Midweek Chicken Salad & 5-Second Shredding Tip!
- realmomswingingit
- Apr 20, 2016
- 3 min read
So it's a smack-in-the-middle-of-the-week Wednesday and you realize you have no pre-made meals to pull out of the freezer and no actual plans for dinner.
One of my go-to recipes (read about my cooking confession here), when we're not having a Taco Bar, is a Delish Midweek Chicken Salad sandwich!
Now I know some of you own an Instant Pot and can vouch for it being the workhorse of your kitchen, but this can also be started in a slow cooker, which I also own and find just as essential (tip: the Instant Pot can actually slow-cook too, you should just go add it to your Mother's Day gift list right now!).
So I take out the chicken breasts, either from the freezer or fridge, which will determine how long to cook them.
2 lbs of frozen chicken breasts can be made in the Instant Pot in 15 minutes. Or about 6 hours in a slow cooker.
Fresh chicken breasts will cook in the Instant Pot in 10 minutes and about 4 hours in the slow cooker.
Midweek Chicken Salad Sandwiches:
Cook about 2 lbs of chicken breast in either the Instant Pot or slow cooker, add some garlic powder and salt like I did in the picture, not much else is needed since the flavors will be added in the salad part of the recipe.
Ingredients:
5 cups of cooked chicken breasts, shredded (or cubed).
1 1/4 c of mayo (I prefer a sugar and soy free one, and use Whole Foods 365 brand, but I know some of you Moms who use homemade mayo, yum!)
2 tbsp yellow mustard
2 tbsp fresh dill or 1 (heaping) tbsp dried dill (I prefer fresh but unplanned midweek means dried from the spice drawer)
3/4 c finely diced dill pickles
3/4 c finely diced red onions
2 tbsp lemon juice
Salt & Pepper to taste
6 sandwich rolls or lettuce leaves, if you want to go bread-free.
Optional apple slices I use to scoop the salad.
In large bowl, fork apart the cooked shredded chicken, mix in the mayo and all other ingredients together.
Chill in the fridge for about an hour for best melding of flavors.
Scoop into sandwich rolls. I only had these bread rounds, so I improvised.
If you are eating just the salad, scoop it onto lettuce leaves and use slices of crunchy fuji apples to dip! (Someone ate all the lettuce in our house, hence the lettuce-less shot below!).
I find that shredded chicken is such a versatile staple and great for sandwiches, TACOS!, salads, TACOS!, stir-frys, TACOS! and baked potatoes!
Add different seasonings like south of the border blends, cajun spices, or just some bottled bbq sauce and you have great protein to add to practically endless meal possibilities! And of course TACOS!
I hope you try this and let me know how it turned out!
The work of precooking and shredding/cubing is what takes the longest, but did you know that you can just take your cooked chicken and use a hand mixer to shred it in a large bowl, like this?
I do this in 5 seconds and love this tip, it saves me a ton of time!
To me this was a pretty easy level of difficulty. I mean, 10 minutes in the Instant Pot, 5 seconds to shred with the hand mixer tip, dice ingredients, mix and chill. I hope you agree. I always make more to have extra for a couple of lunches.
It's not just perfect for midweek, with the warmer weather, I whip this up quickly, pack it in a cooler and take it on our hikes and picnics!
Do you have some easy mid-week recipes you love? Please share! Don't make me post my Kale Chips recipe next!
Happy Wednesday!
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