Daily Favorites: Greek Yogurt Chicken Salad

In the last few years, chicken salad has become one of my favorite foods. Though when you get it at a sandwich place or the grocery deli, who knows how many calories they're putting in? Let's see if greek yogurt can take this from a rare treat to a daily favorite.

Let's break down what's in it. 

150g frozen shredded chicken (seasoned with garlic+) = 180 cals
20g dried cranberries = 70 cals

red onion, celery, granny smith apple = 25 cals

85g nonfat plain chobani greek yogurt = 45 cals

45g pickle relish = 45 cals

lemon juice, salt, pepper, fresh dill if you've got it

My entire serving of 377 grams of chicken salad is 365 calories. Eat it in a bowl instead of between bread to hold onto the calorie savings. 

Using some quick google + math, it says 377g of chicken salad from Kroger would be 829 calories. 

At Chicken Salad Chick, their serving is only 113g of chicken salad. So I'm getting 3x the chicken salad by making at home. Their Fancy Nancy chicken salad has apples so let's see the cals for that...377g of that would be 1365 calories. Jesus Christ. I didn't even pick the variety with the most calories. Don't ever go to Chicken Salad Chick. Restaurants just do not care about your health. 

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As for the taste, this is super great. It's not as 100% as rich as a full-fat mayo chicken salad, but that's kinda what we're going for here. It didn't have any yogurt tang throwing the flavors off. Just felt like a lighter dressing, while still being very filling and dense overall. Using fruit, vegetables and chicken to be the filling part instead of mayo. 

My classic recipe for chicken salad uses apple and dried cranberries as well as golden raisins and candied nuts. In the store, I told myself I could only pick one high-cal ingredient of cranberries, raisins and nuts. Went with cranberries for color and flavor. I've added onions and celery to make up for them. 

At that point, I wasn't sure how many calories it would all be. Now that I know it's lower than I guessed, I could be more flexible on future batches. 

Pickles would be a good addition. Would love to get the golden raisins back in, maybe some slivered almonds instead of candied nuts. I also didn't think of the fresh dill until I got home. Plenty of ways to use this recipe as a base and make again with different ingredients.

EDIT: Go-to recipe now includes: apple, onion, pickles, cherry peppers, cranberries, slivered almonds optional.