Curry Chicken Salad

Empire Baking Company, located in Dallas, TX, is one of my favorite neighborhood bakeries. Before we moved to the suburbs, we would frequent Empire weekly, stocking up on homemade breads, desserts, croissants, and other specialty items. I’m very fortunate this bakery also partners with farmer’s markets and specialty food stores all throughout the DFW metroplex, because I am completely hooked on quite a few of their bakery goods.

One of my favorite sandwiches at Empire Baking Company is their Curry Chicken Salad. The chicken salad is an absolute treat for me, with a perfectly balanced herbs and curry, offset by raisins. They serve the sandwich on their pumpernickel bread – both the bread and the chicken salad are items I have ONLY seen for sale at their storefront. So this brings about a huge problem – I can certainly buy the pumpernickel bread and store it in my freezer for a rainy day, but I cannot freeze the chicken salad! I’m known to be a problem solver, so I decided to venture out to create my own version of Curry Chicken Salad, with every intention of being able to cure my neighborhood bakery craving all from the convenience of my own kitchen.

Chicken Salad of any kind is easy~peasy to whip up in minutes. I love to use up leftover braised, grilled, or rotisserie chicken and make lunch up ahead either the morning of – or for the next day. It makes for the perfect work from home lunch served up on a bed of greens, pumpernickel bread, or even with pita chips. I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as I do. 🙂

Curry Chicken Salad

Recipe by The Work From Home ChefDifficulty: Easy

Servings

6-8

servings

Prep time

30

minutes

Curry Chicken Salad is a refreshing new spin on an age-old classic. Fresh basil and curry help update the traditional recipe and is easily made in 30 minutes or less.

Ingredients

• 3 chicken breasts (about 1 pound) cooked and cooled completely

• 1 1/4 cups quality mayonnaise (I use Hellman’s)

• 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar

• 2 1/2 tablespoons curry powder

• 1/4 cup chopped scallions

• 1/2 cup raisins

• 1 cup sliced, unsalted dry toasted almonds

• 2 teaspoons fresh basil, julienned

• 1 teaspoon fresh thyme

• 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt

Directions

• Dice the chicken into bite-sized cubes and place in a medium mixing bowl.
• Add the mayonnaise, apple cider vinegar, curry powder, scallions, raisins, almonds, basil, thyme, and kosher salt. Mix all ingredients thoroughly.
• Chill the Curry Chicken Salad for 2-3 hours to allow the flavors to blend. Serve cold or at room temperature.

Notes

• Curry Chicken Salad is served just like traditional Chicken Salad – use it on sandwiches, crackers, salads, and even as a dip with potato chips. My favorite pairing is to make a sandwich using a quality pumpernickel bread.
• Curry Chicken Salad will stay fresh in your fridge for about 3 days, assuming the chicken is fresh.