Chicken or Turkey Salad

As you might have guessed we love the beach and it’s great to just go out there for the day, have a light lunch and enjoy the surf.  The only hurdle is sand, wind, birds, transport, garbage and so on.  What we like to do it keep it really simple and delicious.  We love to do chicken salad on a lettuce wrap.  After a big Thanksgiving dinner, we use the leftover turkey meat to make this a lite leftover lunch the next day.

Each guest gets a small container (just like you get for Chinese to-go) and fill them with our epic chicken salad.  Give each guest a few leaves of romaine lettuce and a plastic fork and paper plate.  They can construct their crunchy tasty lettuce wrap and enjoy the sun and sand.

Ingredients

• Four bone-in chicken breasts with skin on or 4-5 cups of turkey meat
• 1/2 of a red bell pepper, chopped
• 1 large jalapeno pepper, seeded and finely chopped
• 1/3 cup red onion, finely chopped
• 2 large celery stalks, finely chopped
• 1/3 cup of fresh basil, chiffon cut (roll ten leaves up like a cigar the cut in 1/8 inch strips)
• 2 tablespoons of dill, finely chopped
• 1/3 cup of mayonnaise
• 1/3 cup of sour cream
• 1/3 cup of crumbled feta cheese
• 1 tablespoon of dijon mustard
• OPTIONAL:  1 tablespoon of curry powder, put this in the food processor when making the sauce, really takes it up a notch
• 1 tablespoon of olive oil
• Kosher salt and pepper to taste

Making It

• Turn the oven to 425, pat the chicken try, liberally salt. and pepper and roast on ba rimmed baking sheet for 35 minutes, take out and wrap in tinfoil and let continue cooking for 45 minutes.  Discard skins remove and chop meat, discard bones
• Place the chicken, bell pepper, jalapeño, onion, celery, basil, dill in a bowl
• In food processor filled with a steal blade pulse the mayonnaise, sour cream, mustard, olive oil and seasoning (and the curry if you choose.) Stir until incorporated and mix into the chicken bowl (add a few dashes of Tabasco if you want to really heat it up)
• Refrigerate for at least two hours and serve

Options to Serve

• Wrap in a tortilla for a casual pool snack
• Fill baked phyllo dough cups and serve as an appetizer
• Put scoop on top of a bib lettuce salad for a lite lunch
• Serve on a brioche roll with two slices of roasted bacon and romaine lettuce
• Put on a iceberg or romaine lettuce leaf for a healthier wrap (pictured above)

A great lunch for the pool, beach or picnic.