika. With a glass of wine this was weeknight perfection.

As someone who really doesn't like raw onions, I'm wondering how much the salting tames their flavor. I'm considering reducing, omitting, or vinegaring them.

This dish is fantastic. One rotisserie chicken provided exactly four cups of shredded meat. I couldn't find smoked almonds or sherry vinegar, so I substituted white wine vinegar and added about 1/4 tsp of smoked paprika instead. Fabulous summer (in Australia) lunch over arugula!

My comment has nothing to do with the wonders of these recipes but the ease of use of the Food52 site. Thanks for the community of cooks and the amazing site - I lied - the recipes are great too!

Making this for second time tonight - it rocks. Great combination and an easy dinner!

I made this for a screaming 2 night slumber party of teenage girls. No smoked almonds available on short notice so I bought roasted, sauteed them, blotted them and added TJ's South African Smoke to the almonds and to the chicken mixture. Next time I would skip sauteeing them and just add the Smoke to the entire mixture. No pappadews in the immediate vicinity and no time to go to Zabar's, so I found a bottled pappadew sauce and threw in several T.'s of that. Finally, some dried apricots were out on the counter after prolonged snacking, so I sliced a handful and added that too--the fruitiness seemed to go with the smoke and heat. There is still some in the fridge for a midnight snack. Will the teenagers notice??

WOW! I had to improvise, since I'm in a small town with not all of the ingredients available (peppadews). But, this was so good! So easy, and really a party hit. I made three different Chicken Salads, and this by far was the best.

Ate far more than my share of this today at Mrs. Wheelbarrow's get together. I'm catering my niece's graduation party in 2 weeks, and this just got added to the menu! AND - it was so nice to see you (and your adorable mini-me daughter) again!

Oh Lordy, this was so good. My Whole Foods happens to have a marinated artichoke heart and peppadew combo in the antipasto bar, so the ingredients were super easy for me to come by as well. Can't wait to eat the leftovers tomorrow for lunch. Many thanks for the awesome recipe!

I will never think of chicken salad the same again! Absolutely divine! I didn't have sherry vinegar so I used red wine vinegar and added lots of chopped parsley, lemon juice, and zest. The other commenters are right. This is amazing!

So good and easy! I used maple vinegar instead of sherry vinegar and roasted red peppers since we didn't have peppadews . . . leeks instead of onions . . . tamari roasted almonds instead of smoked almonds . . . but I don't think any of the changes detracted from the recipe. We liked it, and it was a good way to get my husband to include some vegetables in his diet and break out of eating his cold chicken as slabs with mayonnaise on bread.

If you could not use pappadews because of a guest's allergy to them, what would you use instead? Or would you perhaps just not worry about a substitution? I'm thinking, perhaps, a few picholine olives, coarsely chopped . . . . Thank you. ;o)

I'm surprised I didn't comment on this ages ago, as I've been making this since first posted. I just linked to it on food pickle and noticed that I never did say how much I love this chicken salad. I've never loved mayo so this is perfect for me, but the combination of the vinaigrette, peppadews and almonds is amazing!