Hen salads are simple to place collectively and simple to eat! This twist provides a creamy curry dressing that can maintain you coming again for extra. We packed in candy bites of apple, golden raisins, and a little bit crunch from toasted almonds and celery. Serve on a sandwich, over a mattress of lettuce, stuffed in an avocado, or just by itself!
For extra hen salad goodness, attempt our simple Pesto Hen Salad.
Why Our Recipe
- A creamy curry dressing offers a twist to conventional hen salad with
- Tremendous simple to toss collectively and excellent for sandwiches, wraps, and even stuffed avocados.
- Candy and crunchy mix-ins together with apples, raisins, and toasted almonds.
Hen salad is all the time on the menu for a picnic or spending a day by the pool. It additionally appears to be one of many quintessential inclusions at each child bathe and girls’ luncheon, too. A curry model is an effective way to maintain issues fascinating. We’ll load it up on a croissant if we’re feeling fancy, or simply scoop it into an avocado while you need one thing lighter for lunch.
Ingredient Notes
- Hen: This recipe makes use of 2 cups of pre-cooked hen. Rotisserie hen or leftovers work completely. You may all the time bake and shred hen breasts as nicely.
- Celery: Mince it up so it may unfold the crunch round within the salad.
- Apple: Crips apples give the proper crunch. We advise purple apples like Gala, Fuji, Honeycrisp, Pink Woman, or Crimson Scrumptious for his or her sweetness, however you should use inexperienced apples for a extra tart taste.
- Inexperienced Onions: These add a contemporary, gentle onion taste and texture to the salad with out the sharp chunk of a daily onion.
- Almonds: Slivered almonds give a noticeable crunch so your hen salad isn’t mushy. Now we have you toast them to get a greater taste. You may as well swap out with roughly chopped cashews.
- Raisins: We use golden raisins as a substitute of standard for his or her sweeter taste and juiciness. Common raisins work, however you actually get a greater outcome with these plump golden raisins. You might additionally use dried cranberries or quarter some purple or grapes.
- Mayonnaise: Now we have carried out mayo style checks and strongly advocate utilizing a neutral-flavored mayonnaise. Seems, that is virtually all the time going to be a generic retailer model. If you would like one thing lighter, you may exchange the mayo with plain Greek yogurt in the identical quantity.
- Curry Powder: We use a plain yellow curry powder. You may simply discover within the spice aisle of just about any U.S. or Canadian grocery retailer.
- Lemon Juice: Freshly squeezed all the time offers the perfect taste, however the bottled stuff works too.
- Cilantro: We love cilantro for that distinctly contemporary, citrusy, and barely spicy style, however some folks have that gene the place it tastes like cleaning soap. Use your greatest judgment for whether or not or to not embody.
Hen Choices
This recipe requires shredded cooked hen and that comes with all kinds of choices.
Rotisserie Hen – many American grocery shops promote cooked rotisserie chickens which you could purchase and shred. It’s typically a “loss chief,” which implies they promote it for lower than it truly prices to mak,e so it may be an excellent deal. Many shops are additionally now providing the rotisserie hen pre-shredded and packaged, too!
Frozen Cooked Hen – take a look at the freezer part of your grocery retailer for pre-cooked hen strips and chunks.
Boiled Hen – Merely boil 2 hen breasts (about 1 pound) in both water or hen broth (for extra taste) for about quarter-hour, or till cooked via. Drain and shred hen with a fork.
Bake Your Personal Hen – lay hen breasts out right into a flippantly greased 9×13 pan. Season flippantly with salt and pepper. Bake at 350 levels for 25 to half-hour till cooked via. Then shred or roughly chop.
Make-Forward Directions
That is the proper make-ahead meal. In truth, this chilly salad is even tastier if it’s been left within the fridge for a few hours and even a complete day earlier than you eat it! That is nice information if you wish to put together for a picnic or just make a chilly lunch forward of time. Merely comply with the directions and canopy your salad tightly with plastic wrap earlier than storing it within the fridge.
Serving Options
There’s no mistaken method to serve curry hen salad, and there actually are so many choices. It’s type of good as a result of it makes it good for therefore many various events.
On a Croissant: Nothing beats a flaky croissant filled with curry hen salad. It feels a little bit fancy. You might additionally use numerous different buns and rolls, however croissant is the traditional.
In a Lettuce Wrap: If you would like one thing lighter, scoop it into a giant piece of butter lettuce or romaine leaves.
Wrapped in a Tortilla: Roll it up with some spinach or greens in a tortilla and also you’ve received a straightforward wrap that travels nicely.
Stuffed in an Avocado: Slice an avocado in half and cargo it up. It’s contemporary, filling, and simply feels a little bit additional (in the easiest way).
Over a Salad: Go extra old style and scoop it on prime of your favourite greens for an excellent fast salad.
With Crackers: Scoop it up along with your favourite crackers or pita chips for a straightforward snack board state of affairs or appetizer.
Storage Directions
Refrigerate leftovers in an hermetic container for 3-4 days. To get pleasure from it once more, you may serve it chilly, straight from the fridge or let it come to room temperature.
*Freezing just isn’t really helpful.
