Favorite Chicken Salad

I almost never buy cold cuts. Even if you don't buy the free-range organic ones, they're still really expensive--like $6-$8 per pound and the free-range organic cold cuts are even more expensive.

Around here, we mostly stick to peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for lunches, but sometimes I make up a big batch of chicken salad for the week which we can use on sandwiches for lunch or a green salad for dinner. Even using the organic, free-range chicken breasts, it's still cheaper than conventional cold cuts.

My favorite chicken salad "recipe" is:

Poached chicken breast
Dried cranberries
Green onion (Use twice as many as you think you need.)
Chopped pecans or walnuts (I prefer pecans, but walnuts are healthier, so that's what I usually use.)
Mayo or Miracle Whip

I know there are lots of Miracle Whip haters out there, but I say try it in this. We are a divided house; I prefer mayo and husband prefers MW. However, I find that in mayo based salads (like potato salad, macaroni salad, chicken salad, etc.) MW tends to be better than mayo especially if you let it sit in the fridge for a day before serving. It doesn't taste like MW at all. I think the onion mixes with the MW and transforms it. If you do decide to use mayo though, add some lemon juice and salt and pepper to the chicken salad.

A final tip: the smaller you cube your chicken, the longer the chicken salad will last. Cut it into the smallest pieces you can handle without having a nervous breakdown.