In our home chicken salad sandwiches are a staple. The kids love to eat them plain, just chicken and enough mayo to keep it moist. But the more adventurous adults of the family are always looking for food items to add to the salad to spice it up. Here are some of our favorites.
Grilled rye bread with melted American cheese, spinach and tomatoes. You start off by making a grilled cheese sandwich with marble rye bread. When the sandwich is cooked and the cheese has melted, you split open the bread and fill with the plain chicken salad. Top with some fresh baby spinach leaves and some sliced tomato. Reassemble the sandwich and it’s ready to eat!
Barbeque flavor chicken salad starts with the plain chicken and mayo but adds just a touch of BBQ sauce. Some diced green peppers, onions and celery finish it off. Sometimes a thin slice of cheddar cheese goes in the sandwich. This one goes great on a bulky roll or bun.
Adding fruit to the chicken salad adds a fresh sweetness that is perfect for a summer day. The traditional waldorf fixings including apples, celery and walnuts are always welcome but we’ve been known to cut up grapes, pears and other fruits on occasion. For some reason nuts always seem to go well with the fruity versions of the chicken salad. Adding lettuce to the sandwich gives you another serving of veggies and a touch of honey, cider vinegar or sour cream added to the mayo enhances the fruit flavors.
For an oriental version of chicken salad you can add mandarin orange chunks, crispy oriental noodles, water chestnuts, pineapple, sesame seeds, bean sprouts or soy sauce. We like to eat the oriental version open-faced, on only one slice of thin bread, or tucked inside a pita pocket. Shredded lettuce adds some crunch to the mix too.
Curry seasoning is another neat addition to plain chicken salad. The powdered seasoning can be mixed in to the dressing for a spicy taste. Adding a touch of yogurt to the dressing also gives it a little zing. You may also want to mix in some flaked coconut, scallions, cashews or raisins. This goes well on wheat bread, though on occasion we have even used cinnamon raisin bread for our curry chicken salad!
The most unusual thing we’ve ever added to our chicken salad has been dried cherries and fresh ground black pepper. The dried cherries were bought as a snack but sat around in the cabinet for a while. Cut into tiny pieces and thrown in with the dressing they added a wonderful surprise to the sandwich.
Chicken salad is a quick and easy lunch or dinner and with a little creativity and an open mind you can find all kinds of new ways to spice up your sandwiches. Good luck!
