Avocado Chicken Salad (No Mayo!)

Adapted from the Paleo Avocado Chicken Salad recipe

I love chicken salad but unfortunately, Chad hates it. He can't articulate what it is about chicken salad that he hates, so I am experimenting to see if he will like a chicken salad made without mayonnaise. I hesitated to even post this recipe because I didnt follow it hardly at all. Sometimes when I start to cook I just throw things together that I have on hand and substitute out a lot of stuff. This is one of those times, so there are a lot of notes in the ingredient list below.

Ingredients

• 3 cups of cooked chicken, shredded or cubed
• 1 large ripe avocado, peeled, depitted and mashed with a fork
• 1 green apple, finely chopped in ½ to ¼ inch cubes (I should have used red apple, didn't like green.)
• ¼ cup of red seedless grapes, cut in half (I couldn't find organic grapes so I omitted)
• 1 rib of celery (I didnt have any on hand so I used celery seeds)
• 1/4 cup red onion (I should have used yellow! Not a fan of red in this recipe.)
• some diced red bell pepper (not necessary, I just had it in the fridge.)
• 2 tablespoons of your favorite nuts, chopped (I was going to use walnuts, but forgot to put them in!)
• 2 tablespoons of your favorite fresh herbs, finely chopped (I used parsley)
• juice of 1 lime
• salt to taste, and some dried spices like garlic powder, celery salt, dill, cayenne, etc.

Instructions

I used rotisserie chicken breasts for this recipe, one smoked and one lemon/herb. You could also put a couple chicken breasts in the slow cooker with some spices and water. If you do not have enough time to slow cook your chicken, you can always bake chicken pieces or breasts in the oven for 25 minutes at 350 degrees sprayed with a little olive oil, or take a whole chicken and roast in the oven, or make some chicken stock with a whole chicken and use the leftover meat for this chicken salad.

Once you have your chicken situation square, depit your ripe avocado and mash your avocado to somewhat of a creamy consistency.

Chop up your apples, grapes, herbs, and walnuts.

In a big bowl add your shredded chicken, creamy avocado and all your chopped ingredients. Once you mix everything, add the juice of your lime and some salt and blend altogether.

I usually eat it plain, with cheese crisps, or scoop it over a bed of lettuce.

Serves 4-6.

Chad liked it but I wasn't a fan. I didn't have a lot of the ingredients I needed and I used some that I don't think went well together. I think if I make this again it would end up entirely different. I had to add some greek yogurt and olive oil to make it more creamy. I really missed the mayo in this recipe since I love original chicken salad so much. If you aren't a big mayo person, this recipe would be great for you!