Fruit and Seed Chicken Salad

This recipe is not your typical onion and celery chicken salad. It is adapted from my mama's famous cream cheese-based chicken salad, which is heavenly. She usually serves it warm, either by itself or on a croissant roll. Her original recipe includes grapes and pecans or walnuts. My husband is allergic to nuts, so I modified it to have toasted seeds instead for the same yummy crunch. I also tweaked it to make it a little bit more health friendly ;) 

You can make this with any kind of fruit - diced pineapple, chopped apples, cranberries, cherries, etc. Mix and match as you please. The goal is to be healthy and sweet and delicious, all at once! 

Ingredients:

These amounts are mostly guestimates. We usually just make it to taste. Start off with a little, and keep adding until it feels right.

- 2 lb rotisserie chicken, hand shredded (you can also cook 1-2 lbs of chicken meat yourself, but a rotisserie chicken makes the process a lot easier)
- 1/2 block of cream cheese
- 1/4 cup olive oil based mayonnaise
- 1/2-3/4 cup chopped fruit (I used grapes this time)
- 1/4 cup mixed sunflower and pumpkin seeds, toasted
- 2 tbsp chia seeds
- 1 tsp thyme 
- 1/4 tsp salt

Directions:

Set out block of cream cheese to soften. Hand shred your chicken into small pieces and put in a large mixing bowl. Put mixed seeds into a frying pan over medium-high heat. Mix until they start to sizzle and brown, and then pour over chicken. Add chopped fruit. In a separate bowl, mix cream cheese and mayonnaise until smooth. You want more cream cheese than mayo - the mayo just helps it all "hold together." Mix cream cheese and mayo into your large bowl with chicken and toppings. Add thyme and salt, and then mix thoroughly. Voila! 

Serve in a croissant, in a lettuce wrap, over cantaloupe, or by itself for light lunch or snack. 

Hugs, 
Madi