Southern Chicken Salad

After I finished reading Saving CeeCee Honeycutt by Beth Hoffman I became a tad obsessed with the South. I do that after I read a book by May Kay Andrews too. These books just make me want to drink icy cold coca cola and eat chicken salad. So, the next time I went to the library and saw Southern Living Comfort Food cookbook I snatched it up.

Southern women make and serve a lot of chicken salad. Who better to get a recipe for chicken salad than from a Southern Living cookbook.

Of course, being the know it all that I am, I changed a few things. For one the curry, I'm not a fan and Hubby isn't a fan either. All the other ingredients were in the house except the fresh ginger. I used dried ginger and I always use low fat cream cheese. If you like mayo you could add a bit. Hubby did.

I didn't totally eliminate the curry. I just used several sprinkles and called it good. And was it ever!

Sheryl came Friday afternoon for a happy hour and we enjoyed it on crackers. We decided it would be good on butter leaf lettuce too. Since then Hubby and I have enjoyed it on sandwiches.


Southern Living Curried(Curry is optional) Chicken Salad

Ingredients
4 cups finely chopped cooked chicken (Good Southern women only use white meat.)
3 (8-ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
3/4 cup dried cranberries, chopped
1/2 cup sweetened flaked coconut, toasted
6 green onions, minced
2 celery ribs, diced
1 (2 1/4-ounce) package slivered almonds, toasted
1 tablespoon curry powder*only if you like curry
1 tablespoon freshly grated ginger
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
48 whole-grain bread slices for the tea sammies or serve on crackers, breads or lettuce.
Stir together first 11 ingredients. Spread mixture evenly on 1 side each of 24 bread slices; top with remaining 24 bread slices. Trim crusts from sandwiches; cut each sandwich into 4 rectangles with a serrated knife.

And yes, Little House on the Prairie books make me want to preserve food, Rosamund Pilcher books make me want to drink tea and a book by Mauve Binchey sends me straight to the pub for bangers and mash. True story.