Curried Chicken Salad

I think I’m an anomaly of my generation. I still love the lunchbox sandwiches of the 90s. Egg salad, chicken salad, tuna salad? Yes please! (Side note, what makes these “salad?”) I think most of my peers either a) ate so many of these sandwiches in childhood that they refuse to even glance at them now or b) are trying to be more healthy in their lunch choices and therefore avoid mayonnaise-based sandwich stuffers. Either way, I pretty much never see people our age munching on a ‘salad’ sandwich in the breakroom anymore. I’m here to say that they’re missing out. I will say, I do make a few changes from whatever the lunch ladies used to offer. I don’t hate mayonnaise but I don’t want gobs of it smothering my chicken either. I just use enough to loosely bind the other ingredients to each other. I also like sneaking the shredded carrot into the mixture for some extra vegetable. Furthermore, I can make a batch of this fairly quickly and then have it ready for sandwiches for the rest of the week’s lunches! #mealprep 🙄

 
Curried Chicken Salad

Ingredients:

• 2 large boneless, skinless chicken breasts (~1.5 lb)
• 1/4 cup + 1 tbsp (5 tbsp) mayonnaise
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tsp grated fresh ginger
• 1 tbsp curry powder
• 1 tsp paprika
• 10 turns fresh ground black pepper
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 large carrot, grated
• 1 cup halved red grapes

Instructions:

1. Bring a pot of water to a boil. Submerge the chicken breasts and poach at a simmer for 12-15 minutes, until entirely opaque. (Safe chicken internal temp = 165)
2. In a small bowl, mix together the mayonnaise, garlic, ginger, curry powder, paprika salt, & pepper.
3. Once the chicken is cool enough to handle, chop or shred it. Place in a mixing bowl.
4. Add the carrots and mayo mixture into the bowl with the chicken. Stir to combine.
5. Lastly, add the grapes and stir everything together.
6. Refrigerate until ready to eat.

Makes ~ 3 1/2 – 4 cups