Recipe of the week ~ Waldemar Chicken Salad Supreme

Last night I made a perfectly roasted chicken! (please feel free to clap, I know I am.)

I've mentioned before how very much I love to cook and frankly both DH and I love to eat so it usually works out quite well. Last night I made one of DH's favorite meals, Roasted chicken with potatoes and collared greens. I can't speak for the rest of you out there but for me, it's very easy to over cook a whole chicken at least the breasts are and thus when I do get it just right its cause for great celebration in our house. In this case a very tasty Chardonnay! (yes yes, only one glass for me mamere.)

Of course I shan't mention the poor sweet potatoes that were burned beyond recognition. Seriously, it looked like the aftermath of a fire. I usually use Yukon gold for this particular recipe so I didn't take into account the extra sugar in the sweet potatoes. It was sad and smelly and even involved a screeching smoke alarm but thankfully the chicken and collards seemed to make up for it. Plus we split a delicious slice of chocolate fudge layer cake with ice cream for dessert. Why oh why did I only buy one slice?!

Anyway, back to the point of today's post. Waldemar's Chicken Salad Supreme is my all time favorite chicken salad recipe. And since DH and I can hardly finish a whole chicken ourselves it offers a great excuse to use the left overs to make this delicious chicken salad recipe.

For those who aren't familiar with Waldemar, it's an all girls summer camp located in the beautiful hill country of Texas. I was a camper here for a number of years and enjoyed every minute of my time there (and truly I loved all of the camps I attended). I can't thank my wonderful mother enough for giving me the opportunity to enjoy so many wonderful memories and make so many friends, many of whom I am still close with today.

Amongst many other things, Waldemar is known for their outstanding food and even produced a cookbook while I was a camper. Over the years I've made a number of wonderful dishes from this cookbook, among them Blarney Stone Cake with peanut butter frosting and coffee ice cream. Oh wow, even just thinking about this cake makes me want to make one today but I've already got a busy day planned. Maybe this weekend.

Back to the chicken salad I swear!

So this recipe calls for diced chicken,as in any kind, however I strongly suggest only using white meat. Maybe it's the Southerner in me but I just can use dark meat in my chicken salad, it seems wrong somehow.

Waldemar Chicken Salad

Serves 6

2 1/2 C Cold chicken, diced

1/2 C Celery, chopped (I usually skip this as I hate celery)

1 C Grapes, sliced

1/2 C Slivered Almonds

2 TBS Parsley, minced

1 tsp Salt (kosher is preferred)

3/4 C Mayonnaise (Hellman's light is my favorite)

1/2 C Whipped Cream

Mix chicken, celery, grapes, almonds, parsley and salt together in a large bowl. Toss with mayonnaise and fold in whipped cream.

Optional: Garnish with artichoke hearts (I've never done this but by all means feel free!)

If you like chicken salad I hope you'll try this recipe. It's simply divine! I actually prefer to eat it with crackers as I always feel that if I have it as a sandwich I taste more bread than I do salad.

I have also made this for several bridal showers and girls suppers. Usually serving a scoop of chicken salad on individual endive slices. It's always a huge hit!

In visiting Waldemar's website this morning I noticed that although they no longer sell the cookbook I own, they do have a new one from 2000 that you can purchase online. If you are so inclined just click here and get cooking!

Happy Eating!

Cheers,

Ouiser