Beyond Boring Chicken Salad

I was never really a fan of chicken salad.  It's not that I disliked it, it was more indifference.  It was bland.  Just... meh.  Then some years back I experienced chicken salad unlike I'd ever had.  Curried chicken salad.  The curry powder added to the mix completely blew my mind.  I was hooked!  Now whenever I see curried chicken salad on a menu, I have to have it.  Especially if it has grapes.  The sweet element that the grapes provide is really accentuated by the spiciness of the curry.  Plus, even though it has a creamy sauce, it still feels like a light, springy/summery meal.  To aid in that I sub some of the mayo with plain Greek yogurt.

Curried Chicken Salad (makes 2 servings)
1 boneless, skinless, chicken breast (or meat from one thigh and leg)
1 large stalk celery
1T plain Greek yogurt
1T mayonnaise (light or regular, your choice)
10-15 grapes, quartered
Curry powder, salt and pepper to taste

Fine dice chicken and place in a medium sized mixing bowl.

Clean and de-rib your celery.  De-ribbing can be accomplished by peeling the back of the stalk with a vegetable peeler or snapping your celery into sections and yanking out the exposed ribs.  This prevents those long stringy bits from cramming themselves between your teeth!  Fine dice the celery and add it to the chicken.

Add the yogurt and the mayonnaise to the bowl.  If you like your chicken salad with more/less dressing, you can add/subtract from this amount but 1T each is a good starting point if you've never made this before.  I like to have equal parts of both, because the yogurt lightens it up some but the mayo does have a fantastic tangy flavor that I would miss if I used yogurt solely.  Feel free to adjust or eliminate one or the other as you see fit.

Add grapes to the bowl.

Sprinkle mixture with a pinch of salt and pepper and start with just a couple dashes of curry powder.  I like a lot of curry, so I tend to do more than a couple of dashes but it's a strong flavor so start light and you can always add later.

Mix all ingredients until incorporated.  Taste for seasoning and adjust if necessary.

For the lightest option, chicken salad can be mounded on a lightly dressed bed of lettuce or in individual lettuce cups.  Then there's the sandwich route.  I purchased some wonderful seed bread that was just dying to become a sandwich.  Chicken salad is also perfect with croissants.  Oh, light, buttery, flaky croissants (...drool).

Yummy, yummy lunch!

If you require some additional crunch/nutritional punch, you can also had a palm full of chopped nuts of choice.  Enjoy!