lunch – Jason's Cooking

Background

Grapes in chicken salad?!? A coworker of mine turned me on to putting grapes in chicken salad about 10 years ago and I haven’t made chicken salad without them since. She called it Summertime Chicken Salad but I just call it delicious.

This is my go-to chicken salad recipe. It’s not too wet, has just the right amount of crunch and the grapes are a nice surprise. In fact, with only ½ cup of mayonnaise in the whole batch, it’s actually not too bad for you either. Michael and I make this on the weekend and it’ll keep in the refrigerator all week to use on tasty sandwiches.

Recipe

Chunky Chicken Salad

Prep time

10 mins

Total time

10 mins

Author: www.jasonscooking.com

Recipe type: Mains

Serves: 10

Ingredients

2 ½ - 3 Lb Chicken, Cooked and Shredded
1 Cup Celery, Chopped (about 3 ribs)
½ Cup Pecans, Toasted and Chopped
1 Cup Red Seedless Grapes, Halved
½ Cup Mayonnaise
Salt and Pepper to Taste

Instructions

Place all ingredients in a large bowl and toss to combine.
Season with kosher salt and cracked black pepper to taste.

Tips and Tricks

I use my hands to toss this salad. Using your fingers helps you mix everything evenly and allows you to use less mayonnaise.

Feed the Freezer

This chicken salad will freeze for up to 3 months. The quality might diminish slightly but it’s a great way to store excess chicken salad.

Fun Facts

The chicken salad that we know and love was invented in Rhode Island in 1863. The original version featured leftover chicken, mayonnaise, tarragon, and grapes. Grapes! Who knew?

375°

35 mins

Background

Last year, I started a garden and grew a bunch of vegetables and herbs. “Bunch” may be a strong word as a lot of stuff didn’t make it due to rabbits and overcrowding. Apparently those “place x inches apart” notes are important and you can’t grow 2 parsley plants, 2 basil plants, 2 cilantro plants, 2 mint plants, 2 bell peppers, 1 zucchini and 1 squash in a 4’ x 4’ garden bed. Who knew?

The herbs grew too tall and crowded out everything except for the zucchini and cucumbers but that was because they are vines and grew out of the bed onto the lawn. Long story short: I had a lot of cucumbers last summer!

Michael doesn’t like cucumbers all that much so the perfect storm that created this sandwich involved him being out of town, a glut of cucumbers, bacon, and me not want to cook. This lazy dinner became my absolute favorite sandwich ever. It’s salty and sweet, crispy and soft, hot and cold and embodies summer. You should try it!

Recipe

Bacon and Cucumber Sandwiches

Prep time

5 mins

Cook time

30 mins

Total time

35 mins

This quick and easy sandwich is a refreshingly sweet and salty taste of summer.

Author: www.jasonscooking.com

Recipe type: Sandwich

Serves: 4

Ingredients

10 Slices of Thick Cut Bacon
2 Cucumbers, Sliced into ¼ inch rounds
8 Slices of Bread, I used Multi-Grain Sourdough Bread
4 Tbs Mayonnaise

Instructions

Cook the Bacon

Place bacon in a single layer on a sheet pan and put into a cold oven
Turn the oven on to 375° and cook for 20 – 30 minutes, or until desired crispness is achieved. Note: This length of time is for thick cut bacon only, regular bacon will take much less time to cook.
Drain bacon on paper towels

Assemble the Sandwich

Each sandwich requires 2 slices of bread, 1 Tbs mayonnaise, approximately ½ of a cucumber, and 2 ½ slices of bacon.
Mayonnaise up both slices of bread
Layer thusly: bread, cucumber, bacon, bread

Tips and Tricks

Don’t be shy with the cucumber or bacon. They’re the stars of this show.

Feed the Freezer

No freezing allowed for this tasty summer time sandwich! Leftover bread and bacon, however, can be frozen.

Fun Facts

Cucumbers can provide a similar pick-me-up as caffeine due to them being a great source of Vitamin B and Carbohydrates.