Chicken salad recipes are often fattening because of the mayonnaise used it them. If you love this type of chicken recipe and you want to make a full-flavored yet healthier version, there are ways to do this.
You can substitute half-fat mayonnaise or another type of dressing to lower the fat. What about an herby Italian dressing or a yogurt-based dressing? These are just as tasty as mayonnaise but better for your waistline.
Season the chicken with fresh herbs and bake it before making the salad. The herbs give the chicken a lot of flavor and you will not need to add much to them. Grilling and baking are healthier options for cooking chicken than frying.
Tasty Ingredient Options
Bulk out your recipe by adding nuts, fruit, or vegetables. Choose from lettuce, cucumber, tomatoes, onions, cucumbers, avocado, sprouts, apricots, apple, banana and more. You can add lots of different colorful ingredients or just a few carefully chosen ones. You can add crunch with walnuts or cashews and a nice texture with grapes. Dice the vegetables and fruit the same size as the diced chicken pieces and toss them with the other ingredients.
What about making an Asian style salad? You can add oriental ingredients like bean sprouts, green onion, water chestnuts, and Chinese mushrooms and make the dressing with wasabi, ginger, or chili flavors?
If you want to use mayonnaise, why not mix it with mustard, balsamic vinegar, salsa, or relish to reduce the fat but so it still has the same great taste? Add just enough dressing to keep the recipe moist; a lot of people add far too much. Salt and black pepper finish off the homemade dish nicely.
How To Serve A Chicken Salad Recipe
You can serve it as it is, or on a bed of lettuce or whole wheat bread. You can make a poultry salad sandwich recipe by putting the whole salad between two slices of your favorite bread or in a bun.
Instead of pairing the dish with corn bread or buttery garlic bread, both of which are full of calories and fat, why not serve crisp bread or melba toast on the side? This means you can still have the crunch without the fat.
Poultry is a lean protein, which means you can use it to make nutritious, low fat recipes, but a lot of people assume that all chicken salads are healthy and, when they are smothered with mayonnaise and served with cheese cubes and garlic bread, this is not the case. Knowing how to make healthy salad means you can prepare a nutritious, tasty, and fully satisfying dish with much less fat and calories.
You can serve it as a lunch or light supper or even as an appetizer recipe. If you are looking for inspiration, knowing how to season your poultry with herbs or spices and how to add flavor without adding calories is very useful. Nothing is worse than bland, boring food and knowing how to cut the fat and calories without losing anything from the flavor is very handy.
