Recipe: Garlic Dill Chicken Salad

It’s my goal in life to share as many chicken salad combinations as possible. 😋

This “recipe” doesn’t have exact measurements. You’ll need to listen to your heart. Or add the ingredients, take a bite, and see if you need more of each ingredient. You’ll see what I mean…

🧄Garlic Dill Chicken Salad 🍇 

•Chicken

I usually boil chicken, but I also use leftover grilled, smoked, whatever chicken. You can use white or dark meat.

•Mayonnaise

Add mayo a little at a time, making sure to coat each piece of chicken. I don’t like dry salad, so I sometimes add a bit more than I think is needed. The chicken will soak up some of the mayo as it sits.

•Dried Dill

This is where you have to start listening to your heart, er, tastebuds. I LOVE dill, so I go crazy with how much I use.

•Lawry’s Garlic Salt with Parsley

The amount of this will also depend on your personal preference. I add quite a bit. I usually add the dill and garlic, stir it all about, take a taste, and decide if it needs more. If you’re watching your salt intake, you could salt to taste and then add garlic powder and dried parsley.

•Grapes

I have made this a few times without grapes when we didn’t have any in the house. It’s still good, but it is not the same. You must have grapes! The sweet balances out the savory. I used black grapes this time but have also used red and purple grapes. I quarter each grape and add enough to have a sliver of grape in each bite.

I have been making this version of chicken salad for several months now, and I think it’s my family’s favorite. I hope your family enjoys it too!

Turkey Salad Sandwiches

I recently discovered turkey salad when a friend brought me some as a gift. Isn’t food always a great gift? It might be exaggerating to say it was life-changing, but I’ll say it anyway. It was life changing. If you find turkey bland and boring but still find it necessary to serve for the holidays, turkey salad is the answer to your leftover woes. We’re going to add white and dark meat to a food processor and pulse until it becomes finely shredded. Then we’ll stir in boiled eggs, mayonnaise, dill pickle relish, garlic powder, and salt. Spread it on whatever leftover bread or rolls you have or serve it as a dip with crackers. Top it with jalapeño cranberry relish if you want to punch up the flavor. And I won’t judge if you go hide in your room to eat it so you don’t have to share it with anyone else. It’ll be our little secret.

Turkey Salad Ingredients

Croissants

Butter Crackers (Ritz, Club, or Townhouse)

Butter Lettuce or Living Lettuce, optional

Turkey

Mayo

Dill Pickle Relish

Liquid Smoke

Eggs

Garlic Powder

Turkey Salad Recipe

4 Cups of Turkey

1 cup of Mayonnaise 

9 Tablespoons of Dill Pickle Relish

2 Hard Boiled Eggs

1/2 Teaspoon of Salt

1 Teaspoon of Garlic Powder

Liquid Smoke to taste (* see recipe notes, optional)

1. Shred 4 cups of turkey. A food processor works great for this. I recommend blending to a pate consistency, but blend/chop to your desired consistency.
2. Chop 2 hard boiled eggs.
3. Combine 1 cup of mayo, 9 tablespoons of dill pickle relish, 1/2 teaspoon of salt, 1 teaspoon of garlic powder, and liquid smoke to taste* (optional, see note).
4. Add the relish mixture to the turkey and eggs and stir until the turkey is evenly coated.
5. You can serve immediately, or refrigerate until ready to serve.
6. Spread on bread with lettuce, or serve as a dip with butter crackers.

*Note: If your turkey was smoked, you don’t need to add liquid smoke. If your turkey was roasted or fried, you may want to add the liquid smoke to amp up the flavor. How your turkey is cooked will affect how your turkey salad tastes. Each method of brining, seasoning, and cooking will give a unique flavor! I like using both dark and white meat to get the most flavor.

Insta-Recipes

I love to cook and have been trying lots of new recipes lately.  I post some of them on my Instagram account, recipes I come up with and some from other people.  My account is private to family and close friends.  With so much of my life out there for all to see (here, twitter, etc.), it's the one place I've decided to keep private right now.

Every once in awhile I'll share a few pics from my account.  Here are some now!

My take on Tropical Smoothie's veggie hummus wrap

• Sabra roasted red pepper hummus all over tortilla of choice
• Sliced purple/red onion
• Sliced tomato
• Sliced cucumber
• 1/4 avocado, sliced and drizzled with lemon and lime juice
• Shredded carrots
• Salsa (optional-- put it on my husband's but not on mine)
• Cilantro

Sweet & Tart Smoothie

• Frozen mango
• Frozen raspberries
• Unsweetened original cashew milk

Avocado Tuna

I never like tuna and couldn't make myself eat it no matter how hard I tried.  One day my sister-in-law told me to try it with avocado, and now I eat tuna all the time!

• 1 can of white albacore tuna
• 1/2 avocado
• salt, cajun seasoning (optional)
• Dash of lemon juice and lime juice

Chocolate Covered Peanut Butter Stuffed Strawberry Shake

• Chocolate almond milk
• Unsweetened original cashew milk
• Peanut butter
• Frozen strawberries

Warm Brussels Sprout Salad with Homemade Dressing

This recipe is from A Beautiful Mess.  Colin LOVED it!  We heard a report that you could lose a pound a week eating brussels sprouts-- bring on the sprouts!

I made two changes:

• Double the dressing recipe and cook 3 lbs. of sprouts (instead of 1 lb.)
• Stick the cooked sprouts/berries under broil for a few minutes in the oven, stir every minute or so

What recipes do you love?

Crab, Avocado, Salad, Summer Food

It's vegetable season!  Yay!  This year I planted tomatoes, strawberries, lettuce, and cabbage.  It's really nice to walk out the front door, grab some lettuce, and go back in to fix dinner!

I also love going to the farmer's market to get local fruit, vegetables, and meat.  I haven't gotten to the market yet this year since it's just started up.  But we do have a new Kroger Marketplace that I've been to way too much already.  It's amazing!

When it gets warm, I want meals that are light, cool, and refreshing.  I picked up some imitation crab and wanted to incorporate it into some recipes too.

Here's a couple of salads we tried out this week.

Green Crab Salad

I found a recipe but changed it up a bit.  I used lettuce a bit greener than iceberg.  I left out the avocado and added cheese.

Avocado Bean Salad

I found this recipe on Pinterest.  I changed it up as well, because I didn't have some of the ingredients.  I also added ingredients.

-Can of black beans (drained and rinsed)

-Sliced grape tomatoes (I added them until it looked like there were a good amount)

-1 sliced avocado

-1 can of garbanzo beans

-Garlic salt

-Dash of lime juice

-Dash of olive oil

-Cilantro

-1 tbsp sugar

-cayenne pepper

-imitation crab

If eaten like a salad, this will make about 4 servings.  If you serve it as a dip with chips, it makes a good size bowl.

I love summer food!

Do you have any good salad recipes?