Last weekend was oppressively hot. You probably remember. I also had some serious gardening to do and no inclination to cook — outside, inside or any side. We usually have some lame sandwich stuff in the fridge for when we get really desperate for something to eat, but I decided to try to do sandwich night right.
I actually went to the store and stood in the deli line. I got real sliced Dietz & Watson turkey, real sliced Swiss cheese, bread-and-butter pickles, pepperoncini rings, fancy mustard and real hearty bread.
I also picked up a chilled rotisserie chicken, with an eye toward a quick chicken salad.
At home I cut up a fresh pineapple and threw together the chicken salad. We ate sandwiches all weekend like it was a special occasion.
Here’s what I did for the chicken salad. Took 15 minutes:
ROTISSERIE CHICKEN SALAD
Meat from 1 plain chilled rotisserie chicken, no skin, diced
1 cup red seedless grapes, halved
1/2 cup reduced-fat mayonnaise
1 banana pepper, cored and chopped, see note
1/4 red bell pepper, diced
1/4 cup diced red onion
1/2 cup walnuts
1 teaspoon celery salt
1 teaspoon dried rosemary, see note
1 teaspoon dried parsley
1/4 teaspoon regular salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Stir thoroughly and chill at least 1 hour.
Notes:
I didn’t have celery, which is why I used the banana pepper. One stalk of diced celery would have been better.
Dried rosemary can be hard and poky in my mouth, but I like the flavor with chicken, so I put some of dried poky leaves into a zip-top bag and pounded them into a powder using a flat-sided meat mallet.