Healthy and Delicious Chicken Salad Sandwiches
As I try to eat healthier this year, instead of drastically changing my diet, I've tried to make familiar standbys more fit-friendly. And almost nothing's more familiar at lunchtime than the ol' chicken salad sandwich. I've taken to this recipe, which I've adapted to my own liking.
In it, plain nonfat yogurt replaces mayo, and plenty of herbs and fruit keep things interesting. Serve it on the bread of your choice, though I like it on a nice rye.
Healthy and Delicious Chicken Salad Sandwiches
- makes 6 sandwiches -
Adapted from marthastewart.com
Ingredients
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts
3/4 cup plain nonfat yogurt
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons fresh chives, chopped
1 tablespoon fresh tarragon, chopped
1 apple
Juice of 1/2 lemon
1 cup finely diced fennel
1/2 cup finely diced celery
2 cups seedless grapes, cut in half
12 slices bread
Watercress, tough stems removed
Olive-oil cooking spray
Procedure
1. In a medium bowl, combine salt and pepper. Heat a sauté pan on medium-high heat, and mist with cooking spray. Dust chicken with a little of the salt-and-pepper mixture, and then place the chicken in hot pan. Reduce heat to medium, and cover. Cook about 12 minutes, or until the chicken is cooked through, flipping halfway through cooking time. Remove from pan, and set aside.
2. In a small bowl, combine the yogurt, Dijon mustard, chives and tarragon with the remaining salt-and-pepper mixture. Core apple; dice into 1/4-inch pieces. Put the diced apple in a medium bowl with lemon juice (which keeps it from browning); combine. Add the fennel, celery, and grapes.
3. Slice cooked chicken into 1/2-inch pieces. Add to salad along with the yogurt dressing, and mix everything together. Serve, dressed with watercress, as sandwiches on the bread of your choice.
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5 Comments:
Cf. the recipe for chicken salad in the first cookbook for Union Square Cafe?
It's full of vegetables, including grated radishes and green beans that provide bulk. Just limit the bacon (I can't recall if it's part of the recipe or something I add) so there's just a little bit for the sake of enhancing flavor. Wonderful.
I also think you can get a lot of flavor from poaching chicken, especially if you're creative in liquids. E.g. orange juice and sage. If you don't have homemade stock, a can of low-sodium broth might be doctored w white wine, parsley, onion, fennel stalks, carrot...
However, there's nothing wrong w a little olive oil from a recyclable bottle, especially if you have a grill pan.
N.B. Grapes are packed with calories.
Canola mayo has fewer calories than most light versions of commercial mayo, though I am sure FAGO (or other drained yogurts vs. cream-rich labne) is satisfying. Plain old ordinary yogurt strikes me as too liquid in such quantities.
I also like making a tahini sauce (the kind that involves whipping in lots of lemon juice and then mixing in salt-crushed garlic) and blending that with thickened, drained yogurt as a binding agent. Adds flavor to otherwise tasteless water-packed tuna, too.
Eliz. at 4:03PM on 01/29/08
Curry powder for a curried chicken salad? Nuts (good fats) and apples? I need to make one soon.
lo82070 at 4:05PM on 01/29/08
Chicken salad is one of my most favorite sandwiches (I was just thinking about them because they were mentioned on Ugly Betty--I guess it's supposed to be the sandwich of choice for "ugly" people?) but it's the kind of thing I only make at home. I don't get too herby but I have been using yogurt and playing around with adding fruit. Chopped dried apricots and almonds can be good. And hot Spanish paprika gives that almost bacon-y flavor. This weekend I made chicken salad and added leftover shredded daikon and carrots from a banh mi experiment. It was good, too.
Goodies First
Krista at 5:20PM on 01/29/08
Grapes, packed with calories? One seedless grape contains three calories.
Barbara Hanson at 10:05PM on 01/29/08
BaHa: You're right and I was wrong. One of those things I remember David Letterman saying when he was in the midst of tending to his health was how caloric a handful of grapes was; maybe he was joking. I just checked a nutrition database that provides an even lower number (2 calories), but then says a cup of grapes has 62 calories. Not sure how that would work, unless they're cut in half as per recipe. However, that's 3 fewer calories than a cup of apple slices.
Eliz. at 4:58PM on 01/30/08