Not Your Mama's Chicken Salad

One of my new loves is chicken salad.

I'm not a huge fan of mayo and I always associate chicken salad with copious amounts of mayo, so I never ate it growing up.

Once I discovered how to make it myself the game changed!

I add lots of different tastes and textures to take this chicken salad up a notch, and believe me, it is good!

Here's what you'll need:

• 2 chicken breasts
• 1 medium gala apple
• 1/2 medium yellow onion
• 1/2 cup chopped/diced almonds
• 1/4 cup craisins 
• 3 tbs light mayo
• 1/4 cup poppy seed salad dressing (Maries)
• Salt and Pepper 

I start by cooking my chicken - preheat the oven to 375, season chicken breasts with olive oil, salt and pepper. Cook for about 15 - 20 minutes until it's cooked through, set aside and let rest. I like the taste of toasted almonds, its almost bacon-y, so I toast mine in a dry pan until I can smell them. Meanwhile, dice the onion and apple pretty small. Dice the craisins as well, to keep everything a similar size. You want all of the components to be roughly the same size so you get a little of everything in every bite. Next, you'll dice up the chicken. Once everything is ready, place all the ingredients in a bowl (the chicken will absorb more flavor while its warm, and I think the salad is really good while it's still warm, but you can use chilled chicken as well). Add the mayo and the poppy seed dressing and mix well. You may need more poppy seed dressing or mayo depending on how wet you like your salad or how well it's coming together. Salt and pepper to taste.

Most people are familiar with a chicken salad sandwhich, I'm not here to tell you how to eat your chicken salad ;) but I enjoy mine with pretzel thins! It's really good :) Hope you guys enjoy!