Incredible Chicken Salad (low carb)

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Delicious Roast Chicken Quarters

You know how chicken salad usually has poached chicken pieces as its base?  Well, I don’t do that.  I roast the chicken and make sure it has tons of flavor before adding classic chicken salad ingredients

Roast Chicken Pieces

1 Package Chicken Quarters
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 Lemon
1 Bunch Fresh Rosemary (substitute 4 T. dried)
Salt and Pepper

Preheat oven to 400.  Line a lipped baking sheet with Foil and place chicken pieces on foil, making sure they’re not too crowded.  Salt and Pepper liberally.  Drizzle Olive Oil over chicken.  Grate some lemon zest on top of chicken, then cut lemon in half and squeeze juice on top. Leave the lemon halves on the sheet.   Rip some rosemary off stems and scatter over chicken.  If you have too much, just put the twigs on top. Put in oven and start checking after 40 minutes.  Skin should be slightly crisp and juices run clear when done.  Remove from oven, loosely cover with foil and allow to cool until you can easily handle.

When you can handle the chicken, clean all the meat from the bones, reserving skin, or feeding it to your family who loves it.  I don’t like this job much, so Jim always does it for me.  At this point, you can put the chicken into a container and refrigerate until you’re ready to make the salad, but I warn you – the chicken is so good that it may get picked at all day, not leaving enough for the salad.

Chicken Salad

Roast chicken removed from bone
1/2 red onion diced
7-10 stalks of celery diced
1 T. white balsamic vinegar
2/3 c. mayo
1/2 bunch fresh tarragon chopped
Salt and pepper to taste.

Lay all the chicken out on a large cutting board and give it a nice, rough chop, making sure the pieces are almost cubed and not too big.  Add the chicken to a large bowl and toss with the onion and celery*. Add the mayo – you may not need a whole 2/3 cup, just add little by little with a spoon until it’s all lightly coated with mayo.  Add the vinegar, tarragon, salt and pepper and toss to combine.  Refrigerate for at least 2 hours to let the flavors combine.  Serve with Color Me Coleslaw that’s beautifully shredded with the new processor

Yummy!

*Let’s talk for a minute about celery.  I use it a lot and really like it but I’ve found that most people who don’t like it aren’t cutting it well.  Instead of just slicing each stalk, I slice lenghtwise into 3 pieces and then turn is sideways and slice it across.  It makes the pieces more the size of the diced onion and therefore the salad has a more uniform chop.  I don’t know why it makes it difference, it just does.

Looking for more low carb recipes? Try my low carb section!

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