Hawaiian Chicken Salad

In the heat of summer, a cold main dish salad served alongside other chilled salads is a helpful way to beat the heat in the kitchen. This recipe for chicken salad has a nice blend of curry, pineapple and rice to give it a gentle Hawaiian flair. The curry is not strong, so if you like a bolder flavor, please do adjust the spiciness to your families taste.

The coleslaw pictured is Pajaro Valley Coleslaw Crunch that I made with chicken for a main dish that was posted on 5/20/13. Here I've served it as a side dish without the chicken. The raspberry gelatin recipe will be posted next week. It's a refreshing, kid-friendly little concoction that I came up with on a whim. I have a little granddaughter that adores raspberries; a grandmother's heart in action. Blessings...

Recipe:

2 cups cooked, diced chicken breast
1 cup cooked rice
1 cup diced celery or green pepper
2 tbsps. coconut, more if you love the stuff, omit if you don't
2 cups pineapple tidbits, drained
2 green onions, sliced
3/4 cup mayonnaise, light works fine
1 tbsp. fresh lemon juice
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. curry powder
1/8 tsp. pepper

1. In a salad bowl, combine chicken, rice, celery or green pepper, coconut, pineapple and onion.
2. In another bowl, whisk together dressing ingredients and stir into salad to thoroughly combine. Chill thoroughly before serving to blend flavors.

Yield: about 6 cups

Note: To make the dressing lower in calories, I will use half light mayonnaise and half plain non-fat yogurt.