Usually cooking a whole chicken is something for winter and not summer… however… northern VA weather took an unexpected turn!  It was in the mid 70s in August!  That NEVER happens!  Since we don’t use (rarely use) the AC it was a nice change.  Since it was “chilly” compared to the 90s temps we had been having I decided to have a dinner that needed cooking in the oven.  

I cooked a whole chicken and then made chicken stock with the bones for later cooking.  I was shocked that we had actually used all the stock I had prepared over the winter.  I think I had over 2 gallons in the fridge which is usually enough for summer since we don’t typically have any soups.  Ordinarily I would use it for stir fries or any sauce that would call for chicken broth.

Anyway… one of my favorite things to do with the leftover chicken is to make chicken salad!  I usually keep it pretty simple with just chicken and mayo and maybe celery, but this time it was different.  The leftovers weren’t enough to have a mostly chicken salad.  My oldest son (just turned 5) has developed an empty leg that consumes mass amounts of food and didn’t leave me as much leftover as I would have liked!  I decided to see what I had in the fridge and do something to stretch the chicken for another dinner.

After adding a little of this and a little of that and leaving out the kitchen sink we ended up with a big bowl of salad!  In fact, it was so big that we had enough for dinner that night (sans bread no less) and lunch the next day.  I did serve it for lunch on “cucumber crackers”  which was a huge hit!

We piled it high on plates and enjoyed each bite!  Each of the kids had at least seconds!

Chicken Salad
Ingredients:
2-3 cups chopped cooked chicken
3 thin slices of red cabbage chopped (about 1 cup)
½ medium onion chopped
½ cup chopped celery tops
3-4 TBSP chopped cilantro
salt and pepper to taste
½ cup Mayo

Instructions:
Mix all ingredients together and eat!

I thought it was a bit strong on the onion but if you like the flavor it’s fine.  The boys liked it a lot and kept saying it was “delishish”.  Hubby liked the strong flavor too!

If you have a favorite ingredient for chicken salad I’d love to hear it… or if you give this rendition a try, let me know what you think!