Curried Chicken Salad

Curried chicken salad, cucumber, and feta in whole-wheat wrap

Lately I am obsessed with curry powder -- the yellow-orange, vaguely Indian, commonly-found-in-supermarkets kind rather than any of the myriad other varieties. Contrary to popular belief, it is not "spicy" in the sense of being hot -- there's actually a sweetness to it. Curried chicken salad is super-simple to throw together, and in about five or ten minutes, will yield you the fixings for a five-day workweek's worth of sandwiches (yes, squeamish types, a chicken-and-mayo-based mixture will keep that long) that you can throw together in minutes in the morning. And, of course, it will be a lot cheaper than buying comparable sandwiches day to day.

I start by shredding leftover chicken, which means pulling it off the carcass with my fingers and then pulling apart those scraps so they're like strands. (You could use store-bought roast chicken, but that kind of defeats the point of this blog, now, doesn't it.) I shred the chicken directly into a large Tupperware container, so as not to have to dirty a bowl. (Note: The curry powder might stain your Tupperware yellow. If you care about this, you're really neurotic.)



Assuming you have a couple of cups of chicken, add a dollop of mayonnaise*** ("dollop" defined by your taste -- remember, though, that you can always add more, but you can't take it away once it's in there), about a teaspoon of Dijon mustard, and either finely diced red onion or thinly sliced scallion (again, to taste -- and/or, depending on whether you plan to make out with someone immediately after lunch). You might add about half of a red or yellow pepper, diced. And if you're some kind of psycho freak, I guess you could add a handful of golden raisins. I guess. About a teaspoon of curry powder should do it. Oh, yeah, and salt and pepper -- duh.

Mix all this together, taste and adjust your mayo/seasoning/onion-or-scallion proportions accordingly, and you've got your chicken salad all ready to be stored in the fridge.

This chicken salad works well over salad greens, or in a sandwich; I like pita or a tortilla wrap for this, but you could of course use any sandwich bread you like.

Here are some items I like to include in my sandwich:

Thinly sliced cucumber (I am half WASP, you know -- and the crisp texture and clean flavor make a great contrast with the curry and onion)

Sliced avocado (the curry brings out its flavor)

Crumbled feta cheese (though feta was recently called a "bullying" flavor on Top Chef Masters, curry can stand up to feta on the proverbial playground)

Baby arugula (why, yes, I am a liberal elitist who grew up in Massachusetts ... why do you ask?)

Crumbled bacon (cooked, not raw...look, we're not making any assumptions about kitchen proficiency here)

Now, tuck that all into your wrap or pita, bring it to work, and smirk at your colleague who just spent $8 on a similar sandwich from Pret a Manger, while your ingredients may have cost that total but will stretch five days. Smug self-satisfaction always makes a meal that much more, well, satisfying.


***Mayonnaise note: I'm a Hellman's girl all the way. Miracle Whip is ... I don't even know what that unholy swill is, but there's a reason it is not actually called "mayonnaise." Hellman's marketing department, please feel free to contact me for a lucrative endorsement deal. If product placement is good enough for 30 Rock, it's good enough for us! Resume reading