Lynette's Chicken Salad
Combines Roast Chicken and Baked Ham
- Servings: 4
This salad was created by a great city cook who spent much of her life also living on the eastern shore of Maryland where she did lots of both formal and informal entertaining.
She created this recipe as a way to use chicken and baked ham that was leftover from what had been a huge holiday meal. But absent the holiday leftovers, it's easy to make this recipe with a rotisserie chicken and a thick slice of boiled or baked ham from your favorite deli and make the dressing using Hellman's Mayonnaise. If you want to add to the flavor -- make your own mayonnaise and roast your own chicken.
This salad is perfect as the main course for a lunch or summer supper.
Ingredients
- 3 cups cooked chicken with skin removed and cut into large, bite-sized pieces
- 1 cup baked or boiled ham cut into 1/2-inch cubes
- 1 cup diced celery, cut into pieces about the same size as the diced ham
- 1 cup green olives with pimentos, drained and cut in half
- 1/2 cup Hellman's Real Mayonnaise or else home-made mayonnaise
- Curry powder
- Salt
- Pepper
Directions
- In a small bowl combine the mayonnaise with the curry powder to taste. Curry powder can be full-flavored so start out with about 1/4 teaspoon and keep adding in small amounts until you get the flavor you like.
- Combine the pieces of chicken, ham, celery and olives in a large bowl.
- Toss with the curried mayonnaise.
- Season to taste with salt and freshly ground pepper.
- Serve on a bed of lettuce or spears of fresh endives, plus halved cherry tomatoes and any other fresh vegetables that you like.
Tip: Have the chicken and ham be either slightly chilled or at room temperature. That means if you're making this with a just-bought rotisserie chicken that is still warm, put it first into the refrigerator to get chilled. Otherwise the dressing will melt when you add it to the chicken. The chicken will also be easier to remove from its bones if it's slightly chilled.
