Hello my name is Jake and I am Kymberly's boyfriend and this is my recipe for her Favorite Gluten Free Chicken Salad.
On of my duties as Kymberly's boyfriend is to not only be her Gluten Nazi but to be her personal chef to whip up delicious and tasty food for her so she is not tempted to go poison herself at McDonalds with a McGluten Death Burger with Cheese. Since she is still coming to terms with her condition it is a bit tough. She used to love the sandwiches that they made at Safeway Deli. Kymberly loved the chicken salad there and sent me to get some. Now being her Gluten Enforcer I asked the deli workers to show me a listing of the ingredients of the Chicken salad and low and behold there were two bad ingredients including my nemesis Modified Food Starch.
So I decided to make it from scratch and got the ingredients for it. Now picking out the right kind of canned chicken is important because you have to look for non GF ingredients. The only one that was good was Valley Fresh Canned Chicken in Water. Like all good Gluten Free cooks I am constantly on the look out for good canned food products that have as little ingredients as possible so that we know that we are not getting any bad gluten stuff. The ingredients of Valley Fresh Canned Chicken are "White Chicken Meat, Water, Salt". Sounds pretty good to me.
Ingredients:
3 10oz Cans White Chicken in water (drained) (Make damn sure to check to see if it is gluten free)
5-6 stalks of Celery
1 yellow onion (medium size)
1 red onion (medium size)
2 Cups Mayonnaise (Make sure it is gluten free, and don't get Miracle Whip but real Mayo, you really can taste the difference)
2 teaspoons ground pepper
Seasoned salt to taste (Safeway makes a really nice gluten free seasoned salt that I like)
2 Tablespoons sweet pickle relish
Dash of Paprika
Dash of dried Parsley
Instructions.
1. In a really big glass mixing bowl place the drained white chicken meat and break it up into a pulp using a big wooden spoon or a pestle.
2. Season with seasoned salt and pepper
3. Mince the celery into small pieces and add to the bowl
4. Mince both the yellow onion and red onion (Breath through your mouth to help avoid burning your eyes on the onion fumes) and add to the bowl
5. Add Sweet pickle relish
Finally add the Mayonnaise and mix it all together with a big wooden spoon.
6. Add dried Parsley and paprika and stir
7. Give it a taste and see if it needs any more seasoning. I recommend you go easy on the salt since it is better to under salt something than over salt it.
Serve with Gluten free crackers, GF Toasted bread, with a small spoon. Olives, sliced apples and some good cheese are a nice side to this dish. It is even better the next day since the flavors have settled and mixed.
Variations on this recipe:
Thanksgiving Turkey Salad :Try turkey or instead of chicken and add some dried Cranberries
Curried Chicken Salad : Add a table spoon of curry powder and some raisins to the mix.
Now I know this sounds like non-gourmet peasant but it all reality it is not that far off from a high culture pate. But it is a tasty good comfort food and It is good to have most of the ingredients on hand so I can make it when called on to. (I've actually had her want me to make this in the middle of the night)
Fresh Chicken Salad has a really awesome fresh, creamy taste and you can enjoy it with other stuff like crackers, fruit and cheese. It can keep up to a week in the fridge if you store it in an air tight plastic container but you are probably going to eat it all up by then. Also it is good since if your stomach is bothering you to eat multiple smaller meals than one big one. For the past couple months Kymberly has been recovering from major surgery (with complications) on her GI track so this has been a good recipe to have on hand during those tough months.
