Recipe for Rotisserie Chicken Salad | Repurposed Meals

I know that the store-bought rotisserie chicken is a constant in the grocery cart of many families. It’s why every store carries them. A few Fridays ago, I found myself in my local Whole Foods when they announced their Friday special – $5 rotisserie chickens! No joke! You can’t even get a pint of strawberries for $5 at Whole Foods, so I went to prepared foods section and grabbed 2. I completely appreciate the wonderful process of roasting your own chicken. It’s something I do often, but when speed is of the essence (and there is an unbeatable special), you buy the $5 chicken.

So I carted my chickens back home and showed them off to Julia Child (because who doesn’t cook to old episodes of “The French Chef“?). Channeling the spirit of JC, I asked, “What would the great JC do with 2 rotisserie chickens?” Note that my household only contains 2 people, one of whom is a vegetarian, so the real question was, “What rotisserie chicken dishes am I craving?” Many of my meal planning clients ask me to include rotisserie chicken dishes in their meal plans, and unless they hate mayo, I always include chicken salad (usually in the form of a melt) in their meal plan. Chicken salad reminds me of summer picnics, red and white checked table cloths, and Arnold Palmers. For some reason, those things all go together in my head. So, I decided I would peel the meat off the bones, use the dark meat for a chicken salad, the white meat for a chicken and vegetable soup (because it’s a bit drier and would be made juicier with some liquid), and the bones for a stock. I think JC would have been proud.

Recipe for a Summer Chicken Salad

{Makes about 3 to 4 cups}

Ingredients

• Dark meat from 1 rotisserie chicken
• 1/4+ cup Veganaise (or mayo)
• 2 celery ribs
• 1/2 red onion
• Salt & pepper
• 1/2 tbs. olive oil
• 6 stalks of green onion

Prep

• Chicken: Peel off dark meat from bones with a fork
• Celery: Dice
• Red onion: Dice
• Green onions: Slice thinly, into quarter inch segments

Make

1. Heat a small frying pan over medium-high heat, and add oil to warmed pan. Then add chopped green onions the warmed oil along with a dash of salt. Saute for ~1 minute just to soften and add some flavor to the onions
2. In a big bowl, combine the rest of the ingredients. If it’s too dry, add more veganaise / mayo
3. Season to taste with salt and pepper

Serve / Substitutes / Supplements

• Make it low-carb (like I do) chicken salad cabbage wrap
• Chicken salad melt? Scoop onto your favorite bread. Add some cheese and let it bubble away in your toaster oven (Bake @ 300 degrees for a 5 minutes and then broil for the last minute)
• Change the flavor profile of your chicken salad by adding some jalapenos (we’ve got some diced up in ours), chopped parsley, capers, curry powder, dijon mustard, diced apple, or even olives

Picnic away!